Genoa NFH maintenance worker Jeff Lockington piling vegetation and sediment for removal from a smallmouth bass spawning pond.

Genoa NFH maintenance Jeff Lockington relining a smallmouth bass spawning pond with gravel.

The Genoa National Fish Hatchery (NFH) was created by the Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Act of 1924.  It is one of 69 federal hatcheries managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and it is located along the banks of the Mississippi and Bad Axe rivers.  Genoa NFH is one of the most diverse hatcheries in the USFWS system, producing cold, cool and warm water fish as well as native mussels for federal, state and tribal conservation, restoration, and recreational needs.

To ensure that only top quality, disease free fish are produced for these needs, it is imperative that the hatchery maintain captive broodstocks for several species fish.  Species for which brood fish are held and spawned in hatchery ponds include large and smallmouth bass, yellow perch, bluegill sunfish, black crappies and fathead minnows.  Genoa NFH annually dedicates most of its nineteen ponds for the overwintering, spawning, and fingerling growout of these fish species as well as producing hundreds of gallons of fathead minnows to feed the hungry broodfish throughout the year.

Accumulations of weeds and sediments over time can deteriorate the rearing conditions in the ponds, which can greatly reduce fish production and harvesting.  Genoa NFH currently uses two 0.5 acre ponds for the spawning of the smallmouth bass broodstock.  These ponds had significant accumulations of aquatic vegetation and sediments and subpar spawning environments for the smallmouth bass broodstock until the recent transformation by the hatchery.

Maintenance worker Jeff Lockington set the mood for the 2009 spring spawn by removing nearly 300 cubic yards of accumulated vegetation and sediment and then relining the bottom of the ponds with crushed rock to provide a suitable habitat for the spawning and harvesting of the smallmouth bass.  Mr. Lockington again proved his superior equipment operator skills by using the hatcheries’ skid loader to remove the debris and to spread the new rock all while maintaining the ponds proper slope to the drain structure.  With the newly lined ponds the hatchery biologists anticipate a better broodstock spawn and greater ease to capture the newly hatched fish for enumeration and transfer to growout ponds.