The boys, Zachary and Isaac visited Coldwater Fisheries in June 2013 and learned all about how the fish are grown, what they are fed and how they are processed. It is an impressive system to say the least.
Firstly, the baby fish are hatched in hatcheries near Walkerton and Hanover, Ontario. They are shipped to Coldwater Fisheries in big stainless steel tanks and put into great nets in Lake Huron. They are grown at 3 sites – one right off shore where the bottom of the lake is made of rock and 2 out in the lake. The nets are 100×100 and 40 feet deep. Rainbow trout naturally live between 20 & 40 feet deep in very cold water. This is the perfect environment. The nets are on rollers so that when they want to catch the fish, they just roll up the nets and the trout all come up to the top. It is similar to cows in a field. They are fenced in their natural habitat in some of the cleanest water in the world and they can eat as per their natural inclinations. They are also fed daily (unless the lake is frozen over) with pellet 20-30% fish meal proteins. They are not fed corn because that makes the fish turn yellow and some people are sensitive to it. Their feed has to be kept in big boxes to prevent racoons from eating it. The fish is fattier in the winter. The insides of the fish are sent to fertilizer companies.
The fish is processed in the health inspected plant and packaged for delivery across Canada. 2 million pounds of fish are processed here each year. They also smoke the fish at this plant using cherry and maple from Oro, Ontario.
Sometimes whitefish is available to us. It is caught commercially by the Ervis Brothers.
The fish is delivered to us by Erb Transport to our home. In the winter, we deliver it to you. In the summer, we sell it at the local Farmers Markets.
Coldwater Fisheries has been a part of Ontario’s Trout Supply since 1985 years.
We are proud to offer such a quality product to the people of South Bruce since 2012.
Call us at 519-379-7284 to shop with us today.