This is a
MUST SEE!
In the picture above, you can see the huge brown colored water supply pipe running behind the building on the left side. The pipe totally encloses the water to ensure that no particles floating in the air can contaminate the water on the way to the raceways. At the top you can see the dark green alfalfa hay. It is top dairy quality and requires regular watering during the summer months.
In this photo you can see the trout in the raceway. Lost River Trout has the only license in the state of Idaho that allows them to bring live fish into the state of California. They have two large trucks with home made specially fabricated fiberglass containers to carry live trout. Each container is fitted with special fittings to allow pure oxygen to be pumped into the tanks during the trip.
Lost River Trout delivers between 35 and 45 truck loads of fish per year to the Los Angeles area lakes and reservoirs. Dick has told me that as the truck backs up to drop the fish in the water, both sides of the area are filled with people holding fishing poles! The trip takes 18 hours and is made non-stop with a relief driver. It takes about six hours to get the fish from the truck into the water. Due to the winter weather and driving through many mountains on the way, there have been some harrowing experiences but Dick claims he has never lost a load of fish.
Lost River Trout also delivers fresh trout to many ranches that have trout ponds. A few trophy-sized trout are always included in the shipments to those ponds. Dick and Pat Smith sell between 200,000 and 300,000 pounds of trout per year stocking those lakes, reservoirs and ponds.
One important thing to know is that Lost River Trout is inspected regularly to maintain their certification that all their fish are disease free. Another interesting fact is that 98 percent of Idaho trout are sold to commercial processors while 1 percent are sold directly to restaurants and the remaining 1 percent are sold for recreation, which is where the Lost River Trout go. The fish that are sold are colorful with speckles and green or pink stripes. They dart and jump in the raceways, shown above, looking vigorous and robust. The trout hatchery does adhere to environmental regulations designed to protect water quality. The water flows from the trout raceways into a gravel area where solids in the water settle out.
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