Cathey and I at Flintville Hatchery

Cathey and I recently spent an afternoon in the little community of Flintville Tennessee.  It’s an area in Tennessee with beautiful rolling hills, deep ravines, and small clear streams. All of the above characteristics in this little community contribute to one of the oldest fish hatcheries in the state of Tennessee. Numerous clear springs are located at the bottom of the ravines, which provide the cold water to keep all the rainbow trout alive in the Flintville Trout Hatchery. The director told us that the water is harness from nine springs and pumped through the indoor tanks and outdoor concrete trays. The indoor tanks whole the smaller trout from ¾” to 3” fingerlings: while 300 yards of concrete trays 6 ft. wide 2 to 3 ft. deep outdoors house the largest trout. The outdoor trout range from 4” to 12” in size. Once the trout reach the 12” size then they are transferred to Tim’s Ford tailrace and warm water streams in a 100-mile radius of the hatchery. There are numerous warm water streams in middle Tennessee that receive rainbow trout during the months of December, January, February, and March. During those months the water temp is cold enough to sustain life for the hundreds of rainbow that are release in the streams. Very few trout survive after April once the water temps move into the upper 60’s. In fact, most are caught before the temperature takes a toll on them.

  This is my second trip to a fish hatchery and today’s visit was the better of the two. The director made the visit very informative and interesting during the hour tour. I am sure most of you have toured a hatchery before, but for those of you who haven’t, it is worth the time spent. 

Numerous indoor tanks containing the smaller rainbow

Sorry for the reflection--thousands of tiny rainbow, most still have the egg yoke attach to their stomach--these tiny trout will be twelve inches in a year

Quite a find, a smaller tank inside with albino trout

Yards of outdoor concrete trays containing larger trout--a lot of these trays had screens on them

  Feeding time, quite a frenzy!!!

This trip really got me pumped for the coming season; this post is part one. In the coming weeks, I will share with you'll part 2 fishing McCutcheon Creek in Spring Hill where some of the trout was stocked today. I live about four miles from the warm water stream.