Stocking adult trout to increase angling opportunities. Fish are no different. And fisheries experts increasingly aim to create the right conditions so fish will naturally reproduce and keep their population growing. Unfortunately, a lot can go awry in the watery world. Pollution seeps in, nutrients cause plants to grow too quickly and exotic organisms that eat eggs or uproot habitat can invade.
Hungry predators cruise the waters, and human anglers have a taste for fish.
Assessing aquatic health through monitoring To give anglers a greater chance of catching fish, Wisconsin has stocked state waters for more than 100 years. Walleye have been stocked since 1876, when the Nevin Hatchery was established in the Madison countryside that became Fitchburg. Then and now, we primarily stock fish to provide angling opportunities for the public, explains Al Kaas, the statewide fish propagation coordinator. We raise fish in hatcheries to protect them during their most vulnerable life stages, then we release them to grow to adulthood back in wild waters. Wisconsin annually stocks around 11 million fingerlings and yearling fish, but much larger quantities of the smaller fry are released.