Background

King and Queen Fish Hatchery (KQFH), established in 1939, is a DWR “warm water” facility located forty miles northeast of Richmond, Virginia in King and Queen County. When originally built, the facilitiy’s main target species was largemouth bass. It played a major role in striped bass restoration in the 1980s and American shad in the 1990s. It also produced catfish every summer/fall for decades. For the last dozen years or so, the types of fish most often requisitioned of the facility are: two strains of striped bass, walleye, three varieties of black bass, crappie, and fathead minnows. Other species have occasionally also been cultured for the purpose of restoration.

The renovated hatchery, completed in 2006, has eighteen ponds of which seventeen are PPE lined, totaling over 18 surface acres.  The main water supply lines feed into the hatchery from the Walker Coleman Pond (40 acres) and the Spring Branch Pond (20 acres) at the east end of the hatchery.  Walker Coleman and Spring Branch Pond are two of three ponds owned by the King & Queen Rod & Gun Club, the other being Ice House Pond (26 acres), which discharges into Walker Coleman. DWR has limited water rights to these three impoundments in exchange for maintenance of the pond dams.

Hatchery Manager: Chris Dahlem

Assistant Hatchery Manager: Marcia Davis

Fish Culturists: Jessica Beach and Charles A. Davis

Images by: Meghan Marchetti/DWR