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CHOCOLAY TOWNSHIP -- In 2001, the Marquette State Fish Hatchery began collecting eggs around Lake Superior to establish a new breeding population.

Well, those trout hatched, and when the females reached seven years of age, they were crossed with males.  That resulted in several thousand lake trout fry.

On Friday, those babies moved from the incubator to the tank.  But first, the lake trout fry are put into what is called "the challenger," which will basically separates the weak from the strong.

"If the Department of Natural Resources didn't stock fish," said DNR fish hatchery biologist James Aho, "there would not be lake trout in some of these inland lakes, so we plant fish to create a fishery."

Those who make it through the challenger will then go on to be inventoried.

"This year is the first breeding of these brood stock which we got from Lake Superior," Aho commented.  "We bred the Lake Superior 2001 fish with the Lake Superior 2003 fish, and the prodigy are now essentially wild fish."

The mating resulted in approximately 550,000 eggs, but only about 200,000 of those eggs turned into viable fry, which will now spend the next three months in an indoor tank.  Once in the tanks, the fry will be continuously fed a high-protein fish meal 20 hours a day.  They will also go through routine bacterial and viral inspections.

"We certainly don't want to promote disease or plant diseased fish into the wild," Aho stated, "so all of our fish go through health inspections."

In about a year, the fry, no longer fry, however, but yearling, will be released into the wild.  Aho hopes all 200,000 will be able to survive the rigors of hatchery life.  If they do, they'll be placed into North Lake Leelanau, Crystal Lake, and Higgins Lake.