VOLUNTEERS from the Ballarat fish hatchery played match-maker at Lake Wendouree yesterday to yield the next generation of trout.
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About 30 brown trout were netted from the lake during a delicate two-hour operation.
Each was hand-stripped of eggs or sperm, weighed and measured and released back into the lake.
Each female produces 10,000 eggs on average which, when fertilised, will spend four to six weeks in a hatchery before they hatch.
About 250 fish have been captured from Lake Wendouree and released in the last month.
There are more than 300,000 eggs in the hatchery at present and the volunteers expect to have half a million by the end of the season.
Lake Wendouree is netted about four times a year for brown trout during the winter months. The rainbow trout season starts in mid to late winter.
The trout hatchery, officially known as the Ballarat Acclimatisation Society, has 90,000 trout in stock. About 6,000 of those are released into Lake Wendouree annually for recreational anglers and reproductive purposes.
The remainder are sold in various stages of maturity to stock private dams and public waterways under government contract.
Ballarat Fish Hatchery member Craig Coltman is hoping for a good season after the drought threatened to close the 100-year-old organisation earlier this year.
"When you consider that we've come through a drought year we've been very happy with the results that we've been getting. So far, the trout out of Lake Wendouree are in good condition, although the numbers are down on last year."
"If we can get an average year or better than average year we can start to get things back on track. It will take a few years, but it's business as usual as far as the trout hatchery is concerned."
He said the support from the community had been encouraging with a number of buyers bringing their orders forward.
Mr Coltman said now was the perfect time to restock dams that may have been replenished with recent rains.
