Tobacco Valley Country
2000 Visitor's Guide
Hatchery stocks reservoirMurray Springs Fish Hatchery was built in 1978 to mitigate fishery losses in the Kootenai River caused by construction of Libby Dam. the hatchery is a cooperative effort of the Army Corps of Engineers and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The Corps built the hatchery, but the state operates it with funds provided by the Corps.
The hatchery is located on an artesian spring which produces from five to 13 million gallons of water per day at a constant 52 degrees Fahrenheit, which is ideal for the westslope cutthroat and rainbow trout it raises.
Located on Sophie Lake Road, the hatchery is seven miles northwest of Eureka. It consists of hatchery and spawn buildings, brood and rearing ponds, a pump house, head tank, waste treatment pond, and residences for hatchery employees, who are on call 24 hours a day.
Hatchery employees take about three million eggs from the brood females over a period of about two months, beginning in April. The eggs are fertilized with milt, or sperm, from the males and then placed in incubators where they hatch in about 27 days. After hatching, the young fish, or fry, are transferred to the hatchery tanks where they are nourished by yolk sacs. These sacs are eventually absorbed into the bodies of the fish, which then begin to feed. The fry are fed with special formula fish foods and quickly grow to fingerling size.
As the fish grow in size, they are transferred to the raceways. Each fall some are removed and planted as fingerlings, while others are held until the following spring and planted as yearlings.
Each year the hatchery releases more than one-half million fingerlings and yearlings into the streams and lakes of the Kootenai river and adjoining drainages.
The hatchery is open year round from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You should call ahead for guided tours, (406) 889-3489.
