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July 13, 2009
Drakesville, Iowa - An Iowa Department of Natural Resources
fisheries crew discovered the presence of gizzard shad in Lake
Wapello on July 7 during a routine sampling of the newly renovated
fishery. A $400,000 lake improvement project was completed in
April and one of the goals was to eliminate gizzard shad from the
270-acre lake.
How the gizzard shad got in to the lake is under investigation. It
is against the law to introduce any live fish to any public waters
in the state.
"We drained the lake completely, killed out all the feeder streams
and sediment ponds and sampled other private ponds in the
watershed looking for any possible unwanted fish species and found
none. A great deal of effort was made to ensure this lake was
shad-free," said Mark Flammang, fisheries biologist for Lake
Wapello.
"This is beyond unfortunate because we had stocked larger
fingerlings which essentially gave us a full year head start on
returning quality angling here and now we will likely have to
start over," Flammang said. "There is really no good time to find
shad in the lake, but if we had to, it is better to find them now
than next year when the lake is full and people are fishing here
again."
The drain valve was closed on April 23 and the lake is currently
three-fourths full.
Lake Wapello is one of southern Iowa's most important and best
fisheries. For most of 75 years, the lake has provided some of the
best bass fishing in the state as well as quality bluegill and
crappie fishing.
"Having quality fishing at Lake Wapello depends on keeping gizzard
shad out of this system. Time and time again, gizzard shad have
lead to the destruction of quality angling in lakes throughout
Iowa and other states," Flammang said.
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