Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery

Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery is a federal fish-rearing facility in Black Canyon, on Lake Mead National Recreation Area land about 11 miles below Hoover Dam. The public visit is a look at outdoor raceways, kiosks and an observation deck. It’s a worthwhile stop if you want to see how fish are raised for recreation and native-fish recovery; visitors see only a small, marked part of a working operation.

Visitors can explore the office, outdoor kiosks and raceway area on foot. Park in the designated visitor spaces beside the main office and stay on the concrete walkways inside the fence; the rest of the hatchery is restricted. Staff-guided tours are offered by request in October through April, so call ahead if that’s what you want. Access goes through Willow Beach’s Lake Mead NRA fee station. The marina’s restaurant and store are separate nearby businesses, not hatchery amenities.

The hatchery was established in 1959 through an agreement among the Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; construction finished in 1962. Cold water released from Hoover Dam made rainbow-trout production possible here. The facility raises sterile trout for stocking at Willow Beach and below Davis Dam.

Since 1995, the hatchery has also helped recover two endangered Lower Colorado River fish: razorback suckers and bonytail chubs. Staff raise the native fish to a minimum size, tag them and release them under a long-term conservation program. The raceways give this work a concrete scale: hatchery-raised fish support both recreational fishing and recovery efforts downstream.