Vibert Boxes

[Jay Murakoshi]

Went to check out the vibert boxes. Word was, the eggs had hatched and they need to pull out the boxes. At the first rearing box, I was amazed to see the incredible amount of alvens. There has to be 80,000 plus alvens just in this one box. I would guess the success rate for the hatch was around 90%.

The second rearing box didn't fair as well as the first box. The egg rate survival was around 45%. The biologist thinks the eggs were exposed to the direct sunlight before they were put into the rearing box. But I would say all total, there are over 100,000 alvens that will soon turn into catchable size trout - if they survive that long. Hey man, there were predators waiting at the overflow tubes, called sucker fish. I also have some underwater on surface footage of them swimming around. I would think a 5% survival rate would be a good number. Now once these fingerlings are released, there will be one more shipment of eggs coming in March.

I'm putting together a documentary video on this Kings River project. I would like to have it completed in a couple weeks. Or at least a 15 minute version of it.

Most of the footage came from the Gopro 1080HD camera.

Jay

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Can't wait for the pictures.

Are these baby salmon, trout or steelhead Jay?

[Jay Murakoshi]

Bill,

They are all trout.

Jay

[big bug]

There was an article in Fly Fisherman Magazine a few years ago that told the story of how some well known fly fisher hatched a bunch of brown trout with an older egg box back east and invented the Vibert Box for better hatch rates. He would snorkel the river to see the fish grow into trophy trout. Can't remember his name.

Does it take a ton of work with fish and game to get permission to use the boxes? Where did you get the eggs and boxes? The fly fishers in Fresno and Bakersfield must be excited.:) Great job! Can't wait for the videos of trophy trout on the Kings River.

[junebug]

Jay,
Farmen emailed me a link to some videos you shot. Great cilps of how the boxes progress! The dorado bite is way cool too. I've been helping check the boxes on weekends and was surprised at how much work can go into something that the hen would do herself. Look forward to seeing more flix!

As far as the rainbow trout eggs, 150,000 were ordered from a private hatchery in Washington. Kings River Conservation District handles the operations. Lots of sac fry swimming around now!

Dave Edwards