Spear pressure: Idaho eyes spearfishing proposals

Bass, pike, walleye and lake trout may soon become fair game in parts of Idaho for anglers who prefer shooting spears to baiting hooks.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is proposing to allow spearfishing for certain non-native game fish species across the state.

In North Idaho, the agency’s proposal would allow anglers to spear northern pike, walleye and lake trout in Lake Pend Oreille and Upper Priest Lake. Farther south, officials are proposing more generalized seasons on bass and walleye.

Spearfishing is legal in Idaho for unprotected nongame species, such as carp and suckers. The new rules would allow spearfishers to target more desirable species – and some spearfishers are pretty excited about it.

Dustin Clay, a spearfisher who lives in Payette, said letting folks like him spear species like walleye and pike will help the state’s efforts to control those non-native predators.

He also thinks it would be nice to shoot something other than carp and pikeminnow.

“It’s not about just going out and killing fish,” Clay said. “It’s about getting some things that I can also bring home and feed my family with.”

Idaho Fish and Game announced its spearfishing proposals in a news release on Monday. Public comment is being taken until April 28 and the Fish and Game Commission will consider them next month.

Spearfishing is thought of more commonly as an ocean activity. In Washington, it’s allowed for saltwater fishing but not for freshwater.

Freshwater spearfishing is allowed in other states, including Montana, but generally only for specific species.

Andy Dux, the fisheries manager for Idaho Fish and Game’s Panhandle region, said Idaho’s proposals are being put forward about a year after spearfishers asked the Fish and Game Commission to allow them to target species the agency is actively trying to remove.

This winter, the Idaho Legislature approved a rule change that made killing fish with a mechanically or manually propelled spear while submerged underwater a legal method of take. That change allows the commission to set seasons and bag limits for spearfishing. If approved, spearfishing seasons would start July 1.

All of the seasons proposed limit spearfishers to specific non-native species, ranging from smallmouth bass to northern pike. No season dates or bag limits are proposed – where it would be allowed, anglers could take all they can spear.

The proposals vary between regions. In the Lewiston-based Clearwater region, for example, officials are suggesting letting anglers target bass in any river or stream, citing the threat the meat-eating warmwater beasts pose to salmon and steelhead. Spearfishing for bass would be off-limits in stillwater, such as Dworshak Reservoir.

Walleye would be fair game wherever they’re found in the Clearwater region.

Identical rules are proposed for the Salmon region. Elsewhere, targeting bass would be limited to certain waterbodies.

In the Panhandle, spearfishers could target walleye wherever they find them – so far, they’re considered to be established in Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille and Clark Fork rivers.

The other proposals would allow spearfishing for northern pike and lake trout in Lake Pend Oreille and Upper Priest Lake.

All three species are ones Fish and Game has tried to suppress in the Panhandle because of their impacts on native fish. Dux said allowing spearfishing gives the state another tool to try to keep their numbers down.

He also said he doesn’t expect that there will be large numbers of spearfishers flocking to the lakes.

“We’re not expecting this to generate high-level mortality in these populations,” Dux said. “It’s going to be more of a niche opportunity.”

There will be a following, though.

Clay, who grew up in New Meadows, picked up spearfishing on a vacation to Hawaii. He bought a cheap spearfishing gun on Amazon, and once he tried it he was hooked.

He started a Facebook page a while back under the name Idaho Spearfishing Club as a way to find some dive partners. He’s met a few people that way, and the group now has more than 250 followers.

He likes spearfishing because it’s nothing like sitting on a boat or on the bank waiting for a bite. Instead, he dives into the fish’s environment and looks for fish. He has to move smoothly to get a good shot.

“Spearfishing is more like if you combine hunting with fishing,” Clay said. “It’s a very fun way to go about it. There’s nothing else quite like it.”

The rule will require spearfishers to be completely submerged – no sniping big fish while standing on a boat. They’ll either need to be snorkeling, scuba diving or free diving.

Clay snorkels. Others dive much deeper, like Dennis Haussler.

Haussler, who lives in Sandpoint, learned spearfishing as a kid on the coast of California and has competed in professional spearfishing tournaments around the world.

He free dives, meaning he goes underwater for as long as he can hold his breath. Two-minute dives are common for him. He said some elite spearfishers do three-minute dives.

He said spearfishing seems to be growing in popularity in freshwater, thanks at least in part to organized tournaments.

“I don’t think it will ever be huge up here, but it will gain some interest,” Haussler said.

Since moving to Sandpoint three years ago, he’s been doing a little bit of spearfishing on Lake Pend Oreille for nongame species like northern pikeminnow. He’s seen northern pike and walleye around, and he thinks there will be a handful of anglers who will chase pike in particular when they’re hanging out on weed beds.

For the most part, he motors around the lake on a boat looking for fishy structure. Then he drops into the water and waits for the fish to come to him. Spears aren’t effective from more than 10 or 12 feet away.

“Generally, we shoot fish because they come to us to see what they’re doing,” Haussler said. “We don’t chase them. We don’t really stalk them.”

Divers use red flags with white diagonal slashes on them to signal to other lake users that they’re underwater. The hope is that other boaters will see the flag and steer clear, but Haussler said divers always have to be monitoring their own safety.

Haussler said he’s met a few other spearfishers in North Idaho. He also thinks there are more of them out there who will be excited about the opportunity to target more desirable species.

For him, there’s one species in particular he’s looking forward to shooting.

“Walleye,” he said. “I love eating them.”