IA DNR: DNR to Collect Walleyes Release Through Dam at Lake Rathbun

MORAVIA - The Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries staff is working to recover walleyes released through the dam at Lake Rathbun during high water release from spring rains and snow melt entering the flood control reservoir. Walleyes moved to the Rathbun dam in large numbers Monday night, as they began staging to spawn.

The Rathbun fisheries staff and the Corps have been working cooperatively for the last seven years to monitor the high water release around the walleye spawn. The Corps will reduce the water release on Wednesday while the DNR begins setting entanglement nets in the lake to collect the brood stock walleyes for the hatchery.

"We are going to try to recapture those fish lost through the dam," said Mark Flammang, fisheries biologist from Lake Rathbun. "There are going to be questions from the people actively fishing below the spillway wondering why we are catching walleyes with our electro fishing boat, and we want to get the word out to avoid any tense situations.

"We are by no means 100 percent effective in our efforts to recapture these fish but if we do not act quickly, these brood stock walleyes will be lost down the Chariton River and to Missouri," Flammang said.

The walleyes will remain below the dam for a brief period, then move downstream and eventually to the Missouri River. "The Chariton River does not have the characteristics necessary to be a walleye fishery. We manage Lake Rathbun as a walleye fishery," he said.

"We are working cooperatively with the Corps who must manage the lake as it was intended, while protecting the walleye brood stock," Flammang said.

Lake Rathbun is one of Iowa's top walleye fishing lakes.