The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries recently stocked Iatt Lake in Grant Parish with 551,000 Florida largemouth bass fry, according to a recent press release. The stocking follows a series of four consecutive drawdowns on the lake designed to improve sport fish habitat and reduce nuisance aquatic vegetation coverage.
Last year, 1,267,000 Florida largemouth bass fry were introduced into the lake, and department biologists plan to request another half million fry in 2020.
The Florida largemouth bass stocking program is designed to provide anglers with an opportunity to catch a trophy bass. The Florida bass subspecies is known to grow larger than the native northern subspecies of largemouth bass. Data shows the opportunity for anglers to catch a larger than average size bass is increased in waterbodies where the Florida gene is successfully integrated into the existing bass population.
The stocked fry were raised at the LDWF Booker Fowler Fish Hatchery in Forest Hill.
