KDSN RADIO News
Iowa’s hatcheries busy preparing new crop of fish
Spring is spawning season, and Iowa’s fish hatcheries are working to grow the fish to fill lakes across the state.
Spirit Lake Fish Hatchery Manager Kim Hawkins says they were very successful in collecting the northern pike needed this year. “Within one night, we had over 130 fish in one net, so we caught plenty,” she says. Hawkins says it took them six nights last year to catch the same number of fish. They extract the eggs from the females and fertilize them with the males, and then wait for them to hatch. “We warm the incubator water up to about 50 degrees so with these northern pike since they usually spawn in shallow sloughs or shallow lakes and those types of areas with that water nice and warm in those sections it only takes about 13 to 15 days for them to hatch,” Hawkins says.
Other species are grown in the hatchery and then released, but not the pike. “We don’t raise them past hatch, so once they are sac fry, when they first hatch out of their eggs, we will distribute them into the waters that we had fish requested,” she explains. “And most of those are shallow lakes; either they’re brand new renovated shallow lakes or some that are just newly renovated a few years ago. So, that’s where most of these fish go for the year.”
Spirit Lake also handles walleyes and muskies. “Our walleyes will go in about 30 different lakes and impoundments, and we are only one of two hatcheries in Iowa that do the walleye fry,” Hawkins says. “So, Rathbun Hatchery also takes care of the southern and eastern portion of the state, so they have another stocking list to do. Muskies are our priority for up in this hatchery, we are the ones who produce those for Iowa.”
Hawkins says the Spirit Lake Hatchery is open to the public starting Thursday (April 10) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week until the netting is completed for the walleyes and muskies.
