OCONEE COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) - Tucked away in far northwestern Oconee County near Mountain Rest is a place that has been raising fish for Upstate rivers and lakes since 1937.

Scott Poore is the hatchery manager.

“Here in 2025 it still fascinates me that those people that came in and built it, were able to locate, and it sustain itself for ninety years.”

The Walhalla State Fish Hatchery is run by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. It’s one of six hatcheries in the state that stock waterways with native fish.

Here, it’s trout.

“This is what we’re trying to grow here. The rainbow, the brown, the brook. And this is just one of the fish that will soon make its way to the waters in South Carolina.”

Annually, 500,000 fish go into mountain-fed rivers and lakes in the Upstate,

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