Torre Trout Farms Ltd

Our Farms

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The Process

Eyed Eggs

Here at Torre Trout Farms ltd, we are constantly on the look out for the very best trout eggs from around the world. We try to offer more than just the standard Rainbow and Brown trout, so as to offer you the fishery manager or syndicate chairman something special for your fisherman. We do this by finding, growing & selling the more unusual varieties of trout and trout hybrids. Read more about this on our specialty trout page. We take delivery of multiple batches of trout eggs throughout the year, they are hatched out in our bore-hole fed hatchery.

We also have our very own Somerset blue brood stock, allowing us to reproduce these fantastic sporting fish. 

Alevin & Swim ups

After the trout eggs hatch they are known as Alevin and are initially fed by a sac connected to their stomachs,  known as a yolk. At this stage they are kept in waist high troughs within our hatchery; peace & quiet and darkness is what they require at this stage of their lives. We remove any dead to stop naturally forming fungus from taking over.

After 3 weeks the Alevin use all their yolk supplies up and require food. We try and use the highest quality as well as most environmentally friendly fish food available. Once the majority of the swim ups are on fry food, we use specially designed and clockwork feeders to supply almost a 24 hour supply of food to the fish. This allows for all the fish within a tank to have access to the feed. 

Fingerlings

Once the baby fish are on the feed they grow well in the high quality borehole water. They are kept in the hatchery until they are about 10 grams in weight, and then moved outside to start the transition of moving onto river water. Brown trout varieties including Tiger trout and Sparctic trout are kept in the hatchery a bit longer.  Outside at the Torre site we have the facility to mix borehole and river water sources supplied to certain raceways over time, to allow the fish to adapt to the change. During this time the fish are weighed and graded fortnightly to ensure tank densities are kept as low as possible and the fish in units grow at the same speed.  

By 30 grams the fish are on 100% river water and ready for vaccinating. The fingerlings are anaesthetised and individually vaccinated with great care. After they have fully recovered, they are placed in large round tanks with faster currents to encourage strong swimming behaviour.

Growing on

The fish are moved to their respectable on-growing farms, located 2 miles up the road.  On both Roadwater (rainbow trout and somerset blue trout) and Mineral line (Brown trout, Tiger trout and Sparctic trout) sites, they are placed into large earth ponds, with faster flow rates. This provides them with ample space and a more natural environment in which to grow. The different varieties of trout take a large difference in time to reach a stock-able size. As a rule we work on rainbows being ready to stock (at 2lb weight) in 18 monthswith brown trout (again at 2lb ) more like 26 months. 

Sales

Prior to grading, ponds are starved for a minimum of 4 days, allowing complete digestion of food which means the fish handle better. The fish are graded using our fish pump and slide grader to minimise stress. We try and group together orders, with the idea of only starving and grading a pond once for the next fortnights orders.  The fish remain on starve whilst waiting for their delivery day, and this helps them travel to the customer with less stress.

Our customer portfolio includes water companies, charities, commercial fisheries, private syndicates, river fishing clubs, private ponds and lakes. We deliver in two specially designed fish transport vehicles, both fitted with oxygen diffusers and air blowers. We have designed the tipping tanks on our new fish lorry to help the fish exit.