Virginia maintains five coldwater facilities (Marion, Paint Bank, Wytheville, Coursey Springs, Montebello) and four warmwater facilities (King & Queen, Front Royal, Buller, Vic Thomas) to grow fish for stocking in public waters
Source: Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries - Geographic Information Systems, VDGIF Fish Hatcheries (as of October 17, 2014)
The Federal Government created the Office of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries in 1871, and the General Assembly created the Virginia Fish Commission in 1875. The focus was on increasing the stock of edible fish whose populations were in decline. The basic strategy was to increase the number of fish by hatching eggs in a fish hatchery and placing young fish into a river.
Marshall McDonald, Fish Commissioner of Virginia, built a hatchery in Lexington in 1875 on the on the Town Branch spring Another hatchery was completed in Blacksburg at the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. Both hatcheries were used to train students in fish culture.
In 1879 on Tate's Run near Wytheville, McDonald built a Virginia Fish Commission hatchery to produce fish for stocking in Virginia rivers. The Wytheville hatchery raised Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) using eggs imported from California. After a few years, it shifted to raising rainbow trout, and later raised bass and bream. The Wytheville facility pioneered the techniques for raising rainbow trout in hatcheries.
The U.S. Fish Commission (which later became part of the US Fish and Wildlife Service) assumed responsibility for the Wytheville Fish Hatchery in 1882. It stayed in operation until 1968, when a new hatchery was constructed on Reed Creek. The old hatchery was donated to Wytheville Community College, then developed into a private trout-raising operation, Brackens Fish Hatchery.
all remaining streams still supporting a wild trout population are in the Blue Ridge or Valley and Ridge physiographic provinces
Source: Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries - Geographic Information Systems, Trout Waters (as of October 17, 2014)
The new Federal hatchery on Reed Creek was transferred to state ownership in 2006, after the US Fish and Wildlife Service shifted its fisheries program focus towards restoration of species and away from raising fish for put-and-take recreational fishing.1
the Virginia Fish Commission built its first hatchery at Wytheville in 1879
Source: Smithsonian Institution, United States Fish Commission Research Station (1880's)
The Commonwealth of Virginia has assumed responsibility for growing fish and stocking streams for recreational activity. Funding for hatchery operations is provided primarily through sale of state fishing licenses, including a special license required for anglers who fish for trout between October 1 through June 15. Coldwater hatcheries raise rainbow, brook, and brown trout, at a cost of roughly $2 per catchable (greater than 7" long) fish. Warmwater hatcheries raise muskellunge, northern pike, striped bass, walleyes, catfish, largemouth bass, bluegill and redear sunfish.2
Some of the earliest hatcheries in Virginia were established by the Mataponi Tribe in 1917 and the Pamunkey Tribe in 1918. The hatcheries were designed to raise shad. The Pamunkey hatchery closed in the 1940's, but a new facility was built in 1989. The Mattaponi built a new hatchery in 2000 just downstream from the ste of the historic facility.3
Mattaponi shad hatchery in the 1920's, just upstream of site of new hatchery
Source: Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Mattaponi Indian Reservation King William County, Virginia (Figure 21)
three state fish hatcheries (Marion, Wytheville, and Paint Bank) and two cultural stations (Coursey Springs and Montebello) supply trout for public fishing opportunities west of the Fall Line
Source: Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, An Overview of Stocked Trout Management in Virginia
Source: Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Hatching and Raising Striped Bass for Stocking Virginia's Lakes
walleye are collected from the New River, Staunton River, and South Holston Reservoir, raised at the Vic Thomas, King and Queen, and Buller Fish Cultural Stations, and stocked as fingerlings for recreation fishing in 17 locations
Source: Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, 2022 Walleye and Saugeye Production & Stocking