Website Designer

Fish Hatchery

Cotulla, Texas

A fish hatchery serves as a controlled environment for breeding and nurturing fish and other aquatic creatures. It plays a crucial role in wildlife conservation by aiding in the restoration of wild populations and promoting sustainable recreational fishing practices. The hatchery generates larvae and young fish for transfer to aquaculture facilities, where they continue to grow until they reach maturity for harvesting. This process offers several advantages to the industry. Here at the Cotulla Fish Hatchery & R.V Park we pride ourselves in making sure our customers have a pleasant and relaxing stay. We strive to make sure our tenants are as comfortable as possible. No fishing permit is required for our tenants to fish. We do not have public fishing- only for our tenants. Tenants can fish until dusk Come visit us for a unique experience at Cotulla Fish Hatchery. Call us today for your next great adventure! 830-879-2393

Cotulla Fish Hatchery

For the past 25 years, we have been stocking tanks and ponds throughout South Texas. It is our goal for our customers to have the best fishing ponds possible through stocking and management. Our fish haul truck with insulated fish tanks can deliver fish to you or you can pick them up yourself and we will put them in transport bags. When transporting them yourself, the fish can travel for up to 4 hours. Our fish are raised outside in ponds and are well acclimated to the local temperatures and climate.

Advice & Tips Here are some helpful tips and advice to make sure you get the most out of your tank and stocking it. Fertilizing the water can greatly increase pond forage. I use 11-37-0 in our ponds and in the ponds we manage. This is 11% nitrogen and 37% phosphorus. All game managers know the importance of getting phosphorus in deer feed in order to grow large horns. Also, fertilizer jump- starts the food chain by causing a plankton growth and turns water a greenish color. There are many benefits from this. One of the most important things to remember when stocking is the predator/prey relationship. Biologists recommend that a tank be stocked with 100 bass, 1000 bluegill, 1000 fathead minnows, 1000 mosquito minnows, 250-350 redears and 1000-1500 mollies per surface acre. If catfish is another desired fish then those should be stocked 250 per surface acre. The more bluegill and other forage fish you stock per bass the quicker your bass should grow to the lunkers that we all want to catch!

Fish & Descriptions Mosquitos Minnows, or Gambusia Minnow, is the most versatile fish for stocking in any pond or lake in South Texas. Their primary diet is mosquito larva. It is an extremely hardy and adaptable fish , known to survive in a wide variety of temperatures and pHs. Females give birth to living young and will produce several broods per summer. The gestation period is 21 to 28 days. Fathead Minnows I have found that fathead minnows do not do as well as the giant sail fin mollies. The sail fin mollies seem to be much more tolerant of the salinity and warm water that we have in South Texas. The females may spawn as many as 12 times in a single summer. Fathead minnows are often raised as a bait fish, or as forage in hatchery production ponds. Giant Sailfin Mollies are an excellent food source for largemouth bass. They are extremely hardy and can survive in poor water qualities. Sailfin Mollies produce broods of 10-140 live young, depending upon maturity and size. A single female may give birth on multiple occasions throughout the year. They feed primarily upon algae and other plant materials, although they will consume a number of aquatic invertebrates including the larvae of mosquitoes. Copper nose Bluegills have a very high reproductive potential. They will spawn when water reaches about 70 degrees and spawning may peak in May or June. They reproduce about 3-5 times a year and will produce a lot of forage for your bass. Up to 50% of their diet may consist of Midge Larvae. They have been introduced widely as a sport or forage fish. Channel Catfish will spawn only once a year. Channel "cats" are cavity nesters, meaning they lay their eggs in crevices, hollows, or debris, to protect them from swift currents. Sexual maturity is reached in two or three years in captivity, whereas data from natural populations indicates channel catfish in Texas reach sexual maturity in 3-6 years. Large Mouth Bass only spawn once a year. This fish commonly feeds on fish known as "forage" fish. A bass has to eat 9.5 lbs to 15 lbs to gain one pound. They are a predator fish so the harder they have to work for their food the more they will have to eat in order to gain weight. The bass have one of the worst conversion rates.