Some Dislike Pend Oreille Fishing Rules

The drastic measures taken by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission to save the Lake Pend Oreille kokanee are a bitter pill to most fishers.

Some believe they are not necessary; others realize that sacrifices must be made to save the popular landlocked sockeye salmon.

It was a Catch-22 decision for fishery managers. Do nothing now and the kokanee population almost certainly will crash. Open the lake to fishing now and encourage fishers to kill all the trout they can catch legally and the trophy fishery will collapse.

To head off a crash of Lake Pend Oreille’s kokanee population, the commission ordered the lake and the Clark Fork River opened immediately to fishing for rainbow, brown, cutthroat and trout hybrids. It set the daily limit for rainbow, brown and trout hybrids at six fish of any size and the cutthroat limit at two a day. It also authorized anglers to keep as many mackinaw trout as they can catch. And it closed kokanee fishing.

Kokanee, also called bluebacks and silvers by fishers, are among the most popular fishes with the region’s anglers. Their oily, bright red meat is considered the best of the Pacific salmon. They’re also excellent fighters and they’re the primary food for Lake Pend Oreille’s big fish predators.

If it weren’t for kokanee, there would be no trophy-sized trout in the lake. Contrary to what some fishers believe, there are not enough other small fish in the lake to maintain a trophy fishery.

Ned Horner, Panhandle regional fishery manager for the Idaho Fish and Game Department, said the kokanee in Lake Pend Oreille have reached an all-time record low.

“Lake level management limited shoreline spawning gravel and drove the kokanee population down,” he said. “The record flood of 1997 knocked the population down an additional 50 percent.”

Department officials hope the Army Corps of Engineers will agree to keep the lake’s level high enough to cover shoreline spawning gravel. The corps still hasn’t decided what it will do.

With the kokanee population at an all-time low and predator populations fairly high, something drastic had to be done immediately. A recent study showed rainbows were responsible for 82 percent of all the kokanee consumed by predators.

Horner said the rainbow population “posed a threat of collapsing the kokanee population if they aren’t reduced quickly.” Plans, he said, call for a 50 percent reduction in the rainbow trout population over the next two years.

“We will need the help of trophy trout anglers who catch many rainbow but voluntarily release most of their fish,” he said. “We expect some trout anglers who quit fishing Pend Oreille back in 1988 to return.”

Horner said the department is committed to rebuilding the trophy trout fishery once the kokanee numbers are restored.

Members of the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club, which promotes the lake’s fishery and conducts spring and fall derbies, will meet today to decide what changes it will make for the scheduled April 29-May 7 spring derby.

Levi Hubbard of Spokane, LPOIC president, who once guided fishers at the lake and is an ardent supporter of sound fishery management, said numerous club members have called him since the new regulations were adopted.

“We know that we have a problem with the kokanee,” he said. “The department says the rainbow population will be brought back. Once a kokanee population has crashed, it may be nearly impossible to bring it back. Look at what happened at Flathead Lake in Montana. The population crashed and the fishery officials haven’t been able to bring it back. Some guides and fishers are unhappy with the commission’s decision.

Many fishers are wondering what will happen to the lake’s fish populations the next couple of years. Most fishers likely will kill the trout they hook. Many who haven’t trolled the big lake for trophy-sized trout will become discouraged. The rainbows aren’t easy to catch; in fact, trolling around the lake can become extremely boring.

However, the experts and guides’ clients probably will do well. With the trout limit of six fish of any size and no limit for mackinaws, the guides should be booked solid for several months. By late fall, the fishers will have put a big dent in the rainbow and mackinaw populations.

Next year could be a different story. The rainbow and mackinaw populations will be down considerably and fishing may become tough, so tough that many fishers will give up trolling the lake. Guides won’t make nearly as much money as they’ll make this year.

Except for this year, Lake Pend Oreille, known worldwide for its big rainbows, will not be the destination for big fish anglers for several years.