Fish Club Hopes Feds Take Debate Stocking Pend Oreille River With Walleye Seen As Way To Boost Economy, But Game Agents Worry About Imperiled Native Bull Trout

Members of the Pend Oreille Walleye Club are swimming upstream in quest of fish to go with their monogrammed hats.

“We’re probably one of the only walleye clubs that don’t have any walleye in the area,” said club founder Pete Aneff.

He and others in the 90-family club view the popular sport fish as one way to help revive northern Pend Oreille County’s comatose economy. With the region’s sawmill, cement plant and mine all closed, residents are scrambling to develop a tourist industry.

“We’re trying to stand on our own two feet,” said Myrna Struckman, secretary-treasurer of the walleye club.

Walleye are considered comparatively easy to catch and much tastier than many fish. They also are the object of a growing tournament industry.

In just three years, the Washington State Governor’s Cup Walleye Tournament at on Lake Roosevelt has become a major attraction for Kettle Falls. Chris Sanders, tournament director for the Kettle Falls Walleye Club, estimates the Governor’s Cup pumps more than $102,000 into the local economy.

An average of 93 two-member teams come from as far as New York and Florida, shelling out an estimated $210 a day for an average of five days. “And that doesn’t include all of these guys who come up weeks in advance” to scout out the best places to fish, Sanders said.

Although there are three smaller tournaments in the state, Kettle Falls Walleye Club President Randy Hart said there’s plenty of room for a Pend Oreille tournament.

But the Pend Oreille club’s hopes for a walleye fishery are threatened by some of the same federal policies that members blame for the loss of their area’s heavy industries.

A federal decision is expected this week on whether to list the native bull trout as a threatened or endangered species.

A study in 1989-90 by University of Idaho scientists found only three bull trout in the Pend Oreille River between Box Canyon Dam south of Metaline and Boundary Dam at the Canadian border.

To the Metaline residents, that shows the bull trout are already gone and might as well be replaced by walleye, which are more prolific and tastier. To wildlife officials, the study boosts the case for restoring bull trout.

If bull trout are declared endangered in the Pend Oreille River, walleye club members may as well turn in their hats.

Walleye are fierce predators with no scruples about eating endangered species.

They are a kind of perch native to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basin, but have been introduced in numerous western lakes and rivers.

There already are walleye in the Pend Oreille River, as demonstrated by the 29-inch, nine-pounder hanging on the wall at club president Jim Volquardsen’s Western Star Tavern.

There just aren’t enough, walleye club members say, and they can’t get the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to add more. The state agency planted walleye on several occasions in the late 1980s and concluded the experiment was a failure because the fish didn’t reproduce.

Walleye club leaders say the previously planted fish - more than 3 million fry and 125 adults - were too small and too few. Even so, they say the 29-incher Chris Porter caught shows the fish are surviving.

Other Metaline-area residents report catching 19-inch, 14-inch and 9-inch walleye. Aneff said the presence of different sizes shows the walleye must be reproducing.

“We know they’re here, but you can’t get your bait past the squawfish,” said Ernie Volquardsen.

“It’s disgusting,” his son, Jim, agreed.

Squawfish are about as popular as flies in a punch bowl. They are accused of everything from gulping salmon smolts to soaking up mud.

“Squawfish aren’t no good for nothin’,” said Hart, the Kettle Falls Walleye Club president.

Hart shares the popular view that the bony squawfish taste bad. They absorb mud from lying on the riverbed to keep cool, he claimed.

But, he said, “I never ate one myself, and I don’t know of anybody that has.”

Ray Duff, regional fish biologist for Fish and Wildlife, did his best to defend the squawfish. They are, after all, indigenous and the state agency is in the business of defending indigenous fish these days.

“I really don’t think squawfish probably taste bad,” Duff said.

That’s a guess, though. He hasn’t eaten one either.

Like Hart, Duff said the fish’s reputation is just too much to swallow. Sort of like turnips, he said.

The indigenous squawfish favors deep, slow water and has proliferated with the construction of dams - including the ones on the Pend Oreille River above and below Metaline.

That’s one reason Metaline residents want more walleye. Walleye don’t know squawfish aren’t fit to eat. In fact, they love to eat squawfish.

Walleye would be far more efficient at getting rid of squawfish than the annual squawfish derby the Pend Oreille Walleye Club launched two years ago, Jim Volquardsen said.

“It’s a fish-eating machine,” he said, fingering the hooked teeth of the big fish on his tavern wall.

That’s the problem, Duff said. Walleye would munch anything that’s handy, including glacial-era relics such as bull trout.

But largemouth bass also are strong predators, and the Kalispel Tribe has state and federal approval to stock them in the section of the Pend Oreille River just upstream from Box Canyon Dam. Duff said a planned tribal hatchery will release 50,000 fingerlings and perhaps 100,000 fry a year.

Volquardsen said his club welcomes the plan and hopes some of the bass slip through the dam into the Metaline section of the river. Bass also are “good eating” and a popular sport fish, he said.

But Volquardsen said he can’t understand why one predator fish is OK and another isn’t.

“This (hatchery) agreement took place a few years ago, probably before the time there was any concern about bull trout,” Duff said. “And largemouth bass have been present in that impoundment for a long time.”

Bass also are abundant on the Metaline side of Box Canyon, but they’re hard to catch, Duff said. “They have a fine bass fishery up there.”

Walleye club members aren’t ready to take that bait yet.

Volquardsen said the club hopes to get up a regional petition to persuade state officials to stock more walleye.

“Basically, it’s an appeal to get the people of Spokane behind us,” Aneff said.

With only 396 residents, Metaline and nearby Metaline Falls don’t have much political clout. They’re persistent, though.

Fish and Wildlife officials already have rejected several requests for more walleye stocking, and are starting to wonder which part of “no” the Pend Oreille club doesn’t understand.

“There’re a lot of places around the state that are having economic difficulties, but I don’t think it is the responsibility of the Department of Fish and Wildlife to turn that around,” Duff said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo