Field Reports: More trout sacrificed to save PDO fishery

Financial incentives for anglers and gillnetters have increased the take of lake trout and rainbow trout this year in Idaho Fish and Game’s last-ditch effort to reduce predators long enough to the save the kokanee fishery at Lake Pend Oreille.

“We finally have some encouraging news in the battle to save Lake Pend Oreille, but we are not out of the woods yet,” said Ned Horner, department regional fisheries manager.

Anglers killed 10,800 lake trout and 5,800 rainbows through an angler incentive program, he said. Another 4,800 lake trout have been taken with nets.

Figuring in natural losses, about 35,800 lake trout have been removed from LPO, roughly 59 percent of the fish. Rainbow trout are not targeted by the netting program, so their annual mortality rate is substantially lower, Horner said.

“We believe the mortality rates of lake trout that we are seeing are likely high enough to offset recruitment,” he said. “Now it is essential that we sustain the effort to have long term success.”

The angler incentive of $10 per fish was increased to $15 per fish on Dec. 1 to encourage anglers to keep fishing during the winter doldrums.

Horner said he is encouraged. “There are good numbers of kokanee fry in the lake, and fairly good numbers of 1 year old fish,” he said, noting that nearly 12 million kokanee eggs have been collected to rear at the Cabinet Gorge Hatchery for release this year.

“With the continued help of concerned anglers taking the hungry mouths of predators out of the lake, it appears we can still pull out of this unbalanced condition,” he said.

Staff reports

TRAPSHOOTING

Former record holder still shoots straight

New Jersey shotgunner Austin Dorr was in Snake River chukar hunting country recently. No longer a household name among shooters, Dorr held a trap endurance record for 20 years.

In his Army career spanning World War II and Korea, Dorr was an infantry rifleman who earned the Silver and Bronze stars along with a Purple Heart.

In 1967, he proved his skill with a shotgun at New Jersey’s Pine Belt Sportsmen’s Club’s 1,000 Bird Marathon. Dorr set a world record by hitting 730 successive trap targets, and 995 out of 1,000.

“I didn’t know how good it was at the time,” he said. “I went right home because I just felt beat up from all that shooting. Then the phone began to ring and people were telling me I’d done something great.”

The record held until 1986.

As for chukar hunting, Dorr passed on hiking up the hills. “When you’re pushing 80,” he said, “you finally realize there’s some things you don’t need to prove.”

Locally: The 89th annual Spokesman-Review Trapshoot gets underway next Sunday at gun clubs throughout the Inland Northwest.

Results will be in the Sunday Sports section during the eight-week event.

Rich Landers

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

Idaho interviewing director candidates

Idaho Fish and Game Commissioners have narrowed nine applications down to five finalists to replace retiring Steve Huffaker as director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

Final interviews are underway with:

“Cal Groen – Fish and Game regional supervisor for the Clearwater Region in Lewiston.

“Jim Unsworth – Fish and Game wildlife bureau chief at headquarters in Boise.

“Dave Parrish – Fish and Game regional supervisor for the Magic Valley Region in Jerome.

“Dr. Michael R. Dunbar – research biologist at the National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colo.

“Kevin Delaney – former director of the Division of Sport Fish for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Commissioners expect to announce their selection in mid January.

In the meantime, Terry Mansfield, the current deputy director, is acting as the agency’s interim director.

Rich Landers

OFF-ROAD VEHICLES

Oregon Dunes builds ATV accident center

Off-roading in the sand near Winchester Bay, Ore., has long been a popular way to play on the Oregon Coast.

But it’s certainly not the safest.

Ambulances responded to 52 accidents in 2006 at the Umpqua Lighthouse entrance to the Dunes National Recreation Area, treating people for everything from broken legs to head traumas.

A new rescue station is opening to help get faster assistance to victims, and even help prevent some injuries.

The $280,000 rescue station includes a classroom for teaching dunes rules and driver safety, as well as bays for storing law enforcement and other emergency vehicles.

Paid for with county funds and a $180,000 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department grant from gas taxes and all-terrain vehicle registration fees, the station will cut response times to the dunes in half, Douglas County sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Fray said.

Associated Press