From what I know. Hatcheries do not raise 2 lb LMB in the lab for sale to the general public - way to expensive. They do a variety of things along the lines of growout in ponds with feeding and some with natural forage and some mix of both. 12 inch , 1 lb LMB stocker fish are not easy to located from good sources. They can be arranged in advance in my experience.

So the question was - " So, if a hatchery is growing out some lmb to the 1.5 to 2.5lb range to sell, do most hatcheries expose their feed trained lmb to forage? Or are they selling these larger sized lmb from an environment with feed only?"

What I have found is the LMB are feed trained up to a few inches and then placed into ponds with existing forage. They are feed pellets after that. I have seen a few times that the small LMB are put in ponds with only feeders but that is a small portion of the time. My guess is it varies by hatchery based on need and demand. Others need to chime in with their experience.


To be clear the issue we are discussing ( studies above) is the use of small(< a lb.) feed trained only LMB stocked into a pond with an existing predator fish (LMB) population. Glad to discuss any situations I just don't want to give anyone the wrong impression or data.