Spirit Lake — It’s March. That means the first day of spring is this month. And that means that it’s time for DNR workers to get the fish hatcheries ready to perform their annual service.
According to staff at the Spirit Lake Fish Hatchery, their facility is a walleye, northern pike and muskellunge hatching and rearing station. Production facilities include seven egg incubators with a total capacity of 1100 quarts, 20 indoor raceways, six non-drainable ponds, and two natural lakes. Water is obtained from Spirit Lake and is discharged into East Okoboji Lake.
They tell us the hatching period normally begins in late March, when ice cover leaves area lakes.
But according to Mike Hawkins, who is the district fisheries biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Fish Hatchery in Spirit Lake, they set some records last year.
Staff tell us that adult fish are normally collected when they travel the shoreline to spawn and are captured with gillnets. Fish are transported to the hatchery where eggs are removed and fertilized. All adult fish are returned to the lake in which they were captured. Incubation takes place in special jars that allow fresh water to flow over the eggs, supplying oxygen. Walleye eggs are also collected from Storm Lake and Clear Lake, and transported to the Spirit Lake hatchery for incubation. After hatching, fish may be stocked as fry or reared to advanced fingerling stages. Fry are fed a commercial diet in the hatchery or stocked into a nursery lake where they eat natural foods.
Hawkins tells us preparation for this work continues at the hatchery.
Staff tell us that each year, 95 million walleye fry, 250,000 two-inch walleye fingerlings, 100,000 six-inch walleye fingerlings, 25,000 seven-inch walleye fingerlings, 1 million northern pike fry, 200,000 three-inch northern pike fingerlings, 1,000 ten-inch northern pike fingerlings, 500,000 muskellunge fry, 25,000 four-inch muskellunge fingerlings and 4,000 11-inch walleye fingerlings are produced at the hatchery.
The fishing seasons for most fish are continuous in Iowa. The walleye season on Big Spirit and the Okobojis starts May 4th. Free Fishing weekend is scheduled for June 7-9, 2019.
