Plans to Stock Skamania Steelhead in Kewaunee River

As they begin to swim up and gulp down their first few meals after hatching, the young Skamania steelhead at Kettle Moraine Springs State Fish Hatchery are making important progress toward Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources goals of ensuring a diverse Lake Michigan fishery.

The fish, hatched from eggs provided by the state of Indiana as part of cooperative interstate management efforts, represent the first batch of Skamania steelhead to be reared in the state hatchery system since 2008. Over the next three to five years, DNR fisheries managers intend to continue collecting eggs from Indiana to stock the Kewaunee and Root rivers with some 35,000 fish each.

These rivers will then serve as collection points for a population of steelhead that will provide enough genetic diversity for Wisconsin to sustain its own egg collection and rearing efforts.

Dave Giehtbrock, DNR fisheries propagation section chief, said the Skamania strain is particularly prized because the fish may reach 32 inches and 12 pounds at age five – larger than either the Ganaraska or Chambers Creek strains. Skamania also extend in-stream and near shore fishing opportunities because they become more active when the water starts to cool in mid‐September and spawn from mid‐December through mid‐March with the peak occurring in January and February. In addition, late summer rains in July and August can pull Skamania in from the lake, providing unique fishing opportunities in late summer.

Giehtbrock said DNR fisheries managers believe the additional effort is a good investment in the future of the Lake Michigan fishery. The fish now being raised are scheduled for stocking in the spring of 2018 with anticipated maturity ranging from 2020 to 2022. For more information, visit dnr.wi.gov and search “steelhead.”