@smokeinchimneys

We are still waiting for the water flow to come back for the fall and give us back water pressure to sustain these ponds and raceways. For the time being, we are pumping water from the creek and using two aerators in our working pond to rejuvenate the water with oxygen. We are monitoring the oxygen levels twice a day, every single day, to ensure there is adequate supply for these fish. If everyone could stop asking chatGPT what to have for lunch for the time being, that might help with the water issue. Have a ham and cheese until further notice 🙏🏼

Clocking in for some pond hours. We were sorting big fish to pull for orders this week, goal here was 200 big fish in the net. How quickly would you be able to complete this mission?

Which of these would you be curious to try? 🍊🐟 At three @michelinguide star @smythchicago (named No. 1 on North America's 50 Best Restaurants list for 2026), the Rainbow Trout progression arrives in three parts: 1. Trout Tail Tartare, Trout Roe, Kumquat: Citrusy, acidic, a little sweet and extraordinarily delicious. 2. Smoked Trout Donut: Deeply umami, very rich and very soft inside. The flavor leans Japanese. 3. Rainbow Trout & Spruce: Rich, Citrusy and deeply umami. 🎥: @eatwithseth 🙏🏼

My second attempt at the goldfish trick. Would @steveo be proud? The last time I tried this I only had fish that were way too big. This was a lot easier. Would you try this? Let us know in the comments 👇🏼

Because of how heavy our boxes are, we’ve found the most effective and reliable way to ship our trout is by delivering boxes to the airport terminal directly. This saves the delivery drivers a back surgery.

No ones here to rag on wild caught seafood. What I am here to talk about is the misinformation that’s been spread about fish farms. If you can have a CAFO lot where cows are stuffed in small feedlots given grain and pumped with steroids, and also have a regenerative cattle farm where the cows are on pasture, rotationally grazing, why can’t you have the same duality with fish farms? No one wants to talk about this.

Fish farms have a bad reputation 🐟 In a lot of cases, it is deserved, but like all agriculture, there are systems that harm the land and the animals within the system, then there are structures that produce net positive outcomes. Part of our mission at Smoke In Chimneys is working to redefine what a farm-raised trout can be and should be. The simple fact is that not all farms are equal and not all farms have the same practices. This is the same with fish farms. Big thanks to @upflip team for putting this together! We filmed a 40 minute video covering all the challenges and expenses of running a trout hatchery. The full video is up on their YouTube channel!

This is how we make sure our trout get a good supply of bugs in their diet. A bug zapper can’t do the same thing because when the insect is electrocuted, all the nutritional value in that organism is lost because of the high voltage. ⚡️ It would be like eating a steak that is well done, steaks that are well done are worthless. The only way to eat a steak is rare. This Bo-Jo Fish Light gives the fish, a rare steak buffet all night. 🥩 Who wouldn’t want to eat a trout that’s living that high on the hog? 🐟

We raise a premium product and therefore have to charge a premium price. When you spend 1-2 years hatching, feeding, sorting, pulling, and finally processing fish, you can’t operate without charging accordingly. 🐟

We get a lot of messages from people asking for advice on buying/starting a trout hatchery. The one thing I will say is that it’s not for the faint of heart. If you want to make a billion bucks, this is probably not your industry. If you want to work really hard at something, managing many unrelated pieces for a modest amount of money, know that’s what you’re getting into. It’s always going to cost more money and be more work than you think it will…however, that being said, being able to raise something start to finish, and then getting to see people enjoy that product, is very very rewarding.

We don’t raise stockers. 🐟👇🏼 In the beginning, we were always interested in breaking into the food space and getting rainbow trout back on the plate in Appalachia and beyond. 🌆 We put so much work into the fish that we raise, dumping them into creeks or lakes just doesn’t make sense.

What does a healthy trout pond look like? 💦 Clean water flowing through it constantly 🦟 Habitat for bug and invertebrate life 🔎 Water that is clear enough to see the bottom 🪨 An evenly graded packed bottom that encourages water to flow downstream 🐟 Room for fish to swim without bumping into each other or becoming stressed We keep the water low to ensure the turnover of water in the pond is quick. The spring that feeds the ponds is ice cold, 52-54 degrees year round, so we don’t worry about the water becoming warm. ☀️

We are in the middle of restoring a trout hatchery that was built in the 1970s. It hasn’t been operational since 2017 and there is a lot to clean up. We have been working on clearing everything out and fixing what has broken over the last 10 years. Follow along to see the journey of getting this property ready to hold fish!

Moving live fish is always a very precarious project. We moved about 9,000 fingerling sized trout to our new hatchery in West Virginia. The crucial part about moving fish is making sure they get enough oxygen. We hooked up aerators to regulate oxygen levels, that can get dicey very fast. It’s about an hour away, so we had to check the dissolved oxygen levels every 20 minutes or so.

We’ve moved small amount of fish into the new hatchery in West Virginia and are starting to get a feel for the set up. There is a lot of old equipment here, some that can be used and some that just needs to be removed. This is an old automatic wire feeder that was here when we got the property. Pretty cool to see how things were built in the 70s, not many things built today would last 50 years.

If you spend enough time around trout, you start to speak trout. 🐟 If I walk up to a pond and the fish start going crazy in the water, I know they are ready to eat. In a farm setting, the fish are trained to associate people with feeding time. ⏰ In a wild trout stream, of course, they are trained to hide from predators on the bank. 🎣

Should we let AI raise our seafood? 🤔 We are getting close to exhausting our ocean’s stock of wild fish. With the demand for seafood rising everyday, we have a decision to make on how we are going to fill it. AI-powered smart cages provide seafood in volume at a lower cost per pound, but there are significant ecology and sustainability concerns that come with that...

Responding to comments about whether it is safe to eat raw trout. There are so many worse things that people eat every day without batting an eye. Thanks for watching, if you disagree, Hardy’s is open until 10pm tonight ✨

Can you eat raw trout? Yes. When I’m in a pinch for dinner, the family and I look to Lord of the Rings for inspiration. We grab a few fish out the pond, hit them on a rock and just chow down. 🐟 If you feel the need to cook something to death to get rid of parasites and bugs…you probably shouldn’t be fooling with it in the first place. 🚫 When you raise a fish from start to finish, you develop a confidence in its quality. As someone who spends almost everyday with these fish, I have complete trust in it. 💯

If we let the aquatic plants build up, they eventually take over the pond, crowding and stressing the fish. A small amount of plants is good to provide habitat for bugs in the pond that the trout will eat. It contributes to a healthy, well-rounded ecosystem. Because we farm in a natural environment, we are always working with and sometimes wrestling with nature.

Moving live fish is a precarious ordeal. Now that these fish have gotten to a substantial size, we’ve moved them to their own pond to continue to grow to market size, which is about a pound 🐟

AI doesn’t even want my job.

The Granddaddy ditch pickle 🥒 When we sort fish, we sometimes find ones that have evaded being pulled for months. This fish is probably about 3.5 years old 🐟

On Mondays we cut fish. This is our main processing day where we pull all fish needed to process orders for the week. We are both grateful for long days and also look forward to being able to breathe once they are finished!

This is the process of how we determine how many fish are in a pond. 🐟 This is critical to keep accurate inventory of the live fish and the total pounds we have available to fulfill orders each week. The key here is measure twice, move once. Once the fish are in the pond, it’s like trying to guess how many gumballs are in the machine. 🧠

Took some time to respond to some very commonly asked questions, we appreciate everyone interacting with our posts. Because we put our whole operation on display, we inevitably attract some negative commentary. Ultimately, we find more positive than negative feedback and are glad folks are enjoying the content overall. Thank you guys for the support either way!

Train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it 🎣

Our batch of newly hatched trout are now set up in pond 9A. We cleaned all the silt that was sitting on the bottom to reset it for the baby trout coming in. 🐟 All trout need clean water, but newly hatched trout especially need high water quality to thrive. 👌🏼 We also made adjustments to the pond screen to keep the tiny fish in. 🔐 Watching trout go from an egg the size of a bb to a market-sized trout is really a rewarding and unique experience.

🐟 A lady on Facebook who I do not know sent me this picture of her grandmother, aunt, and cousin standing here at the hatchery in front of the sign in the early 1950s. 🌲 The landscape around the hatchery is completely different now than it was in this picture. The woods have won as they always do but all the hatchery fixtures are still in the exact same place. 70 years later, trout are back in the ponds and the water still flows!

Take your time but move fast. ⌛️ 🚫If you drop a bucket fish die. 🚫If you forget a screen fish get out. 🚫If you don’t pay attention things go south. Moving fish falls into the category of “glad we did it, but glad it’s over!” 🙏🏻