(Area) Step one of the Iowa DNR’s annual walleye stocking effort is underway.
The Iowa DNR’s Fisheries Department is collecting eggs throughout the state including at Storm Lake. “It’s an important endeavor for the state of Iowa to collect these eggs that we need for the hatchery. It’s part of a big stocking program to provide fishing for the walleye anglers in Iowa.”
Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes says the upper Mississippi River is the only place where natural reproduction takes place, so all other places must be stocked. “The walleyes are able to hatch and maintain their population in that upper Mississippi, but all the other places where you see walleye fishing in the state is because of this stocking effort. We have requests from our hatcheries for 148,000,000 walleyes to be stocked into the state this year.”
Hayes says Walleyes are a challenge fish to catch, they grow to great sizes, and they are good to eat. All of those factors make them popular. “For years a lot of people travelled to Canada, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to catch walleyes, but with the demand for walleye fishing and the preference for walleyes among our anglers we try to provide a fair amount of walleye fishing in our lakes throughout the state. So the demand is there.”
The DNR’s goal is to provide walleye fishing in the state so they can not only keep Iowans close to home, but also attract anglers from other states.
