Kokanee season closing early at CdA

Labor Day will be the season’s last hurrah for kokanee anglers at Lake Coeur d’Alene.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department has announced an emergency closure on the lake’s kokanee fishery starting Sept. 2 based on surveys indicating dangerously low numbers of spawning-age fish.

Record low numbers of adult kokanee have been recorded at the lake for three consecutive years, Panhandle region biologists say.

“Although juvenile abundance is promising, the low number of adult fish once again has Fish and Game and anglers concerned that there won’t be enough spawners to produce next year’s fry if we allow a fishery,” said Jim Fredericks, who stepped into the Panhandle regional fishery manager position this spring.

Most kokanee spawn near Higgins Point and Beauty Bay starting in late October or November. The low number of spawners, combined with their relatively large size and tendency to congregate to the north end of the lake in September and October leave them vulnerable to over-harvest, he said.

However, for the second straight year, the surveys revealed improvements in younger kokanee year classes. Two-year-old kokanee improved from about 136,000 fish in 2007 to an estimated 1.7 million in 2008, Fredericks said.

One-year-old kokanee increased from 2.36 million in 2007 to 3.6 million this year.

Trawl surveys show survival from 1- to 2-year-old fish increased from about 10 percent last year to 74 percent this year.

In addition to the fishery closure, Fish and Game will continue to try to reduce the predation on kokanee by limiting chinook. The agency has not stocked hatchery chinook in the lake for two years and plans call for no stocking next summer.

“I know this has been extremely frustrating for chinook anglers,” Fredericks said. “I can only ask that they continue to recognize the importance of restoring the kokanee population before we try to rebuild the chinook fishery.”