Iowa Great Lakes (RI) — The Iowa DNR stocked two thousand paddlefish in West Lake Okoboji one year ago in an effort to bring them back to what had been a native habitat. Fisheries biologist Andrew Carlson says they’ve had some reports from boaters that the fish apparently like being back in the resort area.
He says there was one report of a paddlefish breaking the water surface and leaping onto a barge. Carlson says they tagged 25 of the fish, and all have survived and are providing data on where they are going in the lake.
The Trellis Bridge goes over the waterway that connects the two lakes. He says the movement could be related to looking for food, or could be linked to water temperatures, but they don’t know at this point. Carlson says they have some pictures of paddlefish caught in the West Okoboji system years ago that were 200 pounds or more. He says that’s why they have reintroduced them into the area.
The paddlefish have to be stocked in the lake because they need flowing waters from a river to reproduce on their own. They are blocked from going back into the rivers by gates put up to keep out invasive species. Carlson says it really is rewarding to be able to reintroduce a species to its native ecosystem decades after they disappeared.
Carlson says large muskies or pike could feed on the paddlefish if they were smaller, but he says they stock them at ten to 12 inches long.
Paddlefish feed on plankton and are usually caught by snagging them on the bottom. Carlson says they could one day allow them to be taken on the Iowa Great Lakes, depending on how they develop. A paddlefish season opened again in 2015 on the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers after years of being shut down over population concerns.
KIWA Staff Photo
