(Iowa) Every year, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources prepares fish stocking requests based on the previous year’s sampling.
John Lorenzen, a fisheries biologist, provided a breakdown of the fish stocking requests for 2025 in southwest Iowa.
Additionally, Lorenzen mentioned that 2,000 catchable-size rainbow trout will be stocked. Historically, those fish have been released into Big Lake in Council Bluffs, but Lorenzen hopes to secure some for more local areas in the future.
Lorenzen noted that channel catfish are raised at the Rathbun Fish Hatchery.
Rathbun also raises walleye, although in some years they are sourced from the Spirit Lake Hatchery. Wipers and blue catfish are raised at the Mt. Ayr Hatchery, while rainbow trout come from the Big Spring Hatchery near Elkader in northeast Iowa.
You can hear more from John Lorenzen on the DNR Report on 96.5 FM KSOM, Saturday morning at 7:30.
