With spring in the air, and Georgia’s trout season only a week old, The State Department of Natural Resources Buford Trout Hatchery could prove to be an educational, fun and no-cost diversion for families.
Tucked behind an upscale Cumming subdivision just off State Road 20, the hatchery sits on 35 acres along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Open seven days a week for public self-tours from 7:30 till 4:30, visitors have an opportunity to learn how Georgia trout hatcheries raise over a million trout to stock more than 4,000 miles of streams all over North Georgia to confound or delight the approximate 100,000 trout anglers. In addition, staff members like Wildlife Technician Travis Taylor, conduct guided tours each Saturday promptly at 1 p.m.
Taylor, who is one of four full-time staff members and one of three who actually reside at the hatchery, helps to raise the half-million rainbow and brown trout in the ponds or raceways. He and other staffers are also active participants in the hatchery’s education programs. Visitors will learn about the labor-intensive 18-month process of raising three-inch fingerlings to the 9 1/2-inch length appropriate for stocking in area streams. It’s a job requiring 24-hour vigilance, in the event of a problem that might threaten the survival of the 480 thousand little fingerlings in their care.
Besides learning about raising fish, youngsters have an opportunity to feed them and visit the facility’s adjacent nature trail and warm water pond. There they will learn the lost art of using an old-fashioned cane pole, bobber and piece of frankfurter to catch bream, catfish and bass. “Recently, said Taylor, “One youngster caught a really nice four-pound bass.”
Without Georgia’s hatcheries, trout fishing in the state would be futile. A DNR publication says that due to calcium deficient soils in North Georgia natural trout reproduction is rare when compared to streams in other states.
Two years ago, however, state fisheries officials announced that in the case of brown trout, studies show the species is now successfully reproducing in areas of the Chattahoochee below Buford Dam. Brown trout are now managed as a wild population, so stocking of brown trout no longer occurs between Buford and Morgan Falls Dams.
So, whether you’re an angler curious about how trout are raised, a parent wanting some outdoor adventure for the kids, or a teacher who’d like to give students a chance to glimpse an Osprey or Bald Eagle on the facility’s nature trail along the Chattahoochee, you can get more information by calling 770-781-6888 or logging on to www.gadnr.org. And yes, there’s an App for that.
Marty Farrell lives in Cumming and can be reached at martysyracuse@yahoo.com.
