Fish Culture

New Jersey Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife

Fish Culture

The Charles O. Hayford State Fish Hatchery, commonly referred to as the Hackettstown Hatchery, has been in operation for eighty-five years. Over this period there have been modifications to the facility but perhaps none greater than what is scheduled to occur in the next several years. A new intensive culture building will greatly increase the rearing capacity of the hatchery and allow us to raise more cool and warn water fish to a larger size before being liberated into New Jersey’s waters. This will result in better survival and consequently better returns to the angler.

1997 represented another outstanding season at the Hackettstown Hatchery. For the first time all muskellunge and walleye stock came from broodfish captured state waters. Because of successful culture operations we were able to export northern pike and tiger muskie fingerlings to Massachusetts and channel catfish and lake trout fingerlings to Pennsylvania. Many of the earthen ponds at Hackettstown cannot be properly utilized because of filling in over the years. There is a continuing effort to improve these ponds and several were dredged and re-shaped during the early spring.

At the Pequest Trout Hatchery a total of 763,470 trout (333,082 lbs.) were shipped from the hatchery to the public waters of New Jersey during the 1996-97 production cycle. This number includes fish stocked during the fall and spring stocking seasons. In addition to these totals, 193,993 (1.680 lbs.) surplus trout were stocked.