Catfish from Women’s Correctional Facility Stocked in Community Fisheries around Wyoming

In March the women's correctional facility in Lusk announced that they would be shutting down their fish farming program due to staffing issues.

The program started in 2007 with tilapia farming for the market. Eventually it grew to also farm catfish.

Mid-April, the Wyoming Game and Fish partnered with the prison to stock catfish at the facility in community fisheries in Casper, Rock Springs, Green River, Laramie, and Sheridan.

Casper's Bryan Stock Trail fishery received the most catfish, which is 450.

385 catfish were put at the Guernsey Slough and 170 went to Yesness Pond.

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 an exciting opportunity to stock more large fish around the state.