Marlette fish spawn begins, with help from wildlife biologists

The fish at Marlette Lake finally began heading for spawning streams this past week - more than a month later than normal mostly because of weather.

Hatchery supervisor Dan Fulton said the spawn is one of the latest he can remember. Until mid-June, the tiny, 8,000-foot-elevation lake was still frozen.

As the rainbows headed up stream, they were captured in pens. For more than a week, Fulton sorted them by sex getting ready for the spawn that will eventually supply fish for anglers throughout northern Nevada.

Finally, with more than 650 males and 200 female trout in the pens, workers collected their first batch of eggs, manually milking the fish and mixing eggs and sperm in bowls to get as many fertilized eggs as possible.

And, as he does every year, state Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, was up to his waist in the water helping with the process.

Wildlife officials say Jacobsen has been Marlette Lake and the hatchery's benefactor since he was first elected to the Legislature in the 1960s.

The spawn will continue for up to three weeks. By the time it's over, nearly 600,000 fertilized eggs should be collected - more than enough to meet the needs of sport fishermen in nine of Nevada's 17 counties.

The eggs go to a Mason Valley hatchery. Fish hatched there will be nearly nine inches long in about a year and ready for stocking across Nevada from Lake Tahoe to Elko County's South Fork Reservoir.

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