Some anglers hook toothy surprise

Backcountry anglers could be shocked at what they hook in a few of Idaho’s high mountain lakes this summer.

Along with trout, a few anglers have been hooking toothy tiger muskies

The sterile hybrid that results from crossing a northern pike with a muskellunge is being used as a tool to reduce overpopulated brook trout populations in portions of the Clearwater National Forest.

The project has been under way for several years, with little potential harm to fragile high-country native trout populations, since the tiger muskies can’t reproduce.

“They tend to eat themselves out of house and home and die off,” said Joe DuPont, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional fisheries manager in Lewiston.

“Or, in some cases, we suspect the anglers who hook them accidentally are killing them, probably because they think they have to have proof that they’re not crazy when they tell their friends.

“But it’s illegal to kill these fish, since none of them in the backcountry are likely to reach the 40-inch minimum size limit for tiger muskies.”

DuPont said he hopes most anglers will leave the fish in the mountain lakes to do their job.

Starting four years ago, the predators were stocked in four lakes that had stunted brook trout.

Three of the lakes – Fly, Heather and Platinum – are in or near the Five Lakes Butte area of the North Fork of the Clearwater River, which just recently became accessible to road access and the 3-mile walk into the lake’s basin.

“Brook trout are non-native and they compete with native bull trout,” DuPont said. “Brook trout have a tendency to overpopulate and stunt, which isn’t ideal for fishermen or bull trout.”

The 41 tiger muskies (6 inches or longer when released in 2006) did an admirable job in Fly Lake.

Set-net sampling last year showed no fish at all. The muskies had cleaned it out, died and left the waters ripe for restocking with native cutthroat trout, DuPont said.

“After this summer the lakes will be evaluated and we’ll decide how to proceed,” he said.

Heather Lake, one of the bigger in the Five Lakes Butte area, has showed steady declines in brook trout and could be clean of fish this year, he said.

Platinum Lake brook trout declined quickly, then leveled out, indicating that some of the 25 stocked tiger muskies must have died or been killed by anglers.

The fourth water in the tiger musky experiment is Running Lake, which is in a Nez Perce National Forest Drainage that feeds the Selway River.

“This lake is bigger and deeper than others, and the tiger muskies don’t appear to be as effective in cropping the brook trout there,” DuPont said. “It’s also a fairly popular fishing lake, so anglers may be weeding out the tiger muskies.”

What does this mean for anglers heading to these lakes this season?

“If there are any brook trout left in Heather Lake, they’ll be big,” he said.

“Platinum should have some big brookies up to 16 inches.

“Running Lake has a bunch of small brook trout, a huge pulse of younger fish.”