Watch the fish grow this summer

Metro Atlanta

Trout hatchery in Forsyth County

Ryan McIntire on Wednesday releases about 1,000 rainbow trouts by the Lower Pool Park at Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River. The 10"-14" fish are raised at a nearby hatchery.

A weekly hatchery tour is offered for the public at 1 p.m. each Saturday.

About 1 million brown and rainbow trout are raised at any given time.

Graham Shierling, 3, of Suwanee, lands his first catfish with help from his grandfather B.B. Rhodes, visiting from Albany, at the family fish pond on the hatchery grounds, 3204 Trout Place Road, Cumming GA 30041.

Robert Hosey, fisheries technician, has a lot of hungry friends as he drops food pellets. Visitors can take in stocking ponds and a nature trail.

Trout need clean, cold water to survive and reproduce. The upper Chattahoochee, from Buford Dam downstream to Roswell Road, holds stocked rainbow trout and wild brown trout.

Patrick Markey weighs each load of rainbow trout before putting them in a stocking truck for distribution in North Georgia rivers and waterways. The hatchery, operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily and welcomes visitors.

The hatchery was built in 1976 and is located in Forsyth County on the banks of the Chattahoochee River.

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Ryan McIntire on Wednesday releases about 1,000 rainbow trouts by the Lower Pool Park at Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River. The 10"-14" fish are raised at a nearby hatchery.

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