I was in Decorah today, so I decided to stop in at the hatchery and ask them what they knew about walleye in the Upper Iowa. The biologist there gave me a lot of information on this issue, so I thought I would post it here.
Basically, the DNR does have an active walleye stocking program in the Upper Iowa. Walleye fingerlings are stocked as far upstream as the foot of Lidtke Mill dam by Lime Springs–last year, 25,000 walleye were stocked in the entire Upper Iowa, including the river both above and below the lower dam. The DNR has more than doubled the amount of walleye it places in the Upper Iowa since 2001, which explains why I have heard more about walleye being caught around Granger in the last several years. The walleye being stocked there now are 2″ and up in size, where they had been fry in years past. The DNR earlier stepped up its stocking efforts in the Turkey and Cedar rivers, and this paid off in much higher walleye catch rates, so the DNR increased its stocking of walleye in the Upper Iowa, as well. As is the case in other interior rivers in Iowa, it is not expected that there will be succesful natural reproduction of walleye in the Upper Iowa, so the population in there will depend on stocking.
The surprising thing for me was being told that the IDNR has always stocked walleye in the Upper Iowa. Until about five years or so ago, I never heard any rumors about walleye in the river around Granger.
