Iowa DNR reports that it has completed its initial fish stocking efforts for the spring of 2011. The department released an estimated 112 million walleye fry into Iowa lakes, 263,000 northern pike into lakes and rivers, and about 2,500 muskies into four lakes.
According to officials, hatcheries will be stocking 2-inch walleyes fingerlings in June, then 5 to 6-inch fingerlings this fall, all kept at the hatcheries and rearing ponds from the same fry hatch that was stocked in May.
Walleyes are not the only species spawned and stocked in the spring. Northern pike captured on the Mississippi River are spawned in late March. A portion of the hatched pike will be part of a study by the fisheries bureau.
At the Fairport fish hatchery, 7,100 northern pike grown to fingerling size were freeze branded before being stocked in Bussey Lake, in the Mississippi River, that will be the first step in a multi-year effort to recapture fish in the future and document growth of known age fish to better manage northern pike on the Mississippi River.
source: Iowa DNR