(Area) During this time of year, two inch walleye are being stocked into interior rivers and other select bodies of water by the Iowa DNR.
Lake Anita is a spot chosen for a Department of Natural Resources research project. “One of their study lakes involves Lake Anita. We’ve been doing two in walleye stocking in there for about the last three years. A couple thousand two inch walleyes were stocked into Lake Anita last week. We are looking for a product of walleye that we can stock into multiple lakes.”
Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes indicates eight inch walleye can’t be raised at all the hatcheries, but two inch walleye are a more manageable proposition.
“If the two inch fish would provide some walleye fishing we could maybe expand that walleye stocking effort into more of the smaller lakes. That’s what that research project is focused on. Following up on the past two inch walleye stockings we are seeing some return on them. So that’s good. So hopefully the ones that got stocked last year will also provide us with some return and some hope that we’ll be able to catch walleyes in a place like Anita.”
Hayes says at Viking Lake in Montgomery there are two ponds that drain right into the lake. Walleye fry are grown in the ponds for 40 days before being flushed into the lake.
