Fishing Rules Changes Adopted

Fishing rules that could go into effect in 2011 were adopted by the Idaho Fish and Game Commission when it met July 22 and 23. The commission approved a fisheries bureau proposal to allow an unlimited number of rods for fishing on Lake Pend Oreille from a boat. The proposal is in line with current Fish and Game efforts to encourage anglers to take as many large predator fish - rainbow and lake trout - as possible from the lake until kokanee populations can come back enough to sustain those large predators and a kokanee fishery. Anglers have been offered cash rewards for catching big fish for several years on Lake Pend Oreille. Without a healthy kokanee population in the lake, fisheries biologists say the predator population would collapse and would not be recoverable. Fisheries Chief Ed Schriever told commissioners he expected the unlimited rod rule would have to be in effect for only one two-year cycle of fishing rules. Schriever also asked the commission to require a sliding sinker on lines used for sturgeon fishing. This kind of gear arrangement reduces the danger that a hooked sturgeon would be hung up by lost tackle. He was not asking for mandatory use of circle hooks for sturgeon fishing pending further research, he said. Captive hatchery sturgeon will be used to test whether circle hooks actually diminish potential harm to sturgeon. Using the widely-recommended circle hooks will not "move us backwards in the conservation of sturgeon, or the preservation of sturgeon fishing in Idaho, he said, but "we think a more measured approach" is needed. Most of the other fishing rules changes the commission approved were minor language alterations.