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In an effort to enhance fishing in Utah and boost native fish populations, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources stocks a variety of fish species throughout Utah every year. In 2025, over 11 million fish were stocked into waterbodies across the state.
A whopping 11,660,600 fish — totaling a combined 1.1 million pounds — were stocked into 655 Utah waterbodies this year. That was a decrease from the 12.8 million that the DWR stocked last year. Here’s a look at the other fish stocking totals from recent years:
Over the past few years, the DWR has made several changes to stocking and fish production at hatcheries in order to adapt to continually changing weather and drought conditions, including:
“We are continually evaluating the processes of growing and stocking fish and continue to make proactive changes to address drought impacts, increasing water demand and to also meet the demands of a growing population in Utah,” DWR Fish Culture Coordinator Richard Hepworth said.
The practice of stocking fish in the Beehive State goes back more than 150 years, as fish were first formally stocked in Utah in 1871. At that time, fish were transported from other states by train and were stocked into lakes along the train route. In 1897, Utah opened its first hatcheries and started raising trout locally. Most of Utah’s stocked fish started off as various trout species, and the DWR continues to stock a large number of rainbow trout around the state. However, the division expanded efforts and currently stocks around 20 species of fish throughout the state for several purposes, including providing a variety of fish species for fishing opportunities.
“These original hatcheries were really impounded streams where we put fry that we got from the federal government,” Hepworth said. “We opened our first traditional fish hatchery — where we produced our own eggs and used raceways like we have today — in Murray in 1899.”
Over time, the DWR expanded its fish hatchery operations. There are now 13 facilities across Utah, with construction underway to build a new Loa Fish Hatchery, which will be stocking fish by 2027. A new facility was also completed at the Mantua Fish Hatchery earlier this year to improve efficiency and increase production of the trout egg supply for the DWR fish hatcheries that stock fish across Utah.
The bulk of the fish stocked in 2025 — 10.6 million fish of the total 11.6 million fish — came from these DWR hatcheries. The remaining fish were transported from disease-free certified hatcheries across the U.S.
“Our hatcheries are important because they provide the majority of the fish we stock in the state,” Hepworth said. “Stocking is a crucial management tool that we use to provide Utahns with the numbers and species of fish they desire. Stocking fish helps create a better fishing experience and additional opportunities. Without stocking, fishing would be very limited. It also helps in the recovery of threatened or endangered fish. June suckers were downlisted from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2021 because of recovery efforts, which included stocking.”
The DWR stocked several different fish species this year, including:
The DWR fish hatcheries produce multiple strains of some species, and some of the fish are sterile (meaning they can’t reproduce). Producing sterile fish is an important management tool that helps control fish populations in various waterbodies.
Find more details about the DWR’s stocking strategies on the DWR website.