FISHING – PikePalooza is offering more than $5,000 in cash and prizes for anglers who catch northern pike in various categories during the Friday-Sunday (May 17-19) event on the Pend Oreille River.

The event on the Box Canyon stretch of the river is sponsored by the Kalispel Tribe.

Info: kalispeltribe.com/northern-pike.

The derby is part of the program to reduce numbers of the non-native species from the river.

This year, the tribe has removed around 6,000 northern pike using gillnets in the second year of a pike suppression and monitoring operation.

“The majority of these fish are age 3 or less,” said Jason Olson, the tribe’s fish conservation manager.

Pike suppression resumed last week after fish managers surveyed the river and found the spring netting had not reduced pike numbers to their target numbers, especially in the north end of the reservoir.  

The highest number caught in nets last week were a dozen in South Everett and Tiger sloughs, the tribe reported.

This spring's post-suppression survey involved a total of 197 that caught a total of 410 northern pike in a week.

However, for the first time in years of surveys and two seasons of suppression, no large pike were caught in the Box Canyon stretch survey, the tribe reports.

FISHING — Anglers have been hooking up with big bass at Long Lake this week, but the biggest fish Peter Roundy landed was a plump northern pike (above).  

On his Facebook page, Roundy said he caught the pike pictured ”across from Willow Bay near the islands… big pike spawn goin on…. They're takin' over…. I caught six on Tuesday; two on Monday.

FISHING — Northern pike gillnetting that started last spring on the Pend Oreille River will be continued this year in the effort to keep the pike population roughly 90 percent lower than it was at this point last year in Box Canyon Reservoir area.

Starting in early March, crews from the Kalispel Tribe Natural Resources Department will use gillnets to remove the invasive species from the reservoir and will work with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to monitor the results.

• Sportsmen will be rewarded for contributing to the pike control effort with big cash prizes offered in a northern pike fishing derby May 17-19, sponsored by the Kalispel Tribe.  Info: (509) 447-7290. Two of the Pikepalooza events were held last year.

“Northern pike are voracious predators that pose a significant threat to native fish species,” said Bruce Bolding, WDFW warmwater fish program manager. “They can cause a great deal of ecological and economic damage.”

Click “continue reading” for more details from the WDFW media release posted this morning.

FISHING — In preparation for a fall rotenone treatment to get rid of scrap fish and northern pike, catch limits will be lifted starting Saturday at Fish Lake off the Cheney-Marshall Road.

Ditto for Little Beaver Lake in Okanogan County.

Read on for all the details from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

FISHING CONTESTS — Sign-up is underway for the season’s second Pikepalooza fishing derby on the Pend Oreille River, Friday through next Sunday, sponsored by the Kalispel Tribe.

Prizes up to $1,000 are being offered in a variety of categories to make the contest interesting to anglers of all ages. Categories include most fish, longest fish, total length of catch, smallest fish and tagged fish.

In addition, each fish caught gives a participant a ticket for raffle drawings.

During the first event June 29-July 1, about 80 anglers endured high water and windy conditions to compete catch 81 northern pike and compete for $3,000 in cash prizes and more than $500 in raffle prizes.

• Josh Whitney won $1,000 for catching the most northern pike —14.
• Dale Smith won $500 for catching the largest pike of the derby — 46.4 inches long.

There’s no entry fee, but participants must pre-register before they start fishing. Online registration closes at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Anglers can register on site at check stations.

The event includes the river from the Idaho state line to the Boundary Dam forebay.

Even though most of the non-native pike were gillnetted out of the Box Canyon Reservoir portion of the river this spring, pike are still available to be caught and new fish are likely coming downstream from Montana and Idaho.

Info: www.kalispeltribe.com/northern-pike.

FISHING — The gillnets didn't get all the northern pike in the Pend Oreille River.

This spring, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department and Kalispel Tribe used gillnets to remove about 87 percent of the non-native northern pike in the Box Canyon section of the river downstream from Newport. (See story)

But results from the June 29-July 1 Pikepalooza organized by the Kalispel Tribe indicate that serious anglers not only can catch a number of northern pike in the river on an outing, they also can catch some whoppers.

• Josh Whitney won a whopping $1,000 for catching the most northern pike — 14 — during the tournament.
• Dale Smith won $500 for catching the largest pike of the derby — 46.4 inches long!

The tribe reports that 138 anglers pre-registered and an additional 70 anglers signed up on site.

But water and weather conditions limited participation to about 80 anglers who turned out to compete for $3,000 in cash prizes and more than $500 in raffle prizes.

Although anglers faced tough fishing conditions over the weekend including high water, wake restrictions, closed boat launches, and hit-and-miss weather, the 80 anglers harvested 81 northern pike, reports Jason Connor, the Tribe's fisheries biologist.

• 33 people registered at least one pike.
• Pike from 286 mm (11.25”) to 1178 mm (46.4”) were harvested with the majority (74%) being 1-2 year olds less than 18 inches. 
• No tagged pike were caught, so prizes will roll over to the next Pikepalooza event set for Aug. 3-5.

Read on for the complete list of prize winners.

FISHING  – Sign-up is underway for the Pike Palooza fishing derby on the Pend Oreille River, June 29-July 1, sponsored by the Kalispel Tribe.

Prizes up to $1,000 are being offered in a variety of categories to make the contest interesting to anglers of all ages. Categories include most fish, longest fish, total length of catch, smallest fish and tagged fish.

In addition, each fish caught give a participant a ticket for raffle drawings.

There’s no entry fee, but participants must pre-register before they start fishing. Online registration closes at 5 p.m. Wednesday (June 27). Anglers can register on site at check stations.

The event includes the river from the Idaho state line to the Boundary Dam forebay. 

• See map for closed waters and the few areas where Kalispel Tribal licenses is required.
• See PikePalooza rules.

Even though most of the non-native pike were gillnetted out of the Box Canyon Reservoir portion of the river this spring, pike are still available to be caught and new fish are likely coming downstream from Montana and Idaho.

If an angler catches a Washington state record northern — a long shot, agreed — a professional taxidermist will produce a replica of the fish for the contestant.

Info:  www.kalispeltribe.com/northern-pike.

• A second PikePalooza is set for Aug. 3-5.

FISHING — More than 5,200 northern pike have been gillnetted out of the Box Canyon portion of the Pend Oreille River downstream from Newport this spring.  But anglers still are likely to catch them, says Jason Connor, the Kalispel Tribe's pike management project leader. 

Here's his report going into the Memorial Day weekend.

We are still grinding away at the netting. Catch has been down, but consistent. Up to about 5,200 pike removed to date. We are now catching far more juvenile fish aged 1-2. We haven't seen a lot of anglers out on the water lately. The River is still really high (2040 ft) which is 9 feet above base flows. Water is also still relatively cold.

The Clearwater Bass Anglers from Lewiston held a bass tournament last weekend but I haven't heard how they did.

There are still fish to catch in sloughs that are traditionally fished right now. As the water warms and elevation drops in June, I would target the weed beds in the main channel in the central part of the reservoir.

If I were headed out, I would fish boundary reservoir launching at Metaline Park and heading upstream. The side channels and backwaters between there and around Selkirk School surely have fish in them.

FISHERIES — I've received several phone calls and messages following today's update on the Pend Oreille pike fishery in my Outdoors column.

I've enjoyed catchign northern pike as much as many of you, but several pike enthusiasts say I'm a spokesman for the tribes who are actively controlling walleye and northern pike.

Well, I'm not. I'm merely reporting the numbers and facts as I get them. I've also reported the opposition to the efforts and the rates of fishing interest based on pike increases.  It's there and more will come.

What my critics really mean is that I'm not ranting on their behalf. 

These are the same people who are telling me that angry pike anglers are out there moving northern pike into all sorts of trout waters.  “There are pike everywhere now,” one man told me today.

Great. 

Pike have been moved illegally to infest about 100 waters in Montana and people have been moving them illegally for years in Idaho.

Maybe the top question is this: If these selfish pitiful excuses for sportsmen have illegally moved northern pike into every water imaginable, what more do they want?

I'll keep reporting the facts and I'm keen to share different opinions, but don't ask me to respect anglers of that ilk.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

The newspaper print version of my Thursday outdoors column has a confusing error as updated the current effort to reduce the number of northern pike in the Pend Oreille River behind Box Canyon Dam.

I've corrected the error in my column as it's posted on the web.

In giving the number for the bycatch of non-target species, I substituted “northern pike” for “yellow perch.”  Pike, of course, are the targt species.

Here are links to some of the previous stories and background I've compiled about the northern pike issue in the Pend Oreille River:

April 12: Anglers encouraged to fish for pike.  (Includes public boat launch guide for Box Canyon Reservoir)

April 8:  Gillnets set to remove 5,700 pike from Pend Oreille River.

March 29: Officials take stance against northern pike, ask for angler help.

Feb. 12: Northern pike forecast: fewer, farther between.

April 17, 2011: Biologist ponder options for PDO River pike boom.

April 17, 2011: Pike prompt three surveys on Pend Oreille River.

June 6, 2012: Pike boom in Pend Oreille River.

June 22, 2008: Pike explosion lures anglers, researchers.

FISHERIES MANAGEMENT — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Kalispel Tribe will present their plan to reduce northern pike numbers in Box Canyon Reservoir on the Pend Oreille River at meetings, starting at 6 p.m.:

Tonight: CenterPlace, 2426 N. Discovery Place, Spokane Valley.
Thursday: Community Hall, 2442 Black Road, Usk.

Fish managers plan to put out nets this spring to begin reducing the population of non-native pike in Box Canyon by up to 87 percent.

See Sunday's S-R story about Washington's plan for dealing with non-native northern pike.

Click here to see WDFW information on northern pike and reports regarding Pend Oreille River fishery surveys.

FISHERIES MANAGEMENT — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Kalispel Tribe will present their plan to reduce northern pike numbers in Box Canyon Reservoir on the Pend Oreille River at meetings, starting at 6 p.m.:

Feb. 15: CenterPlace, 2426 N. Discovery Place, Spokane Valley.
Feb. 16: Community Hall, 2442 Black Road, Usk.

Fish managers plan to put out nets this spring to begin reducing the population of non-native pike in Box Canyon by up to 87 percent.

See Sunday's S-R story about Washington's plan for dealing with non-native northern pike.

Click here to see WDFW information on northern pike and reports regarding Pend Oreille River fishery surveys.

FISHING — Some anglers share at least one trait with northern pike. They apparently wouldn't hesitate to eat their own kind.

Advocates of letting nature take its course in the invasion of northern pike down the Pend Oreille River seem to have little concern for the anglers downstream in the Columbia River.

While many anglers are enjoying the chance to catch pike in Pend Oreille County, state wildlife managers are concerned that increasing numbers and distribution of northern pike could impact vulnerable native species of trout, other game fish and non-game fish and even salmon and steelhead farther down the Columbia River system.

“That’s a big concern,” said John Whalen, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department regional fisheries manager. “If northern pike start spreading down the Columbia River, they could create significant ecological and economic damage.”

Perhaps pike advocates have not been paying attention to the decades of efforts and billions of dollars devoted to restoring salmon and steelhead runs damaged by hydropower projects. 

Do they know how much interest and economic impact has been generated by bringing back these fisheries from the mouth of the Columbia up to Chief Joseph Dam?

Other western states that have non-native populations of northern pike, are facing challenges similar to Washington. Although northern pike are native to much of Alaska, they are not native to the south-central part of the state where they have been illegally stocked and are considered invasive.

According to WDFW, pike have caused severe damage to native trout and salmon runs in several south-central Alaska watersheds and Washington is trying to learn from those events in order to prevent similar damage from occurring here.

WDFW is accept comments through Dec. 30 on proposed fishing regulations changes, including liberalizing the effort to reduce pike numbers in the Pend Oreille River.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will be hearing public comment on proposed fishing regulations when it meets Jan. 6-7 in Olympia.

The commission is scheduled to take action on those proposals at a public meeting Feb. 3-4 in Olympia.

FISHING — It's no secret that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is more than a little concerned about the burgeoning population of northern pike in the Pend Oreille River upstream from Box Canyon Dam.

The main worry is the potential impact pike could have on salmon and steelhead smolts downstream on the Columbia River.

Today the WDFW made it official: The agency has announced it's gearing up for a spring campaign to halt the advance of the voracious, non-native fish toward the Columbia River.

State fishery managers plan to enlist anglers to remove as many northern pike as possible from the Pend Oreille River, a conduit for pike moving downstream from Idaho and Montana.

A new webpage outlines the proliferation of northern pike in the river since 2004 and the threat they pose to native fish species.

Biological surveys conducted in conjunction with the Kalispel Tribe and Eastern Washington University document a dramatic decline in native minnows, largemouth bass, yellow perch and other fish species that inhabit the 55-mile Box Canyon Reservoir.

Read on for more details from a WDFW media release, and the meat of the fishing rule change WDFW is seeking to help expedite the process:

FISHING — Two tournaments in October will close the eight-contest 2011 schedule for The North Idaho Pike Association.

The group will hold it’s 10th annual tourney at Hayden Lake on Oct 1-2 based out of Honeysuckle Boat Launch.

Their season is set to close with the Fall Classic, Oct. 29, at the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene based from Rocky Point launch.

The group's most recent contest was Sept. 10-11 at Noxon Reservoir.

INVASIVE FISHERIES — The Kalispell Tribe's top Fish and Wildlife official called it like he sees it in a presentation on the invasion of northern pike into the Pend Oreille River. He was speaking this month to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

Deane Osterman, the tribe’s executive director for Natural Resources, said that the introduction of northern pike to Box Canyon Reservoir has quickly become “a long-term disaster to our native fisheries.”

A story by the Columbia Basin Bulletin detail's Osterman's presentation and reasoning behind the Northeast Washington tribe's effort to turn back a wave of invasive northern pike that has devastated local fish populations. Joining the concern of state and federal biologist, Osterman warns that other areas of the Columbia River basin could suffer the same consequence — and salmon and steelhead runs could be impacted.

Referring to the Columbia's confluence with the Okanogan River, he said;

“That particular piece of water is ideal as well” for nonnative pike to flourish, Osterman said. If pike got a foothold there, they very well could tarnish salmon recovery investments made by the Bonneville Power Administration and channeled through the Council to the Colville Tribes. BPA funds the NPCC’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program as mitigation for impact of the federal Columbia-Snake river hydro system on fish and wildlife.

FISHING — It's cool that KHQ TV followed up on my Tuesday story about the Spokane teenager who surprised himself and a lot of onlookers as he hook,fought and landed a 42-inch-long northern pike in the Spokane River near the Loof Carrousel.

Joe Buster, who just turned 18, clearly is an ambassador for the sport of fishing.

A few other notes on why his story is special:

Peter Roundy at the General Store gives special attention to Joe in selecting the gear to feed his enthusiasm for the sport. Joe is a special ed student at a Spokane High School.  He's a class act.

CITY FISHING — An 17-year-old boy fishing for trout and bass by the Loof Carrousel at Riverfront park surprised a crowd of onlookers and himself Saturday by hooking a 42-inch northern pike.

Passersby got in the water to help him get the lunker ashore after it made three surging runs over 30 minutes.

But then the bad part.  He had a 42-inch-long fish and14-inch-wide cooler. To get home he had to ride a city bus.

Click here for the rest of the story.

FISHERIES — Northern pike will be on the program when the Northwest Power and Conservation Council holds its Aug.  9-10 meeting at the Kalispel Tribe’s Northern Quest Resort in Airway Heights.

On the meeting agenda is the Kalispel Tribe's report on the problem of invasive northern pike in the Pend Oreille River. The report starts at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Among other items, at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, Dr. Pete McGrail of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will report on progress with an experiment to inject carbon dioxide into basalt formations deep underground as a means of reducing emissions into the atmosphere.  The experiment site is at Wallula near the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers.

FISHERIES — A fisherman on upper Lake Roosevelt Friday caught a northern pike, a non-native predator species fishery managers worry will spread down the Columbia River system.

According to Andy Walgamott of Northwest Sportsman Magazine, the fish was landed by walleye angler Davey McKern of Kettle Falls.

Fisheries biologists have feared that the pike explosion in the Pend Oreille River would find its way downstream, where it could eventually raise havoc with salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia River system. A major pike buffet at the mouth of the Okanogan River, for example, could be devastating.

Biologists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Kalispel Tribe have been studying the Pend Oreille fishery to get a handle on the situation — if they can.

FISHING — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife  and the Kalispel Tribe of Indians Natural Resources Department  will hold the second of two area public meetings tonight to discuss non-native northern pike in Pend Oreille River and other Eastern Washington waters, and take public input on options to control them and minimize their impacts on native fish.

A pair of Sunday Outdoors stories detailed the dilemma with the boom fishery and the plans for more gillnetting surveys, which start next week.

Tonight's meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Center Place, 2426 N. Discovery Place, in Spokane Valley

Read on for more details about the meetings and surveys that are monitoring the boom of pike in the river.