Station Facts

• Established: 1966.
• Number of staff: eight.
• Annual Budget (FY 06) $729,369.

Geographic Area Covered

• Cumberland River Basin, TN (mitigation)-Wolf River, Center Hill Reservoir Tailwater (TW), Dale Hollow Reservoir and TW, J. Percy Priest Reservoir TW, Stones River.
• Little Tennessee River Basin, TN (mitigation)-Tellico Reservoir, Tellico River.
• Little Tennessee River Basin, TN (Tapoco projects)-Calderwood Reservoir, Chilhowee Reservoir.
• Hiwassee River Basin, TN (mitigation)-Apalachia Reservoir TW.
• Holston River Basin, TN (mitigation)-Ft. Patrick Henry Reservoir and TW, South Holston Reservoir and TW, Wilbur Reservoir TW, Watauga Reservoir. Cherokee Reservoir TW.
• Duck River Basin, TN (mitigation)-Normandy Reservoir TW.
• Clinch River Basin, TN (mitigation)-Norris Reservoir TW.
• Elk River Basin, TN (mitigation)-Tims Ford Reservoir TW.
• Northern Georgia (mitigation)-Federal Water Development Projects.
• Sipsey River Basin, AL (restoration tradeoff)-Lewis Smith Reservoir TW.
• Red River Basin, TN (reimbursable)-Fort Campbell

Station Goals

• Provide rainbow, brown, and lake trout for mitigation stocking in Tennessee and Georgia.
• Provide rainbow trout to Alabama in return for Gulf Coast striped bass eggs and fry.
• Provide a limited number of rainbow tout for non-mitigation stocking in Tennessee under a cooperative agreement with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
• Assist in the recovery and restoration of imperiled aquatic species by developing propagation/culture techniques and rearing animals for reintroduction into the wild.
• Assist Tribal governments in managing fisheries resources on Tribal lands.
• Work with the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency to ensure a thorough, perennial hatchery product evaluation program.
• Provide quality environmental education opportunities.
• Develop and maintain partnerships with chambers of commerce, state tourism departments, and other agencies to promote regional support for recreational fishing and the fish hatchery.
• Establish and maintain a "Friends Group" to gain community and regional support for the fish hatchery.
• Establish and maintain a native warm season grass (prairie grass)/riparian buffer demonstration plot.

Aquatic Species and Capability

• RAINBOW TROUT are called rainbow trout because of the colorful pink to red lateral stripes on their sides. They tolerate waters which are associated with flood control dams. Their natural habitats consist of free flowing cool waters. Rainbow trout can grow as large as 52 pounds. Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery (NFH) distributed 1,281,973 rainbow trout weighing 284,238 pounds in Fiscal Year (FY) 2005. This total includes 962,593 nine inch fish weighing 276,331 pounds and 319,380 two to five inch fish weighing 7,907 pounds.


• BROWN TROUT are brown to tan on the back and silvery on the lower sides and belly. They have black spots on the top and sides of the head and body and red spots scattered on the sides. These fish also like cool free flowing waters. Brown trout can grow as large as 40 pounds. Dale Hollow NFH distributed 263,040 brown trout weighing 26,481 pounds in FY 2005. This total includes 176,288 six to eight inch fish weighing 21,366 pounds, and 86,752 four to six inch fish weighing 5,115 pounds.


• LAKE TROUT have small, light, irregular spots on a background varying from silvery or light green to dark green, brown, or black. They like cold waters, usually deep lakes or reservoirs, where they can find colder, well oxygenated water even in warm weather. Lake trout have been known to grow larger than100 pounds. Dale Hollow NFH distributed 35,036 lake trout weighing 2,319 pounds in FY 2005. All of the fish were six inches in length.


• The BARRENS TOPMINNOW is an extremely rare fish occurring in springs and spring influenced streams on the Barrens Plateau in south-central Tennessee. Breeding males have red spots on a green or blue body with yellow on the fins. Non-breeding males, females, and juveniles are pale brown with scattered dark spots on the sides. Dale Hollow NFH is an active member of the Barrens Topminnow Working Group (Group), a conservation coalition dedicated to the protection of existing populations of Barrens topminnows while restoring and enhancing other areas within the species historic range for future reintroductions. In support of this effort, Barrens topminnows propagated at Conservation Fisheries Incorporated (CFI) and the Tennessee Aquarium were transferred to Dale Hollow NFH for grow-out and subsequent reintroduction into the wild. Dale Hollow NFH distributed 2,319 Barrens topminnows in FY 2005. The Group will consider the topminnow secure when there are 15 protected populations within the historic range of the species.


• FRESHWATER MUSSELS are being severely impacted by the degradation of freshwater ecosystems over time. Eighty-five percent (191) of native mussel species designated as endangered, threatened, or of special concern are found in the southeastern United States. Dale Hollow NFH is working with the Tennessee Cooperative Fishery Research Unit (Unit) to transfer mussel propagation/culture technology from the Unit to the hatchery and to develop propagation and culture procedures for threatened and endangered species of mussels indirectly, through the use of surrogate species. Developing techniques to enable long term survival and growth is important because the larger we can rear juvenile mussels, the better chance they have to survive when they are reintroduced into the wild.

Public Use Opportunities

• More than 55,000 visitors yearly.
• Hatchery tours.
• Off-site presentations.
• Aquarium/visitor center.
• Paved walking and exercise road.
• Public fishing area.

Calendar of Events

• May: International Migratory Bird Events.
• June 7, 2008: Eleventh Annual Kids' Fishing Rodeo - held on Tennessee's Free Fishing Day. Open House - to be announced.
• December: Christmas Bird count.
• Yearround fishing in local waters.
• March through November: Camping in adjacent Corps of Engineer Campground, reservations recommended.

FAQs:

Q: What kind of fish do you raise?
A: Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery is a coldwater fish hatchery which means that we raise fish that do best in water temperatures between 40 degrees and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The coldwater species currently in production at this facility are rainbow trout, brown trout, and lake trout. The water being supplied to the hatchery to raise trout is too cold to raise freshwater mussels and Barrens topminnows. These species are raised in closed, indoor recirculation systems where water temperature can be controlled.

Q: How big are the fish when they are released?
A: The majority of rainbow trout reared at this facility are used for programs requiring continuous stocking of nine inch fish in waters which typically experience intense fishing pressure and little natural reproduction. A nine inch fish is considered large enough for anglers to keep. Waters with few predators and ample food supply are stocked with two to five inch fingerlings. This technique is very cost effective because large numbers of fish can be stocked without having to incur high feed costs. Nature grows the fish to a harvestable size.

Lake trout are stocked at a size of six inches. These fish are stocked into reservoirs having conditions conducive to good growth and survival.

Brown trout are managed by stocking tailwaters that will support small fish with four to six inch fingerlings. Waters which have proved not to generate high survivability when stocked with smaller fish, receive stockings of six to eight inch brown trout. Nature grows these fish to a harvestable size.

Barrens topminnows only grow to about four inches in length. The fish grown-out at Dale Hollow NFH average two inches in length when they are stocked into the wild.

Our goal is to rear imperiled species of mussels up to two or three years of age before reintroducing them into the wild. Size at stocking would vary with species.

Q: Where do you stock the fish?
A: All of the brown trout and most of the rainbow and lake trout reared at Dale Hollow NFH are stocked in and below U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) impoundments in Tennessee.

Fingerling rainbow trout are supplied to the state of Georgia. These fish are transferred to state and federal hatcheries where they are grown to a harvestable size and are subsequently stocked in and below Corps and TVA impoundments in Georgia.

Harvestable size rainbow trout are stocked in the tailwater of Lewis Smith Reservoir in Alabama in return for Gulf Coast striped bass fry and eggs which are utilized by federal warmwater hatcheries in an ongoing Gulf Coast striped bass restoration effort.

Harvestable size rainbow trout are stocked into non-mitigation waters under a cooperative agreement with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. This program provides recreational fishing opportunities at Ft. Campbell, the Veterans Administration hospital in Murfreesboro, Calderwood and Chilhowee Reservoirs, and numerous winter urban fishing events held throughout middle Tennessee.

Barrens topminnows are stocked into springs and spring influenced streams in south-central Tennessee (Warren, Coffee, Grundy, and Cannon Counties). Most of these stocking locations are located on private land.

No freshwater mussels cultured at Dale Hollow NFH have been released into the wild.

Q: How do you get the eggs from the fish?
A: Trout spawning operations are not conducted at the hatchery. Fertilized eggs are received from other hatcheries by overnight mail in special egg shipping cartons and are placed into hatching jars. Once the eggs hatch, the sac fry are placed into indoor concrete tanks. After the larval fish absorb the yolk sac and are ready to begin feeding, the fish are weaned onto a commercial trout diet.

Rainbow trout eggs are generally available from July through the middle of April. Brown and lake trout eggs are only available from the middle of October to the end of December.

Q: Stocking trout is not “natural” is it?
A: Stocking non-native species of trout is not “natural” but neither are dams. Dams perform critical functions such as flood control and hydro-electric power generation, but there is a down side to dams. Construction of a dam, regardless of its type, alters the entire river ecosystem.

Dams often produce large, deep reservoirs in which the water stratifies into thermal layers
during the summer. The water released downstream into the tailwater comes from a deep, cold layer. This newly created coldwater habitat does not provide conditions necessary for populations of native warmwater fish to be self-sustaining. Trout stocking is carried out in order to utilize the available coldwater habitat and to “mitigate” for the impacts that these water development projects have on the respective river ecosystems.

Q: Are the states involved with fishery mitigation?
A: Southeastern state natural resource agencies make most of the management decisions regarding the various coldwater tailwater and reservoir fisheries, operate hatcheries that rear additional trout to meet mitigation needs, and assist the federal hatcheries with fish distribution.

Site last updated April 29, 2008

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