Paddlefish Harvest Nets Record Crop

Paddlefish production this year was the biggest to date, nearly four times more than planned and eight times more than the past three years.

Gary Heidrich, manager of Blind Pony Hatchery, where the paddlefish fingerlings were raised, said that "things just kind of clicked this year." The staff at Blind Pony is very happy with the success.

A call was sent out for help to harvest, tag and stock the 265,345 paddlefish. Fisheries staff from around the state as well as several MDC divisions, commissioners, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other government agencies gave a united and overwhelming response. In three weeks all the paddlefish were tagged and stocked in Missouri and Arkansas waters.

Fisheries Management Biologist Trish Yasger was grateful for the help. “We were fortunate to have such great cooperation from everyone in getting a project of this size completed.” She is now busy writing thank-you notes and returning donated tagging machines and unused tags to their state and federal agencies. Trish says it takes about eight years for paddlefish to reach maturity and start showing up in the creel.

The Missouri Department of Conservation maintains the reservoir paddlefish populations through annually stocking hatchery-produced fingerlings. Without this, the populations would decline and snagging would not be possible.

To watch a video about paddlefish in Missouri click this link.