Let’s Go Fishing! Utah DWR stocked millions of fish in lakes and rivers in 2025
Jan 15, 2026, 3:27 PM
Biologists across Utah have requested that the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources provide more than 11 million fish to be stocked in Utah waterways. (KSL TV)
(KSL TV)
SALT LAKE CITY — The number is big but it’s not a record. Biologists across the state of Utah requested 11.6 million fish to stock in Utah’s waterways in 2025.
Richard Hepworth, DWR Fish Culture Coordinator, said the numbers are determined by requests from biologists across the state to stock 655 waterbodies with fish.
The biologists requested walleye, wipers, trout and other native fish.
Hepworth said two factors impact the number of fish stocked in each waterway: water level and fish pulled from fisheries.
If the level of water has dropped in a waterbody, then fewer fish were stocked.
Also, if there haven’t been a lot of fish pulled from a fishery, then they will stock fewer fish there.
In 2024, the Division of Wildlife Resources stocked 12.8 million fish.
Read more: A California fisherman may have broken records by catching a 10.25-pound canary rockfish
