Fish & Game offers cash for walleye

In an effort to bolster the Lake Pend Oreille kamloops fishery, in part by limiting predatory species that feed on kokanee, Idaho Fish and Game is giving anglers an incentive to target walleye.

The state fish and game department injected the heads of 50 walleye with internal tags that, once the heads are turned in to the department by anglers, will reveal winners of $1,000 cash prizes.

In addition, anglers who turn in walleye heads will be entered into a monthly drawing for 10 cash prizes of $100.

An introduced species that likely originated from populations in the Noxon Reservoir via the Clark Fork River, walleye have over the last decade burgeoned in Lake Pend Oreille — requiring Fish and Game to net and destroy the species. The department’s efforts are similar to its lake trout suppression program that began in the mid 2000s.

Unlike lake trout, which were planted in Pend Oreille last century and didn’t greatly affect the lake’s fishery until recently, walleye populations numbers increased quickly and the size of the toothy spiny rays — many over the 8 to 10 pound mark — rival their kin in places such as Washington’s Lake Roosevelt, which contains a popular regional trophy walleye fishery.

The warm water fish can produce over 35,000 eggs per pound of body weight, assisting in high reproduction, which can have adverse effects on management for other species.

“They are also adapted to live in a variety of both lake and stream environments, making them very effective invaders,” said Kiira Siitari of Idaho Fish and Game.

“Walleye have dramatically changed fish communities in the western United States.”

Montana’s Canyon Ferry Reservoir saw a rapid decline in its fishery after walleye were illegally introduced there in the 1980s, according to Idaho Fish and Game.

Canyon Ferry walleye numbers increased rapidly, depleting perch, rainbow trout and white sucker populations — all walleye food — in over a decade.

After that, “walleye condition and size dropped,” Siitari said. “Ultimately, angler satisfaction in the entire fishery declined due to walleye.”

Since walleye began being caught incidentally in Lake Pend Oreille in the late 2000s, fish size has surged and so has the enthusiasm of anglers who began targeting the fish.

Lake Pend Oreille fishing guide Chad Landrum, who started a fishing group called North Idaho Sportfishing Association, or NISA (www.mynisa.org), whose members want a more diverse Lake Pend Oreille fishery that includes walleye, has objected to the game department’s efforts to suppress the nonnative spiny rays.

“We don’t say that one fish is better than any other fish,” Landrum said.

The lake’s walleye have already reached trophy size, and provide a wonderful fishery, Landrum said. With a recent increase in the numbers of kokanee in the lake — a species that serves as fish food for many of the lake’s species, and has been called the foundation of the lake’s fisheries — he thinks there is enough fish food to go around.

Fish and Game’s use of study results from other lakes shouldn’t bear on Pend Oreille’s walleyes, he said. He has urged the department to study the local population before suppressing its numbers.

The department’s impetus however has been to maintain a trophy kamloops fishery in Lake Pend Oreille. The lake is known internationally for its supersize kamloops rainbow trout, and the world record rainbows it has produced.

The department spent more than a decade and millions of dollars since the mid 2000s reviving the kamloops fishery from demise. The decline was a result of over-predation by lake trout, which collapsed kokanee numbers, the backbone of the lake’s fishery, resulting in a depletion of kamloops.

“Similar to walleye, lake trout are an introduced, top-level predator in the lake ecosystem,” Siitari said.

Commercial netting and angler incentives helped stem mackinaw (lake trout) and brought back the world-class kamloops fishery.

“The program is a success, as kokanee are now highly abundant and the trophy rainbow trout fishery is outstanding,” Siitari said. “A similar management approach may work to limit walleye population growth but biologists want to test this strategy before committing long-term.”

Siitari said stomach surveys have shown walleye feed on kokanee in the deeper part of the lake and perch in the shallower northern lake.

“Given what is known about walleye, it is unlikely the species could be eliminated from Lake Pend Oreille entirely,’ Siitari said.

Fish and Game researchers want to find effective ways to manage this new walleye population at a low enough density that does not jeopardize the existing fishery, according to Idaho Fish and Game.