Spokane Tribe to kill walleye on Spokane Arm

[SADSACK]

I heard there wasnt enough people fishing them to make much of an impact.To cold I guess..........

[MarkFromSea]

Where was that other place that the Walleye had eaten everything?
You know the place where there were so many Walleye they should be jumping in the boat.
The place were we all forgot how to catch Walleye at the same time.

I believe you are referring to Sprague Lake......... Look how that turned out........ There was a massive reduction of fishing hours and the eventual kill off on Sprague due to the warm water fishery there being destroyed by the uncatchable walleye.

Rumor is WDFW might open the Arm to ALL next year during the spawn. Gill nets may be used up by the San Poil to reduce walleye numbers. There are some staggering stats of what the walleye may be eating in one of the above links.

[YellowBear]

After reading some of the stats from the link Mark posted it got me to thinking.
Why would the bio-boys want to tell the news paper that the Walleye are eating the Sturgeon plants when they have no proof? As it has been reported that most of the young Sturgeon are around 15 inches when released. This is some bigger than anything I have ever removed from a Walleye gut.
Some years back there was a study done on lake Roosevelt to determine the mortality rate of fish caught out of deep water. The Walleye were tetherd at the depth they were caught and left for some time.
When they returned to collect the data they were surprised to find that a very large number of test subjects had been fed on by Burbot. Many of the test subjects were more than keeper size which was 16 inches at the time.
The other bit of info that has had me confused was the claim of finding 70 Kokanee in one fish.
Maybe just maybe a very large Walleye might be able to fit 70 kokanee in its gut but they would have to be so small that identification would be questionable at best.

If the prey preditor pyramid as it is refered to is upside down, maybe we should be building up the prey base.
When there are to many cows in the pen you need to add a bit of hay now and then.

[kevinb]

70 kokanee in one walleye? That must be one big fish.

[Mike Schmuck]

This is just wrong!
We have allready lost some of the best Walleye fisheries in the country and they just keep coming up with ways to kill off the rest.

This one caught my eye. Which walleye fisheries have we lost? The abundance of walleye on our major walleye lakes (Banks, Moses, Potholes) is excellent.

[garvic55]

How about the Columbia River from Portland to Tri-cities. The gill nets have wiped out 10's of thousands. It used to be you could fish those river sections and catch several 6-10 lb. fish almost at will. Sprague Lake - limits and tons of catch and release fish for several years and then some moron decided we needed another trout lake.
Minnesota knows how to manage warm water fisheries, Wa. doesn't have a clue. Yeah I know, move to Minnesota right.
Bite me!

[YellowBear]

Well lets see here.
We no longer have lake Roosevelt.
Sprague.
Lower Columbia.
Scootney.
Billy Clap.
Evergreen Res, but according to your list we do still have Banks, Potholes and Moses.

[Mike Schmuck]

Walleye abundance on Lake Roosevelt has declined slightly since 2010, however, what we are seeing now is very similar to what we saw from 2002–2005.

Scooteney walleye abundance is very close to the long-term (2002-2012) average. The biggest decline was in 2011, but in 2012 abundance increased.

Billy Clapp has never been a high density walleye population but there are still walleye there. The abundance of walleye in BC has changed very little since 2005. There is likley very little natural production of walleye on BC. Most walleye come down from Banks Lake.

The abundance of walleye in Evergreen Reservoir is stable. I wouldn't say it was ever high. There are still walleye to be caught.

Sprague Lake had one of the most abundant walleye populations anywhere. The problem was, angler use and catch rates were low. Resort owners were reporting "no walleye" in the lake and their business was suffering. The only species more abundant than walleye (in 2003) was black crappie. Most crappie were small and perfectly sized for walleye to eat.

The following is from my 2003 Sprague Lake report:
A total of 572 walleye were collected during this survey; the majority (85%), and the largest fish
were collected in gill nets (Figure 12). Walleye ranged in size from 296-722 mm and most fish
(86%) were of harvestable size (> 16 in.) (Figure 12). Walleye ranged in age from one to 15
years; however, no age 12 or 13 walleye were collected and the majority (65%) were age five or
six (Figure 13). Walleye were in fair condition and relative weights averaged 98, slightly below
the national average (Figure 14). We were unable to determine the sex of 32 walleye. These fish
were YOY, and gonad and visceral fat weights were less than 1 gram. Of fish in which the sex
could be determined, 64 percent (n = 313) were male and 36 percent (n = 177) were female.
Female walleye were larger than males (with regard to length and weight), had more visceral fat,
and had heavier gonads (p < .0005). While collecting and weighing visceral fat, we noted that a
large number of walleye had crappie in their stomach, which appeared to be age zero and one
fish.

This report can be found here: http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00278/

If anglers were catching walleye we sure didn't see them, and we spent a lot of time monitoring that fishery, and the folks at the resort weren't seeing them, and they live there.

Sprague Lake was rehabbed in 2007 in order to jump-start the warmwater fishery. We re-stocked with largemouth bass, crappie and bluegill (I personally stocked 1000's). Rainbow trout were stocked in order to create a transitional fishery until the warmwater fish could become established. We likely need to stock more bass and crappie, but Sprague is NOT being managed as a "trout fishery".

[YellowBear]

With all due respect Mike.

How many times has there been Trout added to Sprague since the rehab?
How many times has there been any warm water species added?

I would also like to understand how the FWIN shows a remaining population in a body of water.

Thanks for your time.

[Mike Schmuck]

I don't have the stocking numbers in front of me but I'm quite sure there have been more trout stockings than warmwater fish stockings.

Trout do not naturally reproduce in our lakes. It is a put and take fishery with no natural production. Also, we do not raise many warmwater fish in hatcheries. In fact, we have one hatchery: Meseberg, that raises warmwate fish. They primarily rear tiger muskie and channel catfish. They have been raising black crappie at Meseberg but in recent years these have been going into Palmer, Wapato, Leader and a few other lakes (cant' remember which ones specifically).

If we want to stock warmwater fish we typically take them from a lake where they are overabundant: For example, Whitestone Lake in Okanogan Cty has an overabundance of bluegill. We have tried raising warmwater fish in the hatchery setting but we reallylack the space available to raise a lot of fish (like they do in the south).

I would be the first to agree that we understocked Sprague after the rehab, but we put in what we could and we are hopeful that the warmwater fishery will take off. Again, the trout are being stocked in order to provide a good fishery until this occurs.

During FWIN surveys we randomly sample (it's actually a stratified random sample based on lake morphology and percentage of open water to littoral area) lakes. Our sampling effort, that is, the number of net sets, is based on lake size or the number needed to catch 300 walleye. For example, Potholes Reservoir calls for a minimum of 24 net sets; however, we typically collect 300 walleye in far fewer nets and our sampling stops when we hit this threshold.

We do not seek out areas where we are likely to find walleye as that would bias our abundance estimates. Random sampling allows us to make inferences on the population size based on our catch rates (catch-per-unit-effort). If we catch low numbers of walleye we assume that the population size is low. Likewise, if we catch a lot of walleye we assume that the population size is large. We evaluate the variance in our data sets to determine the precision of our estimate. For example, this is the number of walleye caught in 11 nets set on Moses Lake this fall (38, 40,37, 54, 43, 25, 8, 61, 15, 14, 60). The average is 35.9 walleye and the variance is 342.5 and the confidence interval is 7.6. We have very low variation around this estimate 36 +/- 7.6 and therefore we are confident that we have an abundant walleye population.

We don't look at walleye numbers in isolation however. We also caught 2,015 yellow perch in 11 nets and many of the walleye we collected were full of yellow perch. This is similar to what we found in Sprague Lake in 2003, however, then the walleye were full of small black crappie. When walleye have a lot of food available it is reasonable to assume that they spend less time looking for food, and are probably difficult to catch.

Gill net sampling is far from perfect, but it is the best method we have for evaluating the walleye population at this time.

[Augwen]

Thanx again Mike for all the information that you have been putting out . It has been very informative to say the least. How soon do you think the report on Roosevelt will be out? If they are going to open the Spokane Arm on a permanent basis, will that start May 1 when the new regs come out or will they do an emergency ruling allowing it to stay open in April of this year?

[YellowBear]

Thanks for the information Mike.

[Anglinarcher]

I understand that everyone will get to kill walleye on the Spokane Arm soon. The 2013 rules are apparently allowing 16 walleye, up from 8, one over 20 inches, and allow fishing on the Spokane Arm year round.

I hope I am wrong, but my source is pretty good........

[Augwen]

AA you are correct. The hitch comes with the Arm. The new rules will not be out until May The old rules that we are in until the end of April has the Arm closed starting April 1. So unless they do an emergency ruling April will still be a closure on the Arm . At least that is what I have been seeing on all the sites I have checked. I have sent an email requesting clarity, but as yet have received no response.

[Anglinarcher]

Hummm. so we will not be able to kill walleye on the Spokane Arm in April?

I am just not sure where I stand on this one.

The average Walleye in Roosevelt is about 14", not that big. In theory, thinning out the walleye is not a bad thing, but when was the last time you saw anyone exit the lake with a limit. I have a wife that gets mad if I don't bring home walleye, other fish she doesn't care about, but walleye, now that is fighting words. Still, I seldom tell her about the number of fish I release. 8 walleye are a lot of fish to clean at the end of the day. Can I catch 16 each day, yes, most of the time, but will I keep 16? Probably not.

There are tons of Burbot in Roosevelt, but few of us, myself included, target them. The State of Utah and Wyoming have determined an over abundance of burbot is the cause of problems in Flaming Gorge Reservoir, so they are pushing special bounties on them through tournaments. Is the lack of food more due to the burbot in Roosevelt?

There are tons of Lake Whitefish in Roosevelt. I have targeted them some, but not a lot. I know that few people are targeting them but burbot and whitefish are the two most numerous species in Roosevelt, by the state's own admission. PS, whitefish eat tons of plankton that would otherwise be used by the Silvers and by small trout, and Walleye.

At this point, it seems that the State is targeting the species people actually go after, but not targeting species that would make a difference. OK, Idaho about wiped out the Lakers in PO with commercial fishing, what about commercial fishing for lake Whitefish and burbot in Roosevelt. I bet that would help more then targeting the fish we actually want.

Just saying, something does not seem quite right to me. JMHO

[Augwen]

As it has been mentioned before, the State is most likely getting pressure from the Spokane and Colville Tribes. From what I have read, I have a tenency to believe it. Catching 16 walleye of good eating size, will be an all day affair and probably into the night. From what I have seen in the last 2 or 3 years, you would have to keep some of the dinks if you want to brag about getting your limit. Dinks do not have enough meat to try to clean them. It is better IMO to let them go to maybe grow up. I have seen people with coolers full of dinks but to each his own.

The burbot is an ugly, slimy and noisy thing that tastes wonderful. As they are not easy to clean (unless you have a 2X6 with some 16 penny nails and a hammer to stake them out and pull the skin) and did I mention slimy, a lot of people will not bother. I think, now that I know how to clean them, that they are a great food fish and I will keep the bigger ones to take home where I keep my hammer.

All the times that I have fished at Roosevelt, which has got to be in the hundreds of times, I have never caught a Whitefish nor have I seen one caught. I think that I read the same report as you as to their abundance but cannot begin to know how to catch them or wheree to find them. I would at least like to try it I think. Maybe a bucket list item...catch a Whitefish in Roosevelt.

Well it should be interesting how the new rules play out and what it does to one of the best tasting fish out there.

[buc]

I kill trout because iam boycotting the BS!!!!!!!!!!!! Spinyray rule

[buc]

Government and Tribe thank you so much for ruining another spinyray fishing area. reroute the trout i dont keep em i kill em in your honor!

[AJ's Dad]

Gee, how do you really feel Buc??? LOL

[buc]

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