Preparations Underway For Spirit Lake Fish Hatchery

Mar 3rd, 2019 by Keith Worrall 773

Modified Mar 3rd, 2019 at 9:16 PM

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.

Preparations Underway For Spirit Lake Fish Hatchery

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