Emmet County, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is nearly ready to start a project to get rid of an invasive species of fish in an 830 acre lake in northwest Iowa. Mike Hawkins, a fisheries biologist with the DNR, says weather over the past two years delayed the effort to rid West Swan Lake in Emmet County of common carp.
Common carp feed on the bottom of lakes, make the water murky and cause problems for other species of fish.
West Swan Lake levels were elevated by this year’s flooding.
Hawkins says one side of the lake has dropped enough and they’re waiting for the water level on the other side to fall and match it. West Swan Lake is the last in a small chain of natural lakes and marshes that eventually flows into the west fork of the Des Moines River. Hawkins says regardless of the outcome of the carp eradication effort, West Swan Lake will be restocked in the spring with Northern Pike, Yellow Perch, Blue Gills and Largemouth Bass.
West Swan Lake map (Iowa DNR image)
