LEXINGTON—Virginia’s cold mountain streams create thriving habitats for rainbow trout that are celebrated for their delicate taste and recreational opportunities.
Each year, thousands of anglers travel to over 3,500 miles of trout-stocked waters across the state. While the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources’ five trout hatcheries sustain public fishing areas, many private farms also raise their own and contribute to Virginia’s trout traditions.
In Rockbridge County, a cold-water spring on Ingleside Dairy Farm offered the Leech family an opportunity to diversify.
“My grandad couldn’t stand all this water coming out of the ground and just running across the property line,” said farm operator Jennifer Leech. “He wanted to turn the water into something that would make money.”
And by 1990, that spring fed Ingleside Fish Farm’s hatchery, raceways and ponds that produce around 120,000 rainbow trout annually.
“You can’t raise trout if you don’t have the right water,” Leech explained. “It needs to be cold—below 65 degrees.”
Their spring runs a steady 58, “ideal for raising rainbow trout.” Leech hatches around 36,000 eggs four times a year, inspecting them several times daily to remove nonviable ones.
Once fingerlings reach 2- to 3-inches, they’re moved into raceways that mimic natural stream conditions, growing about an inch per month. After a year, they reach 12 inches—optimal size for customers.
Leech delivers trout to stock local private ponds and groups like Trout Unlimited, who sponsor community fishing events. She also opens two ponds in summer and fall where people can catch some dinner.
“It’s a good family activity. We have grandparents that grew up fishing, love fishing and they want to bring their grandchildren,” she shared.
In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a revitalized 1930s trout hatchery is bringing artisanal trout to fine dining restaurants nationwide.
“It was one of those moments in life like ‘I just gotta do this,’” recalled Ty Walker, founder of Smoke in Chimneys trout hatchery in Craig County.
Walker and his wife, Shannon, grew up farming but knew little about fish before discovering a century-old book on raising trout. After restoring the hatchery and feeding the property’s 3,000-gallon-per-minute spring into raceways and ponds, they began raising trout like it was done nearly 100 years ago.
“I could take all the credit but it’s the clean water from the gravity-fed spring that gives the fish its really great taste,” he confessed. “Water quality is super important.”
Harvesting and processing fish onsite, Walker ships fresh rainbow and some native brook trout—Virginia’s state fish—weekly to chefs across Virginia and in Chicago and New York.
In the beginning Walker was knocking on restaurant doors. Word of mouth is spreading and today, chefs at Michelin-star restaurants are calling him.
“When we have restaurants on that level hitting us up, it’s a pretty cool feeling,” he said.
Read more in Virginia Farm Bureau’s Cultivate magazine.
Media: Contact Leech at 540-460-3194 or Walker at 540-798-2762.
