Kraig Ruebush

Kraig Ruebush grew up on a small hog and grain farm in Illinois, growing up he always had a passion for being outdoors and fishing with his dad. Following High School Kraig spent four years in the Army, as a heavy equipment operator. After serving he continued to operate construction equipment throughout the Midwest building reservoirs, road work, laying water lines and golf courses. This is when Kraig met his wife and a couple of years later, he changed gears and decided to go back to school at University of Arkansas Pine Bluff to become a fisheries biologist. Kraig gained firsthand experience working with catfish and shrimp for the next three years at the school research farm.

Kraig spent the following three years managing and restructuring a catfish farm in Oklahoma working with catfish, shrimp, tilapia, and hybrid bluegill. Following that, Kraig and his family moved to California to manage and restructure another catfish farm and help with trout production and experiment with largemouth bass for the next eight years. Then Kraig decided it was time for a change and moved from the private sector to the federal side of fisheries.

In 2016 Kraig was hired as the assistant manager at Entiat National Fish Hatchery (NFH) in Washington. At Entiat NFH he raised Summer Chinook salmon, it was a new and exciting experience for him with the people in the Fish and Wildlife Service had been a pleasure to work with. In 2019 Kraig became the project leader at Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery and satellite Achii Hanyo Native Fish Rearing Facility, where he has worked with Rainbow trout, and the endangered Razorback sucker and Bonytail chub species. Kraig has had the opportunity to work with many different species of fish. He feels fortunate to have been able to travel all over the country working with so many interesting people throughout his different careers and he looks forward to the years to come with the Fish and Wildlife Service.