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| 11 lbs walleye netted from East Okoboji Lake |
The
Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ spring fish spawning season is over and
Iowa’s two walleye hatcheries are filled to capacity as netting crews collected
enough walleye to produce 1,048 quarts of walleye eggs at the Spirit
Lake hatchery and 846 quarts at the Rathbun
hatchery.
Walleyes
were caught at East
Okoboji Lake, West
Okoboji Lake, Spirit
Lake, Storm
Lake, Clear
Lake and Rathbun
Lake from April 3-13. The effort from all the lakes combined collected more
than 249 million eggs.
This
year’s walleye netting produced the highest number of quarts of eggs from Storm
Lake since the walleye broodstock collection efforts began here in 1988. “We collected over 640 quarts of egg this
year,” said Ben Wallace, DNR fisheries biologist. “This beat our old record by
144 quarts.”
“We
had a very large year class of 18 to 20 inch females show up last year and we
saw them again this year and they’ve put on a little growth,” said Wallace. “Egg collection at Storm Lake should be good
for the foreseeable future provided we can maintain this year class of fish.”
A 30
inch female, estimated to be 13 years old, was brought through the Storm Lake hatchery.
This fish was originally tagged in the hatchery in 2008 and was recaptured for
egg collection in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
Crews
at Rathbun Lake observed good numbers of smaller fish (<24 inches) this season,
not seen in previous years. “This is a
great indication that walleye survival of recent stockings has improved
compared to recent broodstock collections,” said Mark Flammang, DNR fisheries
biologist. Lake Rathbun has a rich tradition of excellent walleye fishing with
a consistent number of large walleyes (approaching or over 30 inches). “The smaller fish netted this year are a
welcome addition signifying a bright future for both anglers and netting crews.”
At
Spirit Lake, fisheries staff netted over 2,400 walleyes on Big Spirit Lake and
East and West Okoboji Lakes. The Spirit
Lake Hatchery also cultures muskie
and northern
pike and DNR personnel collected 226 muskies providing eggs for hatching. Northern
pike were netted from Spirit Lake and Diamond Lake, producing over 823,000 fry,
most of which have already been stocked.
With
little natural reproduction by walleye in Iowa, walleye populations rely
heavily upon stockings. Walleyes are
stocked throughout Iowa into natural lakes, interior rivers, flood control
reservoirs, and selected larger man-made lakes.
The
DNR plans to release more than 149 million walleye fry in May. While the majority
of walleyes are stocked as fry, some are cultured in Iowa DNR hatcheries and
stocked at different sizes. Over 1.1
million two-inch walleyes are expected to be stocked into lakes, rivers, and
streams across the state this summer.
Larger 6-9 inch fingerlings (more than 340 thousand) will be stocked in
lakes later this fall.
