Coursey Springs Fish Hatchery

The Fish

Coursey Springs is a grow-out facility, so no spawning or hatching takes place there. Fingerlings are supplied by the Wytheville, Marion, and Paint Bank hatcheries. Coursey Springs raises approximately 60 percent rainbow trout, with brown trout and brook trout accounting for 20 percent each. The facility produces a maximum of 250,000 lbs., or about 400,000 catchable-size fish, each year.

Trout from Coursey Springs are stocked into 72 waters in 11 counties: Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Fauquier, Frederick, Highland, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Warren. The hatchery is also responsible for stocking three waters in the Youth-Only Stocked Trout Program. Coursey Springs also assists the Paint Bank Hatchery in stocking Liberty Lake in Bedford County for Heritage Day in addition to stocking three Heritage Day waters.

Background

Originally constructed in the early 1960s, Coursey Springs underwent extensive renovations that were completed in the spring of 2010. The facility now draws water from Coursey Spring, the third-largest spring in Virginia, and sends it through a large oxygenation unit. The water is gravity fed into 40 stainless steel circular tanks, where trout have a constant current to swim against and waste is removed from the tanks within minutes.

Once the water leaves the culture tanks, it goes through a series of filters and into a waste water treatment facility. Then, the water is either re-used in the culture tanks or enters Spring Run, a beautiful trout stream, where it is not uncommon to catch a trophy-size brook or rainbow trout.

Public Access

Coursey Springs is nestled in a beautiful valley approximately 2 miles south of Williamsville in rural Bath County. The facility has 142 acres of creekside habitats, riparian buffers, and open fields to catch a glimpse of wildlife. Green and great blue herons can often be found wading in shallow waters, especially in the mornings. Belted kingfisher and otter are common around the confluence of Spring Run and the Cowpasture River. Keep an eye out for a bald eagle or osprey searching for food. Red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks hunt the surrounding skies year-round. The more open areas surrounding the hatchery attract eastern bluebird, American goldfinch, eastern kingbird, and red-winged blackbird. Along brushy creek side areas, look for birds such as eastern phoebe and Carolina wren. Dragonflies and damselflies are a watcher’s delight. Look for blue dasher, eastern pondhawk, black saddlebags, calico pennant, and common green darner.

DWR completed a stream restoration project on Spring Run in 2011. 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.

Video Tour of Coursey Springs