Onalaska aquaculture students release hundreds of trout into Carlisle Lake

In Onalaska, school doesn’t always include sitting in a classroom for hours of the day.

On Thursday, about a dozen Onalaska High School students replaced pens and paper with nets and hundreds of rainbow trout as class was held outside at the school’s hatcheries.

The Onalaska High School aquaculture class released 880 rainbow trout from the hatchery into Carlisle Lake, an exercise traditionally done this time of year by the class.

Students began the process last year, raising the rainbow trout eggs, keeping track of the water quality, cleaning the tanks and  completing other daily tasks to learn about the best practices for raising the fish.

“Many times in class, students struggle because they can’t relate,” Onalaska High School natural resources and aquaculture teacher Kevin Hoffman said. “The aquaculture program, the lake, it’s all just learning tools for students to acquire different tools and knowledge and in return it's benefiting the community.”

Each student had a different role in the trout transfer to Carlisle Lake. Some stood in the tanks at Onalaska High School’s hatchery to net each trout one-by-one.

Mareli Esquivel, a junior at Onalaska High School, emptied the nets into a mobile tank, provided by the Mossyrock Hatchery. One student kept count of each rainbow trout as another yelled “fish!” every time a trout exited the hatchery by net.

Each time the tank emptied into Carlisle Lake, eager anglers waited by the shoreline and in their boats, hoping to catch large rainbow trout.

Hoffman encourages people to come enjoy the fishing at Carlisle Lake and to fish ethically and responsibly.

For more information about the aquaculture program, contact Hoffman at khoffman@onysd.webnet.edu or at 360-978-4111.