Montana is a trout fishing mecca, home to pristine trout waters and 16 members of the salmonid fish family. Among these 16 species is the golden trout – a stunning, high-alpine specialist species native only to the Kern River drainage of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Golden trout can be found in some of Montana’s remote high mountain lakes and are, for many anglers, a bucket-list species. Before you lace up your hiking boots and strap on your pack to reach these unique fish, fisheries staff with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks have already put on many miles and backcountry nights to simply get golden trout eggs to a hatchery.
Unlike many other trout species raised at Montana hatcheries, golden trout eggs are collected from a wild population in south-central Montana’s Sylvan Lake, rather than from a resident broodstock of adult fish that live at the hatchery.
Typically, every six years, Region 5 fisheries, Fish Health and Yellowstone River Trout Hatchery staff hike to Sylvan Lake in the East Rosebud Creek drainage. Crews set gill nets near the outlet of the lake where golden trout spawn, and collect ripe, or sexually mature, male and female trout. Timing has to be just right; golden trout spawn as soon as ice melts. Sitting at 9,184 feet above sea level, ice-out at Sylvan Lake typically does not happen until late June or early July.
After ripe adults are collected, crews mix eggs from females with milt, or sperm-containing fluid, from males. To ensure the spawned fish do not have diseases that could be transferred to other hatchery fish, crews will collect the carcasses of some of the spawned fish for testing.
Just last week, FWP crews collected 7,200 golden trout eggs from Sylvan Lake. These eggs are now developing at the Yellowstone River Trout Hatchery in Big Timber. When the golden trout are about 1.5 inches long, they’ll be stocked via helicopter in high mountain lakes across Montana.
July and August are the best times of year to access many golden trout lakes, especially high elevation lakes in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Every year, FWP publishes a guide with detailed angling and access information for over 300 lakes in this wilderness area. Find it online here and start planning your next trout fishing adventure.
