Fish farm fun

Ever wonder where the fish that stock your pond or lake come from? This family may have raised them.

By Dee George

Pages in this Story:

• Raising fish

• How they got started

• Risky venture

• Marketing challenges

• Fall work

• Home business

Raising fish

There's a mood of urgency this spring day at Minnesota Muskie Farm. It's time to collect eggs. Rob and Deb Jost and several helpers are netting sucker fish from a lake and stripping their eggs. The eggs will be cared for by the Josts until the sucker fry hatch. The fry will be fed to muskies growing in tanks on the family's 50 acres near Alexandria, Minnesota.

In July, the muskies will be moved to ponds and fed fathead fry. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and others buy the muskies and use them to stock lakes. The Josts are the main muskie supplier in the state. They lease about 70 bodies of water in a 90-mile radius to raise their fish. A few of the sites are dug ponds; most are natural lakes. The Josts also raise walleye, bass, and other fish.