G&F Collaborates With Women’s Correctional Center to Stock community Fisheries With Catfish

Earlier this month the Wyoming Game and Fish Department partnered with the State of Wyoming Women’s Correctional Center in Lusk to stock large channel catfish raised at the Center’s aquaculture facility. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

The aquaculture facility was created in 2007 and has reared catfish for stocking around the state several times since 2020. This year marks the end of the rearing program, and the catfish were stocked in community fisheries in the Casper, Rock Springs, Green River, Laramie, and Sheridan regions. According to information from the G&F there were a total of 250 catfish stocked in fisheries in the Sheridan region. 200 of the catfish were stocked in Kleenburn Pond in Sheridan County and 50 were stocked in Black Elk Pond in Newcastle.

The stocked catfish average three pounds apiece and 18 inches in length. To reach these sizes, the fish were brought in from an Arkansas hatchery in 2023 when they were around eight inches long. The Women’s Center then reared them to their large size at stocking. Game and Fish does not have a fish hatchery with water temperatures warm enough to produce the growth rates these fish experienced, so the partnership with the Women’s Center produced the opportunity to stock more large fish around the state.