A bumper crop of muskellunge fingerlings ended up stocking 18 waters across the state this year, considerably more than previous years.

Chris O’Bara, a fisheries biologist with the Division of Natural Resources, said the state hatchery system raised 5,926 advanced muskie fingerlings for fall stocking this year, compared with 500 to 1,000 the past two years when only the most high-priority waters, mostly lakes, were stocked.

The state ended up with so many 10- to 18-inch-long fish that O’Bara said they were able to also stock the Kanawha, New, Gauley and Coal rivers, and Fishing Creek in Wetzel County.

Normally the state raises fingerlings at the DNR’s Palestine and Apple Grove hatcheries.

This year, he said, workers transferred the young fish to special rearing ponds in Braxton and Randolph counties and let them mature through September instead of through June.

Given this year’s success, O’Bara says DNR officials will probably try to raise at least 2,500 fingerlings next year.