Anglers Urged to Take Rainbows in Lake Pend Oreille

If $15 were not enough, anglers will have one more reason to harvest the rainbow trout they catch from Lake Pend Oreille this year. Idaho Fish and Game has implanted micro-tags into the heads of about 100 rainbow trout that were caught and released in the lake. The "passive integrated transponder" (PIT) tags are worth anywhere from $50 to $1,000. The tags cannot be seen, but anglers who are fortunate enough to catch one of the fish will be rewarded if they turn the head in through the normal Angler Incentive Program. Fisheries officials will be using a special detector to scan all heads turned in for the tags beginning in June. The value of each tag is randomly assigned, but there will be at least five rainbow trout with tags worth $1,000, and total payout is expected to be nearly $20,000. Funding for the program is provided by Avista. The harvest incentives are part of a multi-faceted effort to restore the kokanee population in Pend Oreille. A key component of the recovery is decreasing the number of predators in the lake. The rapid expansion of the lake trout (mackinaw) population in the 1990s combined with a depressed kokanee population has thrown predator-prey populations out of balance, threatening the world-famous fishery and the federally protected bull trout population. The added rainbow harvest incentive is designed to encourage anglers to keep the pressure on the rainbow trout population, said Jim Fredericks, regional fishery manager for Idaho Fish and Game. "Ultimately, we want to manage the lake for the trophy rainbow trout fishery that made it world famous," Fredericks said. "But we need to reduce rainbows along with lake trout in the short-term or we risk losing kokanee. Without kokanee, we'll never be able to restore a trophy rainbow fishery." Commercial netting equipment is being used along with harvest incentives for lake trout, which appears to be reversing the expansion of the lake trout population. Fredericks notes they've seen the lake trout population show definite signs of over harvest, which is exactly what they hope to see. Additionally, kokanee survival rates over the last year showed a notable increase, suggesting the efforts to reduce predators is paying off. Rainbows don't seem to be in decline, however. "Whether we like it or not, we need to put more pressure on the rainbow population for the next couple of years," Fredericks said. "Though kokanee survival rates have improved, they need to get a lot better before the population will be recovered." Anglers who catch lake trout of any size, or rainbow trout over 13 inches caught from Lake Pend Oreille may submit the heads for payment to one of the following locations: Holiday Shores Marina, Hope Marine Services, Anchor Gas (Garfield Bay), Hudson's Bay Marina (Bayview), Fish and Game Bayview Research Station, Fish and Game regional office (Coeur d'Alene).