The Shadow
PAINT BANK — The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries will hold an open house at its cold water fish hatchery in Paint Bank on Saturday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The event will provide the public with an opportunity to learn how stocked brown, rainbow and brook trout get from the hatchery to Virginia’s waters.
The hatchery is located in Craig County on Route 311 in Paint Bank, which is near the West Virginia border.
The Paint Bank Hatchery was built by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and opened in 1960.
In 1983, it was leased to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The state assumed ownership of the facility about five years ago.
The Paint Bank Hatchery stocks approximately 100,000 catchable trout in 10 counties and 27 different waters each year.
The hatchery also stocks approximately 5,000 fingerlings (2-3 inches) and 5,000 (6-8 inches) advanced fingerlings in five counties.
Paint Bank stocks about 17 percent of the statewide catchable trout.
But through transfers, it provides other hatcheries with another 25 percent worth of the statewide allocation.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries stocks more than 1 million trout each year.
