EAST LANSING, Mich. - The value of all commercial trout sold and distributed in Michigan during 2024 was $6.74 million, a three percent increase over the previous year.

That’s according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Great Lakes Region based in East Lansing, Mich. According to NASS, commercial trout sales nationwide last year totaled $108 million, an eight percent increase from 2023.

Michigan, with many cold water lakes and streams, is ideal for the species to survive. The state is listed by USDA as among the top 16 trout producing states.

Some of the commercial trout in Michigan is produced for food while the rest largely go to stock private lakes, ponds and streams.

John Nelski, owner of Crystal Springs Farms near Muskegon, Mich., said he produces close to 100,000 trout annually for stocking privately owned lakes, ponds and streams mainly at hunting and fishing clubs or lake associations. 

Another longtime customer is a Native American tribe that buys his fish to stock a stream fed lake at its reservation for children to fish. They hold a yearly event that includes special prizes for catching a fish wearing a tag placed on it by Nelski before released into the water.

“If the kids catch a tagged fish, they get a gift,” he said.

Nelski raises trout he receives from a hatchery, typically, until they weigh just over a pound.

He charges about $1.50 for each fish measuring 6 to 8 inches long and more for the ones he keeps longer so they grow to the size requested in special orders for fishing shows and places like aquariums.

Nelski said he delivers the fish by truck including one carrying eight 250-gallon oxygenated tanks.

“I can carry three thousand pounds of trout in that truck,” he said. 

He receives his fish from one of the largest privately owned producers in the state, Harrietta Hills Trout Farm and Water Management Company nestled in the Manistee National Forest.

Specializing in rainbow trout, family owned Harrietta Hills, started in the 1950s, is a provider for both stocking and consumption.

They’re a supplier for Superior Foods of Grand Rapids.

Nelski, 76, who started his business in 1993, said he used to run a hatchery and raise trout for restaurants but changes in the market forced him to adjust for survival.

Another Michigan trout supplier is Stoney Creek Fisheries and Equipment. The firm produces anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 trout each year for stocking at mostly privately owned ponds, said Mason Larva, Fisheries Manager at the business near Grant, Mich.

Larva said his trout,also received from a hatchery, are usually raised and sold when they are four to six inches long. About half of his live trout are delivered by truck while the rest are picked up.

Larva also said the price for a larger fish is higher. “You have to put more money in the feed that gets them to that size,” he said.

He said the once family owned business started in 1970 as a trout farm switched forcus when there was higher market demand for game fish.