Wisconsin ranks first in the Midwest for aquaculture and is home to more than 2,400 fish farms. The largest trout fish farm is the 80-acre Rushing Waters Fisheries. Tucked into the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Rushing Waters has been raising rainbow trout since the 1940s. It’s open year round and has 56 artesian spring water ponds and runways. In addition to the farm, Rushing Waters also has a beautiful onsite restaurant, The Trout House. The company harvests trout by hand to order with the goal of delivering the freshest trout to everyone. Off the Cuff sat down with Co-owner Peter Fritsch and Production Manager Justin Evans.
Tell me a bit about Rushing Waters.
Fritsch: We have a remarkable history that goes way back to the early ’40s. The farm was started by Steve Johnston and was originally a fox fur farm. In the back of the property were the springs and ponds and he dilly-dallied with trout. The furs were sold at Navy Pier, but after the start of World War II people weren’t buying furs. So he got rid of that, but he had the fish. He still had to make a living, so he brought the fish down to Navy Pier on ice and local chefs and culinarians thought, “Oh my goodness, here’s fresh trout from Wisconsin, delivered the same-day!” and that was not heard of then. That’s how it began and still to this day Chicago is the biggest market for us.
Our whole philosophy is quality over quantity and we are trying to educate and show people how important aquaculture is to the future of feeding fish to everybody. We’ve got weeds in the ponds. We’ve got bugs in the ponds. Our fish get to eat natural bugs. The weeds filter the water. Those kinds of things are very important to us. I have to bust down the walls sometimes—people read an article and all of a sudden they know everything about aquaculture. It’s unfortunate that aquaculture makes the news usually in negative ways because it’s the way we’re going to feed our population. Some people say, “You guys use tons of chemicals.” Well, no, we actually don’t. How do you know? Well, I’ll grab a big pile of algae and shake all the bugs out. Look at the aquatic insects—that’s how you know. Those are indicator species. They’re fragile. They’re super-sensitive. They will not tolerate any chemicals. You can also watch us process our fish—we have no shortcuts, no secrets. We have nothing to hide.
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How do you raise your trout?
Evans: All of our water here is artesian spring-fed water and comes out of the ground around 48-50 degrees. We buy eggs from a company in Washington called Troutlodge and then rear them all the way to a pound/pound-and-a-half average. In that process we basically move them from pond to pond as they grow. We just built a new hatchery in January and got fancy self-cleaning circular tanks that re-use water instead of flowing through like our ponds. After the hatchery, we start out with the “one pond” at around 18,000 fish. When they grow up to be about seven inches long, we’ll split them into “grow-out” ponds. At that stage, they’ll reach a length of roughly 11 inches on average (you know, you’ve always got your overachievers) and at that point we’ll transfer them over to a harvest pond. We use a 5.5-millimeter feed and feed twice a day, weather dependent. We have a non-animal by-product, soy-based fish food as a request of one of our main customers, Whole Foods.
We’re attempting to do 30,000 pounds of trout a month. In the winter months it’s harder to make that, but there’s around 350,000 fish on the farm right now and we’re gearing up for spring. We’ve got a lot of fish in the hatcheries right now, about 150,000.
What is your geographic reach?
Fritsch: Chicago’s still our biggest outlying urban population, but now the majority of our fish today are distributed within a couple hundred miles of our farm. People want the local connection to their food and it’s being consumed right here. That’s really cool. That shows the customer is educated about where their food is coming from.
I can fish at Rushing Waters without a license?
Evans: Yes! We supply rod, reel and bucket. Once you catch your fish, you have your choice on how you want it to be cleaned. There is no limit, but you pay per pound. It’s a great place to come with kids because you’re guaranteed to catch fish here. And we have a new hook-and-cook deal at The Trout House that’s kind of unique. Catch your fish here and then have it cooked for you right onsite. Not many people have the set-up. We’re pretty proud of our new restaurant.
How are you educating the public about aquaculture?
Fritsch: We love bringing people out here! We do a lot of tours and are constantly educating. During summertime we’ll try to combine these tours with another expert—for example, a bird expert. We have a place here where you can come out, explore nature, catch your fish and eat it too.
For more information about Rushing Waters, call 262-495-2089 or visit rushingwaters.net.
Correction: Rushing Waters currently has 350,000 trout on its farm, which was incorrectly stated as 350 in the March 26 Off the Cuff print article.
