Henry's Lake Hatchery

HC66 Box 150
Island Park, ID 83429
(208) 558-7202

Henry's Lake hatchery is located in southeast Idaho near the town of Island Park. The hatchery can be reached by driving 45 miles north of Ashton, Idaho on highway 20 until you reach the junction with highway 87. Drive 3.5 miles northwest on highway 87 and the hatchery will be seen on the left side of the road on the banks of Henry's Lake. A visitor parking lot is available with room for 10-15 vehicles. The phone number to the facility is (208) 558-7202.

Site Overview
Henry's Lake hatchery is an egg taking station. We have a fish ladder that fish will use during the spawning season (March-April), a spawn house, and an incubation room with 10 double stacks of Heath tray incubation units. The Henry's Lake site also has two residences on station for the Henry's Lake hatchery personnel. The water for the fish ladder as well as the incubation room is provided by gravity flow from Hatchery creek. The facility has been operated for many years, first as a private hatchery and then as a state facility. The Henry's Lake hatchery has been operated by the state for about 75 years. This facility is the oldest continually running hatchery in the state.

Visitors
Visitors to the Henry's Lake facility are welcome and encouraged. The best times to see fish are the months of March and April when the fish are returning to the fish ladder. We have a small public area for fishing during the open season from memorial weekend to the end of October. There is a public restroom on site and an interpretive center is in the planning stages. After the spawning season, we do not have fish on station. Henry's Lake is only an egg taking station and does not have the facilities to rear fish.

Tours of the facility are gladly given during the spawning season. Please call ahead if large groups are planned and the employees will be happy to set up a personal tour of the facility. The facility is closed during the winter months of November-February.

Species Production
Henry's is funded through the sales of fishing and hunting licenses. In addition, several private donors including the Henry's lake foundation have helped purchase supplies on equipment. Henry's goals currently are to take approximately 2.3 million green Yellowstone cutthroat eggs and approximately 800,000 green hybrid eggs to yield 1.1 million Yellowstone cutthroat eyed eggs and 350,000 eyed hybrid eggs for shipment to Mackay, which is our rearing facility. Using Henry's Lake cutthroat females and fertilizing the eggs with Kamloops milt from our Hayspur facility produces the hybrid eggs. The newly fertilized hybrid eggs are then heat shocked to produce sterile fish so as to prevent genetic dilution of the Yellowstone cutthroat genetics.

In the fall, the Mackay facility releases 1 million Yellowstone cutthroat fingerlings and 200,000 hybrid fingerlings back into Henry's lake. Virtually all the production of the Henry's facility is returned back to Henry's lake. Occasionally a small number of eggs are used for projects such as reestablishing a Yellowstone cutthroat fishery at Golden Lake.

The Henry's Lake personnel are also responsible for maintaining and monitoring electric fencing that surrounds several of the riparian areas around the lake. The fencing has improved the spawning habitat of the natural reproducing fish in the lake. The fencing is provided with the cooperation of several land owners surrounding Henry's Lake.

Additionally, the Henry's Lake staff monitors the lake with intensive creel surveys and conducts fry trapping in the tributaries to monitor natural reproduction in the lake. Maintaining and monitoring fish screens that prevent fish from being displaced to irrigation ditches are also part of the Henry's Lake responsibilities.