How do you breed 100,000 trout?

Fish & Game’s hatchery is in full swing again in the production of up to 100,000 fish for release into Rotorua and other North Island lakes.

Staff use trout from Lake Tarawera for their breeding stock – fish that are trapped on spawning runs up a small stream.

Fish & Game's Mark Sherburn sizes up another candidate.

Only the finest of the fish, five to ten percent, are picked out for the breeding programme.

In the first part of a series on the hatchery’s work, Fish & Game officer Mark Sherburn visits the fish trap to view some "possibles."