Revival of the fishes
Sprague Lake is moving closer to a fishery overhaul.
Support has become almost universal for a proposal to use rotenone this fall to kill off the current fishery and restock with a slightly different species mix. State officials say the lake rehabilitation would revive angling interest to a once-popular 1,840-acre lake that has become almost deserted.
“At this point, the project is as close to a slam dunk as you find in public policy,” said John Andrews, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department regional manager in Spokane. However, public meetings will be scheduled sometime in July before the agency decides whether to formally approve the project, he said.
Cost for the project would be about $200,000, said Chris Donley, department district fish biologist.
“Fishermen would make up that cost to the state economy in less than six months,” Donley said.
If the lake rehab can be done this fall, department officials say the fishery could once again be attracting anglers from all over the Pacific Northwest and generating close to $2 million a year to the state’s economy within two years, if the results of the 1985 rotenone project are any indication
One of the most popular and productive fishing lakes in Washington in the late 1980s and 1990s, Sprague’s fishery began to sputter in recent years with an unusual problem: The lake has become overrun with walleyes – a prized sport and table fish – yet fishermen have had difficulty figuring out how to consistently catch them.
“May and June are normally our peak season, but look at our campground: it’s empty,” said Jane Haugen, who runs Four Seasons Campground with her husband, Scott. She was talking to members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission who toured the lake on June 1.
“People from Oregon are at my place for one night and then they move on to Idaho or Montana,” said Monika Metz of Sprague Lake Resort. “When the fishing was good, they’d stay right here.”
The commissioners heard a presentation by fish biologists and met with Sprague business owners, county commissioners and landowners around the lake that extends for 5 miles along Interstate 90.
The commissioners heard no opposition to the project, not even from organized walleye clubs.
“When I first heard about this proposal a few years ago I thought, ‘Oh my God, build the war chest and get ready for the fight,’ ” said George Allen of Walleye Unlimited of Washington.
“But once we started looking at the situation, we couldn’t find more than a dozen walleye anglers who would oppose this,” he said. “Most walleye fishermen either go to Lake Roosevelt or drive right by this lake to fish at Moses Lake or Banks Lake.
“I was involved in the beginning of this fishery the last time it was rotenoned and we worked to stock millions and millions of walleye fry. It seemed to work for a while. I had an 86-fish day out here, but that was eight years ago.
“The fish here are different now. Maybe it’s because they’ve moved into the reeds and bushes where walleye anglers don’t fish.”
Like most walleye fishermen, Allen said he stopped coming to Sprague Lake several years ago.
Some anglers have complained that the one public boat access site and two resort sites have limited space and are difficult to use for bigger boats, Donley said.
“I agree there’s room for improvement on the access,” he said. “On the other hand, crowds of fishermen found ways to get their boats on the water years ago. Provide good fishing, and they will come.”
Extensive surveys of anglers and the fishery have convinced Donley and other biologists that rehabilitating the lake will be a cost-effective boon to anglers and the local economy.
The fish biomass in the lake is roughly 55 percent walleye; 30 percent carp and tench; 6 percent catfish; 6 percent crappie, bluegill and perch; 3 percent bass, and 1 percent rainbow trout, the research has shown.
“That translates into an 8-to-1 predator-to-prey ratio,” Donley said. “That’s why we don’t think the lake will ever provide good fishing for panfish unless we change the balance.”
The plan calls for planting rainbow and Lahontan cutthroat trout, crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass, channel catfish, and a few tiger muskies.
Trout would boom in the first few years to provide a popular fishery while the slower-growing warmwater species mature.
“Ultimately, we want to take advantage of this lake’s productivity for growing largemouth bass and panfish,” said Steve Jackson the state’s warmwater fisheries manager in Olympia.
Based on the experience from the past 20 years, walleye and smallmouth bass would not be restocked, he said.
“We definitely don’t want walleyes here, and we have lots of good smallmouth fisheries,” Donley said. “We think Sprague is a good spot to focus on largemouths.”
Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club members started the push for a rehab three years ago as they saw the fishing interest wane at Sprague Lake.
“It was a shame to watch,” said George Potter. “This lake is so incredibly productive. When it’s in balance, trout grow huge in a matter of months and the bluegill fishing is fantastic.”
The exceptionally fast growth rates for fish owes to several features, Donley said.
“Sprague drains a huge watershed all the way to Cheney, funneling nutrients into a basalt formation that provides phosphorous and other things that help provide food for fish. The lake has a slow outflow. The water has a 15-year turnover, giving all those nutrients plenty of time to be cycled through the fish.”
Ivan Lines, the area habitat specialist for Ducks Unlimited, said both fish and waterfowl will benefit greatly by striking a blow to the lake’s growing population of carp.
“The 30,000-40,000 birds that used to stop over at the south end of the lake are largely gone because the carp stir up the bottom, which makes the water turbid, blocking out light and reducing production of subaquatic vegetation and invertebrates,” he said.
“Across the country, tench and carp may have ruined more waterfowl habitat than the Corps of Engineers.”
Steve Nelson, who lives on the lake, said he misses the good fishing of years ago, and rarely puts his boat on the water nowadays.
“I don’t make a nickel off this lake, but I’d like to see it used,” he said.