About Us

Operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, this National Fish Hatchery (NFH) is one of many serving a vital role in the management of our country’s fishery resources. Dale Hollow NFH was established in 1965, to mitigate fishery resources which were lost due to the construction of federal water development projects in the Southeast, like the Dale Hollow Dam on the Obey River in 1943. This is accomplished by stocking rainbow, brown, lake, and brook trout in waters impacted. Stocking trout in public waters supports a significant recreational fishery which generates a substantial amount of economic activity for local and regional economies. By 2000, the hatchery was distributing 1.5 million brown, lake, and rainbow with a total weight of 300,000 pounds in Tennessee and neighboring states. By 2017, the hatchery was producing 325,000 pounds of trout, which it distributed both for mitigation purposes and, to a limited extent, for non-mitigation of some waters under cooperative agreements with other agencies. During the 21st century, the hatchery also assisted in preservation and recovery efforts for endangered populations of non-game fish and freshwater mussels. The facility is also involved in the conservation of imperiled, freshwater, non-game fish, and mussels. 

Goals

• Provide rainbow, brown, lake, and brook 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 trout 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 and for population augmentation.
• Assist Tribal governments in managing fisheries resources on Tribal lands.
• Work with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to ensure a thorough, perennial hatchery product evaluation program.
• Provide quality environmental education opportunities.
• Provide recreational fishing opportunities through Project Healing Waters.
• 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.
• Maintain a "Friends Group" to gain community and regional support for the fish hatchery.
• Establish and maintain a pollinator garden providing specific benefits to the monarch butterfly.
• Utilize the Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) framework to manage Fisheries resource priorities.

Projects

• Infrastructure
• Annual Maintenance
• Grounds upkeep
• Repair activities
• Fabrication
• Egg/Fish rearing
• Mussel rearing
• Conservation
• Mitigation
• Outreach
• Research
• Partnerships

Geographic Area

• Stones River System, TN (mitigation) - J. Percy Priest Reservoir
• tailwater (TW), Stones River.
• Caney Fork River System, TN (mitigation) – Center Hill Reservoir TW
• Obey River System, TN (mitigation) – Wolf River, Dale Hollow Reservoir and TW
• Duck River System, TN (mitigation) – Normandy Reservoir TW
• Elk River System, TN (mitigation) – Tims Ford Reservoir TW
• Hiwassee River System, TN (mitigation) – Apalachia Reservoir TW
• Clinch River System, TN (mitigation) – Norris Reservoir TW
• Little Tennessee River System, TN (mitigation) – Tellico Reservoir, Tellico River
• Little Tennessee River System, TN (Brookfield Smoky Mountain Hydropower) – Calderwood Reservoir, Chilhowee Reservoir
• Holston River System, TN (mitigation) – Cherokee Reservoir TW, Ft. Patrick Henry Reservoir and TW, South Holston Reservoir and TW, Wilbur Reservoir and TW, Watauga Reservoir, Boone TW
• Northern Georgia (mitigation) – Federal Water Development Projects
• Sipsey River System, AL (restoration tradeoff) – Lewis Smith Reservoir TW
• Red River System, TN (reimbursable) – Fort Campbell

Distributions