New Regulation Blues

Anglers soon will have to release a high percentage, possibly most, of the kokanee they hook at Lake Roosevelt.

A new regulation requiring fishers to release all “wild” kokanee they hook will become effective May 1.

The rule, which will appear in the 1998-1999 sport fishing rules pamphlet, says that “only kokanee with missing adipose fin may be kept.”

Inasmuch as anglers have been hooking only a few fin-clipped kokanee the last few weeks, many who fish the big reservoir are wondering whether they’ll have to release all the kokanee they hook after April 30.

Some are furious over the new rule.

The Fish and Wildlife Department included the recommendation that only fin-clipped kokanee should be kept at last November’s Spokane meeting of the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Few fishermen who attended the meeting regularly fish Lake Roosevelt, so the recommendation didn’t get much attention.

Later, however, anglers who became aware of what had happened began to criticize the proposed regulation. They hoped that the commission would drop the proposal during its January meeting.

That didn’t happen. The rule permitting fishers to keep only fin-clipped kokanee will become effective when the 1998-99 regulations become law.

Why did the department propose the regulation?

Ray Duff, the agency’s fisheries manager for the department, said the rule is in keeping with the department’s policy of protecting and enhancing recovery of wild salmonids.

Kokanee are land-locked sockeye salmon.

The new rule, he said, has the backing of the department and the Colville and Spokane Indian tribes. If the rule doesn’t result in an increase in wild kokanee, he added, the department and tribes will look at other management alternatives.

Despite anglers’ contentions that there are few finclipped kokanee in the reservoir, there may be more than fishers realize.

Duff said that about 300,000 fin-clipped kokanee measuring 8 to 10 inches were released into the reservoir last year between the Sherman Creek and Spokane tribal hatcheries.

There’s no way of knowing approximately how many of those kokanee survived to become adults.

Duff said that the fin-clipped kokanee released last year should now be 10 to 14 inches long, the length of the kokanee now being caught in large numbers between Seven Bays and Grand Coulee Dam.

The kokanee being hatched and released at the Sherman Creek and tribal hatcheries are what is known as the Lake Whatcom stock. They’re the kokanee, creel censuses have shown, which have a tendency to migrate down through the Columbia River system during high water periods.

Goal of the department and tribes is to release 1 million fin-clipped kokanee a year into Lake Roosevelt. However, only about a half-million will be released this year.

Over time, Duff said, fisheries managers hope wild fish numbers will increase.

“There’s no easy way to increase production of wild fish,” he said. “Wild kokanee now spawn in a few places along the lake, including the Spokane arm and at the mouth of the San Poil River .

“Wild kokanee shouldn’t migrate like the Whatcom fish do. If the wild stock can be increased, the lake eventually could have a good wild fish population.”

But that’s just a hope.

Besides the relatively few kokanee that spawn in Lake Roosevelt, some kokanee enter the reservoir from Montana, Idaho and Canada.

Many of the kokanee released into Lake Roosevelt have been caught below McNary Dam. Last fall anglers trolling for walleyes hooked numerous kokanee, including some that were tagged, in the 16- to 18-inch range.

Meanwhile, anglers are enjoying the fishing between the mouth of Hawk Creek and Grand Coulee Dam. The most knowledgeable are catching limits of 10- to 14-inch kokanee during the days when the fish decide to hit their lures.

They have until the end of April to keep every kokanee they hook and net. Then they’ll be permitted to keep only fin-clipped fish.

You can bet they’ll burn the air over the lake with their observations about the Fish and Wildlife Department. Many of them already think the department’s walleye regulations stink.

However, Duff said creel censuses show that fishing for kokanee drops off drastically in May as anglers turn to fishing for walleyes, rainbows and smallmouth bass.

Stay tuned.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

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