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Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery

Fishing Wisconsin

Wild Rose Hatchery from the air
 

Hatchery information

Wild Rose is a reliable workhorse that's been delivering fishing fun and enhancing and restoring fish populations in Wisconsin for more than a century. Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery grows more trout and salmon than any other and produces musky, sturgeon and walleye to test anglers statewide.

Wild Rose brochure [PDF]

Hatchery hours

Visitor Center Hours: The Visitor Center is open Memorial Day through Labor Day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, and on summer holidays (including Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day).

During the spring and fall months of April, May, September and October the Visitor Center is open on Fridays and Saturdays. The property is closed to the public from November through March.

IN-PERSON GROUP TOURS ARE AVAILABLE BY APPOINTMENT. April through October on Wednesday through Saturday, 8 am to 3 pm, and Summer Holidays. Please call or Email the Natural Resource Educator at least 2 weeks ahead to schedule a time for your group tour. Our classroom can accommodate groups of up to 30 people. If you have a larger group, please plan to split your group, and visit at two times.

VIRTUAL GROUP TOURS ARE AVAILABLE BY APPOINTMENT. Virtual group tours will continue to be available by request with advance notice. Send an Email request at least 2 weeks before your group event to joan.voigt@wisconsin.gov to arrange for your group’s virtual tour. Hatchery tour topics include the Wild Rose Hatchery Tour, Ancient Lake Sturgeon, Invasive Aquatic Species, History of the Great Lakes Fishery, and a look at the past - Historic Wild Rose Hatchery. Lesson worksheets can be sent by email ahead of the virtual tour for class participation.

To schedule Group Tours of 10 or more, email or call 2 weeks in advance: joan.voigt@wisconsin.gov or (920) 622-3527, Ext. 209.

CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC: November through March.

SPECIAL EVENTS:  Free family activities including fish printing on t-shirts, learning to cast, fly rod casting, learning to identify your catch and fish games for all ages.

  • SPRING STURGEON CELEBRATION held on the first Saturday in May
  • FALL FISH MIGRATION  - Celebrate the Annual Fall Salmon Migration at Wild Rose Hatchery Education Center on the last Saturday in October, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with fish games and activities for all ages. Swim upriver like salmon on their migration journey to spawning areas. Kids can learn to cast and identify fish. Other fish activities include fish printing on tote bags, building a spinner, make-and-take Kool-Aid clay fish and viewing 8-year-old brown trout in the original 1908 hatchery. Guided tours meet in the Education Center between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.  
  • WILD ROSE DAYS is held on the fourth Saturday in July. Learn to cast at Roberts Park on Wild Rose Millpond from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Carry-In, carry-out

We invite you to enjoy a picnic on the hatchery grounds, but please plan to take out what you bring in.

Hatchery location

N5871 State Rd 22
Wild Rose WI 54984

Visiting

What can I do at the hatchery?

There's a lot to do at Wild Rose! Come and see the new Wild Rose Hatchery Education Center, where you'll find two large aquariums, interpretive displays, activities, and games that help tell the story of the fish hatchery then and now.

You can also take a peek at hatchery production from the coldwater (trout and salmon) observation room, then stroll down to the historic village where Wild Rose first began and fish still swim in the raceways.

Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy the scenery in the historic village, a tradition since the early 1900s.

Fish production

With the completion of the new cold-water facilities, Wild Rose is currently producing brown trout, Chinook and coho salmon. The cool water facilities produce northern pike, walleye, lake sturgeon and great lakes spotted musky.

Wild Rose Fish
With both cool and coldwater capabilities, Wild Rose is able to raise a variety of fish.

 

Stocking

spotted musky
John Aschenbrenner hauled in this 50-inch spotted musky on the Fox River near downtown Green Bay

Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery is critical to Wisconsin's $2.75 billion sport fishery. The hatchery is particularly important to great Lake Michigan fishing; 100 percent of the coldwater fish (trout and salmon) raised at Wild Rose are stocked into the big pond. Lake Michigan has been considered a "world-class" fishery and thanks to the renovations of Wild Rose, we can be confident that it will live up to its reputation.

Cool facts

  • Year in, and year out, Wild Rose produces more than 2 million trout and salmon for stocking; and
  • It's one of only 3 hatcheries to raise both cold and cool-water fish.