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.
This year’s catches — from East and West Okoboji Lakes, Spirit Lake, Storm Lake, Clear Lake, and Rathbun Lake from all the lakes combined — collected more than 249 million eggs. This Storm Lake total — more than 640 quarts of egg — beats the old record by 144 quarts.
Crews at Rathbun Lake observed good numbers of smaller fish (smaller than 24 inches) this season, not seen in previous years.
At Spirit Lake, fisheries staff netted more than 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.
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. More than 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.