Ben's Underwater Videos

07/24/2025

At the D.C. Booth National Fish Hatchery in Spearfish, South Dakota. Can you spot: Rainbow Trout? Brown Trout? Atlantic Salmon? Snake River Cutthroat Trout? These fish are on display and not destined for stocking in ponds and streams in the area. They are fed pellets all day long by tourists… and it shows!

04/06/2025

The trout that we’re raising typically eat fish meal, but occasionally I harvest bugs from the river as a special treat. River creatures are generally living on or under rocks. This caddis will make one of the trout VERY happy (and full).

03/29/2025

Feeding Time in slow motion

03/14/2025

Whelp, it happened again. Not sure that they can help themselves.

03/05/2025

As we were walking to the cafeteria today, the students noticed one of the bigger trout had already started his “lunch”.

12/21/2024

12/08/2024

The alevin are moving out!! Those strong enough to fight the current are darting out of the nesting basket and heading down to the gravel. There, they’ll rest on their bellies, absorbing the last of their egg sack until hunger kicks in. At that point, swimming skills are a must-have as they will need to swim up to the water’s surface to feed on fish meal. One lone trout has already figured it out! (See photo)

11/22/2024

The WI DNR has once again given us over 200 brown trout eggs to hatch and raise at Rocky Branch Elementary. These “alevin” are a week old and learning to swim. My favorite part of this stage is putting the alevin under a document camera and showing students their little beating hearts (the trout are transparent when they hatch).

09/24/2024

Yellow belly, big black spots.

05/18/2024

Students collecting macroinvertebrates in the Willow River were lucky to find not one, but two Rainbow Darters! This fish is a “bioindicator” which means it’s a sign of a healthy river ecosystem.

03/31/2024

And he’s off! Another beautiful brookie!

02/25/2024

Brook Trout don’t have forked tongues! That’s a fish tail sticking out! Apparently, this “brookie” was still hungry despite having another brook trout literally hanging out of its mouth.