Volunteers Will Help Plant Trout In Cascade Lakes

Volunteers on foot and horseback will take to the Cascade Mountains in coming months to help state fisheries officials plant thousands of trout in alpine lakes.

An estimated 36,000 trout will be planted in 63 alpine lakes in Yakima and Kittitas counties, according to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist Keith Wolf. Volunteers will be outfitted with specially equipped backpacks and saddlebags filled with young fish.

“The public is very heavily involved with the planning and actual planting of fish in these magnificent wilderness lakes,” Wolf said. “This is one of the most extraordinary and scenic ways to enjoy trout fishing in Washington state.”

Wolf said it will take about three months to plant the rainbow, golden and cutthroat trout. Most of the fish should be big enough to catch by late next year or early spring 1999, he said.

Pennsylvanian wins

Paul M. Black of Latrobe, Penn., has won the annual lottery drawing for one Idaho bighorn sheep tag.

A Wisconsin hunter’s ticket and a third from a Texas man were picked, in case of disqualification, when the Idaho Department of Fish and Game held its drawing July 30. There were an estimated 5,000 entries.

Each year, IDFG commissioners authorize the drawing for one bighorn tag in the lottery administered by the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep. The lottery provides an opportunity for hunters who cannot bid for a second bighorn tag, which is auctioned at the FNAWS convention.

Proceeds of the lottery benefit bighorn disease research, primarily at the Wildlife Health laboratory in Caldwell, Idaho, as well as wild sheep transplant and habitat work.

Elk tickets available

Arizona chapters of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation are raffling off a special elk tag which can be used in all of the state’s legal hunting units.

Raffle tickets are $20 apiece or $100 for six. The drawing will be conducted during the foundation’s fund-raising banquet Saturday night in Flagstaff. Ticket-holders need not be present to win.

The drawing offers one of only two special elk licenses available in Arizona this year. Proceeds go toward elk habitat projects within the state.

Tickets can be ordered by telephoning Sharon Fillman at (602) 831-8282. For more information, telephone RMEF Arizona field director Dakota Livesay (520) 286-1833.

The winner will receive all tags, permits and licenses needed to hunt from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.

No-limit opportunities

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will temporarily remove all catch, size and possession limits on game fish at a number of East Side lakes before treating the waters with rotenone.

Licensed anglers will have opportunities to keep as many fish as they can catch before the lakes are closed for treatments. Trout or other game fish will be planted after undesirable species are removed.

Catch, size and bag limits have been lifted on the following Grant County lakes as of today through Sept. 14: June, North North Windmill, North Windmill, Windmill, Canal, Heart and Pit. They will be closed Sept. 15 through Oct. 31.

Catch size and bag limits will be lifted for the following lakes from Aug. 15 through Sept. 30. They will be closed Oct. 1 though Oct. 31:

Stevens County: Heritage, Thomas, Gillette, Sherry and Leo (including the portion of Leo Lake in Pend Oreille County), Jump Off Joe.

Pend Oreille County: Halfmoon.

Grant County: Corral, Blythe, Chukar, Scaup, Aztec, Desert, Dune, Lizard, Meadowlark, Sledge, Tern and North Desert.

Okanogan County: Aeneas.

Catch size and bag limits on game fish from the following Adams County waters are suspended from Aug. 15 though Sept. 30: Deadman, Shiner, Hutchinson, Morgan and Halfmoon lakes; Coyote and Bobcat ponds and Coyote, Bobcat and Hays creeks.

, DataTimes