Dennis Anderson: Building a new fish hatchery will help shorten the time between bites

MINNEAPOLIS — Craig Soupir has $20 million to spend, and wants to do it right.

In fact, the money isn't Soupir's, and he alone isn't responsible for ensuring the Department of Natural Resources builds the best fish hatchery $20 million can buy.

But it's safe to say no one is more excited than Soupir, the DNR's area fisheries supervisor in Waterville, Minn., about the prospect of replacing the ancient (built in 1954) hatchery in that southern Minnesota town of about 1,800 residents.

"Being able to build a new hatchery is a big deal for the state, considering how important stocking is to fishing in Minnesota," Soupir said. "With the new hatchery, we hope to increase our production capacity in Waterville by about 150 percent."

The DNR staff and various angler groups have sought a new Waterville hatchery for decades. But it wasn't until the last legislative session, when the DNR was awarded more than $300 million to update many of its facilities, including its Waterville hatchery, that a funding breakthrough was reached.

Leading the charge was the angler group Minnesota Sportfishing Foundation Coalition (MN-FISH), which helped to convince legislators and Gov. Tim Walz the time had come to replace a hatchery that originated as, and generally has remained, a garage.

The Waterville hatchery is among 11 DNR cool- or warm-water facilities in the state that produce channel catfish, northern pike and muskies, in addition to walleyes, for stocking in 1,100 lakes and a smattering of streams.

Others are in Walker Lake, Bemidji, Brainerd, Detroit Lakes, Glenwood, Grand Rapids, New London, Park Rapids, St. Paul and Tower.

"Cold-water" hatcheries, meanwhile, in Altura, Lanesboro, Peterson and Remer, produce 1.7 million brook, brown, lake and rainbow trout each year, as well as splake (a brook and lake trout hybrid) for stocking in 200 Minnesota lakes and 100 streams.

Raising fish for stocking can be challenging in a "north-south" state like Minnesota, in which lake types in the bottom half of the state differ from those "up north."

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