With help from a youth volunteer, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department recently stocked a total of 300 channel catfish into the Big Bend (Rendezvous) community fishing ponds 5 & 6. The fish are considered “jumbo-sized” at 13 to 14-inches and should make great table fare and an instant summer fishery.

The catfish come from the Wyoming Women’s Center’s in-house aquaculture program. At Big Bend ponds, the fish were scooped from the tank on the truck and carried in net-fulls to each pond to be stocked. A few Game and Fish employees were on site and were assisted by a local youth volunteer.

This is the first time Game and Fish has worked with the Women’s Center aquaculture facility to raise and provide fish for the state, and the collaboration has benefits for anglers. Typically, cool and warm water fish, such as catfish, stocked in Wyoming are acquired by fish trades with other states.

“Game and Fish doesn’t have a cool or a warm water fish hatchery  — our fish culture facilities are primarily supplied by colder water sources which make them great for raising trout,” said Guy Campbell, Game and Fish fish culture supervisor. 

Campbell says the catfish acquired from the Women’s Center are much larger than the typical stocking sized fish Game and Fish aquires from other states.Catfish tolerate and perform in warm water temperatures much better than trout so fish should do well in shallower waters where water temperatures are too warm to maintain a trout fishery, and should perform well in Big Bend Ponds in Riverton. 

Before you head out, grab a fishing license either online, from Game and Fish regional offices,or community license selling agents. Kids under 14 fish for free; nonresident youth under 14 must fish with a licensed adult.