Field Reports: Pend Oreille Poker Paddle event set for Aug. 5

PADDLING – The 36th annual Pend Oreille River Poker Paddle will launch on Aug. 5, but organizers are offering incentives to register before July 31.

Formerly a two-day event, this sometimes zany gathering has been honed to one day on the Pend Oreille River Water Trail.

Speed isn’t the key to the prizes offered. Boaters in any type of nonmotorized craft navigate to stations and collect cards for a poker hand. Luckless participants who can’t even draw a pair of deuces still might win the best costume category.

Sign up by July 31 and receive an extra poker hand to increase chance of winning prizes. The grand prize is a night stay at Northern Quest Casino and dinner for two at Maselow’s.

The flotilla will set out at 10 a.m. on Aug. 5 from Gregg’s Addition on the west side of the river. Entrants will proceed downstream at their own pace to beach at Cusick Park.

“This is the same weekend as the Kalispel Tribe’s Pow Wow,” said Mike Lithgow, Pend Oreille County community development director. “Hopefully paddlers will take the opportunity to drive over to the Reservation and enjoy some fry bread and buffalo after winning some amazing prizes at the paddle.”

The Spokane Canoe & Kayak Club has entered a team canoe in the past and the Kalispel Tribe is looking into paddling a Coastal style cedar canoe they built, Lithgow said.

Entry is $35 for adults, $25 for youths.

Sign up: newportareachamber.com/poker-paddle

Hunting season changes detailed at meeting

HUNTING – Proposed alternatives for 2018-20 hunting seasons will be discussed at a public meeting in Spokane this week, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says.

The alternatives will be posted by July 17 on the agency’s website at wdfw.wa.gov/hunting, where people can comment on the proposals through Aug. 31.

The department has scheduled a public meeting on the proposals on Tuesday, 7-9 p.m., at Center Place Regional Events Center, Room 110, 2426 N. Discovery Pl. in Spokane Valley.

Public comments will be used to develop specific recommendations for 2018-20 hunting seasons, which will be available for review in January.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider final recommendations next spring.

Northern pike heads net $430 for anglers

FISHING – Anglers turned in the heads of 43 northern pike through the end of May during the first month of a new bounty program to help curb the invasive species’ infiltration of Lake Roosevelt.

The Northern Pike Rewards Program paid anglers $10 for each head turned in to the program funded by the Colville Tribes’ Fish and Wildlife Department.

Anglers can continue turning in pike heads through December, said Holly McLellan, tribal fisheries biologist. “All sizes of pike count for a payout, even small fish,” she said.

The rewards are paid for pike caught on Lake Roosevelt as well as downstream from Grand Coulee Dam to Wells Dam. A random number of heads will be selected for microchemistry analysis to confirm the fish’s origin, the tribe said in a release. Participants must be age 17 or older to receive a reward.

The heads can be turned in at Noisy Water Gas Station, the National Park Service fish cleaning station at Kettle Falls and the tribal Fish and Wildlife Office in Nespelem.

Earlier in the spring, 1,058 pike were removed by gillnets deployed in the Kettle Falls area by the reservoir’s three fisheries co-managers – Colville Tribes, Spokane Tribe and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.