Thanks to the folks at Blind Pony Hatchery, last week Truman Lake was stocked with 100,000 paddlefish that averaged 6” in length. The hatchery did very well this year which led to a very large stocking. We have also switched from stocking fish in the fall to stocking them in June. We have some data that shows these fish are still surviving and growing well even being stocked at a much smaller size. Stocking earlier in the year allows us to stock more fish because they can be difficult to keep alive over the summer in the hatcheries. This is the sixth year in a row we have gotten at least a few paddlefish in Truman and the 2016 stocking was a big one too, with about 129,000 fish. Since 2016 we’ve stocked around 300,000 paddlefish which is one of the best six years of stocking we have ever had. This should lead to good numbers of paddlefish over the next several years.
