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Built in 1880, the Spirit Lake Fish Hatchery is a warm water hatchery located in Dickinson County
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Fish Hatchery
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There were no fish hatched at the Spirit Lake hatching house from 1893 to 1911.
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In 1909, the state contracted with commercial fisherman to remove rough fish from Iowa waters.
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1910, a dam (now known as the Grade) was built at the north end of Spirit Lake to prevent fish from escaping to Minnesota.
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In 1911, the hatchery building was renovated toallow for production if needed.New cement breeding ponds were also built.Even with these improvements, no fish would be raised until 1917.Still, no prodcution!
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A new fish hatchery was built to meet the demands of higher fishing pressure.
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In 1934, to prevent abuse of the system by commercial anglers, the state formed its own rough fish crew based out of the Spirit Lake Fish Hatchery.
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Starting in 1936, Iowa was the first state to stock walleye fry into nursery lakes/ponds for fingerling grow-out.
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Bullheads, walleye, largemouth bass, catfish, minnows, bluegill, yellow perch, shiners, northern pike, black crappie, white crappie
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In 1960, over 3,400,000 lbs. of rough fish were removed making it a record year to date.
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1965 prices of fish were; buffalo 10 cents/lb., carp 5 cents/lb.
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an addition was added to the hatchery to provide more tanks for intensive culture.
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the gillnetting has been done solely by fisheries employees. This allows for the use of better equipment and requires less crews to run the same number of nets.
