Fish Creek Hatchery

In 2005 it had become critical that the club take some concrete action steps toward establishing our own hatchery facility in order to ensure our supply of Atlantic salmon fry. And so after some conciderable discussion we began to build our own facility with the help of Tom Tkachuk, club member and owner of land bordering Fish Creek.

After running experiments for two years to check such things as water quality, availability of a water supply and whether or not we have the ability to care for eggs and young salmon fry, we have embarked on a program to actually build a structure to contain our hatching tank. It is a modest effort although the work involved can be quite strenous at times.

A movie has been made of the building of the hatchery. If you have a high speed connection and you wish to view it, click here. The file is 11 mega bytes long.

On January 21, 2006 we terminated our relationship with the Beaverkill Trout Hatchery. Club members traveled to Lewbeach and removed our tank and transported it to the Fish Creek Hatchery. We are and will continue to be grateful for the cooperation of the Beaverkill Trout Hatchery. It gave us a start for this important work of re-establishing Atlantic salmon to their home waters. Thanks goes to the Shaver family and especially to Lisa.

After hatching eggs in the facility until 2009 we got an offer from Harden Furniture to build a hatchery for us at their dam in McConnellsville. The club moved its facilities to McConnellsville in the Fall of 2009. Club members are indebted to Tom Tkachuk for the many years of association with him and the facility in Ava. Thanks Tom.

Directions to the old hatchery are included here.

To see larger images, click on the image of interest.

Two walls are up October 08, 2005	Gene sawing a 2X6 October 30, 2005	Tom nailing the top plate October 30, 2005	Placing the ridge pole October 30, 2005
Setting the end rafters October 30, 2005	Nailing the last rafter October 30, 2005	Now for the roof October 30, 2005	Burt checking level October 30, 2005
The roof is on! November 20, 2005	Cutting the siding to length December 04, 2005	Jim installing the barrier December 04, 2005	Tom and John installing the siding December 04, 2005
East facing windows January 02, 2006	West facing windows January 02, 2006	A barrel is used as an aerator January 7, 2006	Tom checking it out January 7,2006
John and Paul laying pipe January 7, 2006	Water in the hatchery! January 7, 2006	The tank is installed January 14, 2006	The ice needs to be removed January 14, 2006
Mike and Jim cleaning the tank after insulating it January 21, 2006	Jim, Tom, Tom and Mike Tapping the main spring January 21, 2006	First row: Mike, Paul, Jim, John Second: Jim, Gene, Tom, Dick January 21, 2006	Mike and Tom dragging our second tank to the hatchery January 21, 2006

Home