Walleye Stocking in Pond Above Viking Lake

(Stanton) The Iowa Department of Natural Resources stocked 30,000 walleye Fry for a rearing pond above Viking Lake.

John Lorenzen, fisheries biologist with the Department of Natural Resources in Southwest Iowa, says fishless rearing ponds can be used to rear Walleye to larger sizes for stocking in area lakes.

The DNR fertilizes the ponds two weeks before stocking them with alfalfa pellets and soybean meal. Lorenzen says this keeps the pond full of zooplankton, which is what the walleye fry consume.

Lorenzen says the DNR pumped the pond, now home to the Walley Fry, full of water and fertilized it one week ago. The 30,000 Fry will grow to around two inches when they drain the pond into the lake 40 days later.