Lake Cascade restoration efforts benefit anglers

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game's multi-year efforts to improve fishing for perch in Lake Cascade appear to be paying off.

On Feb. 15, Luke Spaete of Boise broke the old state record for yellow perch with a 2-pound, 11-ounce perch caught while ice fishing Lake Cascade. Before Spaete's fish, the old record had stood for 38 years, but was tied once.

Two weeks later, Eagle resident Tia Wiese landed a new record yellow perch that weighed 2 pounds and 11.68 ounces. The fish measured 15.75 inches with a girth of 12.75 inches.

Cascade was once a popular fishing destination; about 528,000 perch were caught from Cascade in 1986 by anglers who spent more than 400,000 hours fishing, adding $4.5 million annually to the local economy, according to an economic study done then.

By the late 1990s, the Lake Cascade perch population had declined significantly, as did angler numbers.

It was determined that predation by northern pikeminnow and water quality issues reduced the number of perch and their ability to survive and reproduce.

Rebuilding the perch population began in 2004, with IDFG's focusing on two approaches.

The first involved an effort to increase the numbers of adult perch spawners. The second involved reducing the lake's predatory northern pikeminnow population.

IDFG crews captured and transported almost 750,000 adult perch from other waters in Idaho, Oregon and Montana. Department crews also aggressively reduced the number of predators in the reservoir by using large floating trap nets from shore, fish toxicants on major spawning runs and weirs and traps in the rivers flowing into Cascade to capture and remove large numbers of pre-spawning adult northern pikeminnow and largescale suckers.

IDFG's goal was not to eradicate the pikeminnow, but to reduce them to a level where game fish species could better survive and reproduce.

The number and survival of young perch produced has increased and additional year-classes of adult perch have survived to spawning age, rebuilding the overall perch population.

Rainbow trout and smallmouth bass are also doing well, bringing back the anglers to Lake Cascade and increasing local tourism.