This isn't a fishery we can take for granted. It depends on fingerlings coming out of the hatchery and going into the lakes. For that to happen, the WDFW staff who run the warmwater program must be committed to sustaining this fishery. Bruce Bolding retired a couple years ago -- we all should wish him the best, he was a great friend of our fishery -- and his replacement as warmwater manager, Ken Behen, is continuing the tradition of supporting the tiger musky program, which is WDFW's largest warmwater stocking effort by far.
WDFW has to get the eggs from another state, and were able to. The hatchery rearing personnel have to be there, on duty, and they were. I previously posted stocking figures for 2020, which you can find in a posting below. The numbers for 2021 are Merwin 1,600, Mayfield 900, Tapps 1,200, Evergreen 300, Curlew 250, Newman 650, and Silver 250. Ken is out in the field right now; I'll post the 2022 figures when I get them from him.
We all know how tough things have been in general, and in many ways still are. (Tried to buy a new car recently?) This is something that went right when not much else was functioning normally. I'm grateful to all the people who made it happen. We shouldn't ever take them for granted.