Federal hatchery kill won’t hurt Cave Spring kids event
♦ The annual Trout Unlimited fishing day is set for Saturday.
A major fish kill at the Chattahoochee federal trout hatchery on Rock Creek in Fannin County will not create any problems for the annual Coosa Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited Kids Fishing event in Cave Spring on Saturday.
Sometime on the morning of June 4, the primary water supply to the federal hatchery was reduced to a trickle, resulting in the loss of about 50,000 trout.
Jeff Durniak said the state hatchery in Summerville, along with the two state hatcheries at Buford and Lake Burton in Northeast Georgia, are more than able to supply enough fish for the popular kids fishing rodeo. Durniak is a fisheries division supervisor for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The 32nd annual TU Kids Fishing Day will begin at 9 a.m. with 3- and 4-yearolds fishing the first half hour. There is a 15-minute break between each age group with the 5- and 6-year-olds tossing lines in from 9:45-10:15 a.m.; 7- through 9-yearolds fishing from 10:30 until 11 a.m.; and 10- to 12-year-olds fishing from 11:15-11:45 a.m. Any child can fish between noon and 1 p.m., however there is a limit of five fish per child.
The Buford, Burton and the Chattahoochee federal hatcheries each release roughly one third of the stockable trout in Georgia annually.
“We have an integrated system that’s good for a million fish,” Durniak said. “We don’t want to dismiss the loss of 50,000 trout, it’s significant. But especially this year in a good growing year, a lot of water, we’re okay.”
Durniak said the state always looks across its hatcheries and the federal hatchery to see who’s got fish and how can their needs be covered.
“Even if we had to bring fish from a distant hatchery, it’s not a problem, those rodeos are always a priority for our division,” Durniak said.
Summerville provides about 50,000 releasable trout each year, however its primary mission is to grow fingerlings to be able to move to the Buford and Lake Burton hatcheries to be grown out for release across the North Georgia mountain streams.
The Summerville hatchery has a new supervisor. Joshua Tannehill is moving from the Cordele hatchery to Summerville. In Cordele he was responsible for hybrids and catfish for the statewide program. The Summerville hatchery handles the trout and the Lake sturgeon program.
Friday, Tannehill was out in one of the stocking trucks putting trout into Johns Creek, one of the most popular trout streams in Floyd County.
The state has a 24-hour Ranger Hotline, 1-800-2414113 in the event anyone sees suspicious activity around the hatcheries or any other wildlife issues.