DNR to Harvest Blue Catfish at Mount Ayr Hatchery

(Mount Ayr) The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will be helping the Mount Ayr Hatchery harvest blue catfish next week.

John Lorenzen, Fisheries Biologist with the DNR, said they get two-inch fish from the state of Missouri and then raise them at the Mount Ayr hatchery until they are about eight-inches long. He said when blue catfish get large they can be distinguished by size as channel catfish rarely get above 20 to 30 pounds; a blue catfish can reach 100-pounds.

Blue catfish are stocked throughout different lakes in the state, including Lake Manawa and Lake Icaria.