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.
