Michigan fish stocking

What was stocked in 2026

Michigan’s stocking record for 2026 holds 799 stockings, 26,794,378 fish in all, in 383 waters across 73 counties. The newest record is dated 14 October 2026: 2,263 walleye in Lake Mary, Iron County.

By number of fish, walleye led the year (17,396,297 fish in 108 stockings), then lake trout (2,798,908), rainbow trout (1,825,844) and chinook salmon (1,787,869). By number of stockings, brown trout (248), rainbow trout (209) and walleye (108) were stocked most often.

Source: Michigan DNR Fisheries Division, fish stocking records (70,475 records, 1979 to 14 Oct 2026), fetched 26 Oct 2026. Counts are fish released as recorded; 2026 is the year to date.

Every species stocked in 2026

All 18 species in the 2026 record, by number of fish.

Source: Michigan DNR Fisheries Division, fish stocking records (70,475 records, 1979 to 14 Oct 2026), fetched 26 Oct 2026.

Inland lakes stocked in 2026

Most stocking is not in inland lakes. In 2026, 99 stockings (3,450,598 fish) went to the Great Lakes and their connecting rivers, 438 (12,361,271 fish) to rivers and creeks, and 262 (10,982,509 fish) to lakes and ponds.

We placed 189 of the lake stockings on 156 inland lakes of 10 acres or more, each by the survey section the record gives, so that lakes sharing a name are kept apart. The rest went to ponds, smaller lakes or lakes whose record we could not place. The lakes, newest stocking first:

Walleye went to 62 inland lakes we could place, the largest Lake Charlevoix (Charlevoix County), Indian Lake (Schoolcraft County), Hamlin Lake (Mason County), Gun Lake (Barry County) and Lake Mitchell (Wexford County).

Source: Michigan DNR Fisheries Division, fish stocking records (70,475 records, 1979 to 14 Oct 2026), fetched 26 Oct 2026. Great Lakes, rivers and lakes are told apart by the water’s name in the record; lakes are placed by PLSS survey section (U.S. Bureau of Land Management) on Michigan DNR lake outlines, as on our county pages.

Stocking by county, 2026

Charlevoix and Manistee counties had the most stockings in 2026, 31 each, followed by Schoolcraft (30), Marquette (30) and Delta (29). By number of fish, Kent County led with 3,627,579. 73 counties had at least one stocking.

Source: Michigan DNR Fisheries Division, fish stocking records (70,475 records, 1979 to 14 Oct 2026), fetched 26 Oct 2026.

The record by year

The record runs from 1979 and holds 70,475 stockings, 1,684,678,358 fish in all. The last 11 years, 2026 to date:

On 11 August 2025 the DNR said it had stocked 18,958,970 fish in the spring and summer of 2025, at 716 stocking sites. The record for 2025 up to that date holds 18,854,189 fish in stockings labelled “State Plant” and 22,538,184 counting every kind of stocking, because the record also carries federal, tribal and private stockings. In 2026 it holds 696 labelled “State Plant”, 61 labelled “Federal Plant”, 36 labelled “Private Plant (under permit)” and 4 labelled “Transplant of Wild Fish”.

Source: Michigan DNR Fisheries Division, fish stocking records (70,475 records, 1979 to 14 Oct 2026), fetched 26 Oct 2026. DNR news release, 11 August 2025 (govdelivery.com), read 26 Oct 2026.

How the stocking record works

A stocking record names the water, the county, the species, the number of fish and the date, and usually the stocking site and its survey township, range and section. It has no coordinates. The record lists stockings after they happen; it publishes no schedule, so no one can say from it when a lake will next be stocked.

Names repeat. Jackson County alone has seven lakes called Mud Lake. A record that gives only the name and county cannot say which one was stocked, so we place each stocking by its survey section; a record with no section is placed only where one lake in the county has that name. 1,969 of the 70,475 records carry no section.

A stocking is not a count of the fish in a lake: it says what was released, not what survived. 941 of Michigan’s 6,463 lakes of 10 acres or more have at least one stocking we can place since 1979; the rest have none on record.

Each lake page with stockings lists them, newest first. How we read the record is on How we measure.

Source: Michigan DNR Fisheries Division, fish stocking records (70,475 records, 1979 to 14 Oct 2026), fetched 26 Oct 2026. Michigan DNR lake outlines; BLM PLSS sections.