A quarter-million pounds of trout or roughly 400,000 catchable-sized trout: That’s how much the Coursey Springs Hatchery produces on an average year.
Located in Bath County, Virginia, Coursey Springs Fish Hatchery is a unique grow-out facility where brook, rainbow, brown, and tiger trout are raised to stockable size. The facility receives fingerlings from Wytheville, Marion, and Paint Bank Hatcheries and raises them in stainless steel circular tanks that are constantly supplied by water from the third largest spring in Virginia. The hatchery supplies 68 bodies of water across 11 counties.
While the facility played a very important role in the Virginia hatchery system it was outdated, run down and inefficient. Between 2008 and 2010, Coursey Springs underwent a renovation and moved all its tanks indoors. This allowed the hatchery to maintain stable conditions and eliminated poaching from animal and avian predators.
Coursey Spring is the 3rdlargest spring in the Commonwealth of Virginia with a peak output of 15,000 gpm. The flows and water temperature fluctuate seasonally due to influence from the nearby Cowpasture River.
In 2011, DWR completed a stream restoration project on Spring Run. The stream now compliments the hatchery with a no harvest, single hook artificial hook only trophy trout stream. The Cowpasture River below the mouth of Spring Run has been added to the stocking list as a put and take fishery.
Coursey Springs is located at 300 Hatchery Lane in Millboro. To visit, the hours are Sunday–Saturday: 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM.
