(Radio Iowa) – Missouri and Big Sioux River paddlefish license and tags are now on sale now through January 7th. Southwest Iowa D-N-R fisheries biologist John Lorenzen says most people come away happy.”I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, but it is fairly successful, especially you know in the Missouri River, there’s going to be pockets of deeper water where people are going to find these fish,” he says. “They’re not going to be evenly distributed across the whole river.”

There’s going to be pockets of deeper water where the fish are going to congregate. “With modern electronics, you know, it’s going to be easier for people to find fish nowadays than what it was in the past. And so it there’s certainly catchable. It’s not like a, you know, a golden ticket that you’re going to buy, and probably, you know, not cash in on it. If you buy a tag, you do have a really good chance of catching one,” he says.

He says you should seek out someone who has go after paddlefish before. “Like anything in the outdoors, people with more experience are typically the more, you know, successful ones. So if you’re new to it and you want to give it a try. If you head out with somebody who’s already done it in the past, has all the right equipment, you’re probably going to be more successful than just going out on your own for the first time,” Lorenzen says.

The license sales run through January 7th and if there are leftover licenses, you will get a chance to buy another one.