Local Tailwater Fishery Moves Closer To Reality

Spokane area fly fishers’ dreams of creating a nationally known tailwater fishery for big rainbow trout along the Spokane River below Monroe Street dam has moved a step forward.

Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club members, with the assistance and cooperation of other area fly fishers and trout anglers, the Fish and Wildlife Department, Washington Water Power Co. and whitewater rafters, recently released 56,000 4- to 4-1/2-inch rainbows in the upper 13-mile section between the Monroe Street and Upriver dams.

They’ll release another 19,000 in the lower section later this month.

A tailwater fishery is one that is below a dam. Trout grow to trophy size in some tailwater fisheries, such as those along Montana’s Missouri River below Holter Dam and the Bighorn River below the Yellowtail Reservoir and New Mexico’s San Juan River below the Navajo Dam.

The releases into the Spokane River are the first of three annual plants. By the time the fly fishers and their allies release rainbows in 1997, they’ll know whether enough rainbows will survive, grow and spawn in the 13-mile stretch.

It’s a gamble for the Inland Empire Fly

Fishing Club, which is sponsoring the program is spending $3,000 this year for the trout, planting equipment and signs to be erected along the 13 miles.

Trout Unlimited has contributed $1,000. Spokane’s other fly fishing club, the Spokane Fly Fishers, has indicated it will contribute money, as well as volunteers to plant the trout.

The 13-mile section below Monroe Street bridge is under selective fishery regulations. No trout less than 8 inches is permissible, and the limit is one per day. All wild trout must be released and only rainbows with missing adipose fins may be kept.

Mark Pinch, in charge of the Spokane River program for the Inland Empire club, said 55 volunteers released the 56,000 fingerling rainbows.

Instead of having a Fish and Wildlife Department truck back up to a few spots along the river and spew out trout, the fly fishers decided chances of survival would be greater if they transported the fingerlings in rafts and distributed them in more inaccessible areas.

But there were concerns. The river was so low that the fly fishers weren’t sure if the rafts would be able to maneuver through some areas without scraping bottoms. WWP released enough extra water to enable the rafts to float without problems.

The fly club obtained some heavy duty cardboard apple containers and lined them with plastic. The containers were put in rafts. Volunteers carried the young trout in buckets from the planting truck down to the make-shift containers in the rafts.

Fly fishers in the rafts used nets to distribute the trout in riffles, not the deep hole, where the predaceous squawfish dwell.

Mike Albert, manager of the Spokane hatchery, said squawfish will eat some of the young trout, but he believes that a high percentage of the little fish will evade the predators.

As the rafts moved downstream, the planting truck moved to various access points and volunteers carried fingerling trout down to the rafts.

“Everything worked out well,” Albert said. “The water temperature was 63 degrees, low enough for good survival. The fish were widely distributed, not just in a few spots.”

Albert checked the area where the fish were released a couple of days later and didn’t spot any dead fish, a good sign that the planting was successful.

The young fish will have plenty of insects to eat during the next couple of months and they should be adjusted to life in the stream by winter.

Pinch said fly fishers know there will be some poaching, especially when the rainbows grow large enough to be desirable. Poaching has been a problem along the upper river, where the limit is only one trout a day.

“We need support of Spokane residents to keep poaching to a minimum,” Pinch said.

If the fly fishers and their friends succeed in developing a top tailwater fishery, fly and spin fishermen won’t have to travel far and pay guides hundreds of dollars to hook a few trophy-sized rainbows.

Maybe some day somebody even will write a book about fishing for big trout along the river that runs through the city of Spokane.

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