A New Approach to Lake Pend Oreille Fisheries Management

Early this spring, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game hosted a half-day public workshop in Sandpoint to discuss the future of kokanee and trophy trout fishing in Lake Pend Oreille. This meeting was more than an opportunity to drink coffee, eat a donut and hear about what's been happening to this world famous fishery. It was hopefully the start of using a more citizen driven approach to fisheries management. Forty-seven people took four hours Saturday morning to listen to the latest information on the impending kokanee collapse and the ramifications to the trophy rainbow and bull trout fishery. Those people then broke up into small groups to brainstorm about what the most pressing issues affecting the fishery were and how the Department might go about solving those problems. We asked participants to focus on the issue of too many predators and not enough kokanee to feed them as the top priority. We asked them to explore ideas on how IDFG and the community could build trust and better communicate, with one of those ideas being the formation of a Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC). A nine member CAC was formed by early May with representation from fishing clubs, marina operators, fishing guides, interested anglers, fishing dependent businesses and Chamber of Commerce. The CAC's role is to take the work done at the March fisheries workshop and boil those good ideas down into recommendations the Department can act on. The world famous fisheries of Lake Pend Oreille are rapidly slipping away, and the emergency fishing regulation changes implemented in February of 2000 don't seem to be having the desired effect. Biologically the rules would work, but there isn't the social support to make them effective. It is our hope the CAC can get to the root of the problem, find socially acceptable ways to implement difficult fishery management decisions and turn this fishery around before it's too late. One of the first issues the CAC is tackling is the concept of a commercial fishery for lake trout (mackinaw). The lake trout population appears to be increasing at an alarming rate despite liberal fishing regulations since 1992 (no limit since 2000). An expanding lake trout population in Pend Oreille poses the same fate as what Priest and Flathead lakes have experienced. Historically Lake Pend Oreille supported a commercial fishery for kokanee, and commercial fisheries for lake trout and whitefish exist today on the Great Lakes, but this would be a new and potentially controversial fishery in Idaho. What conditions, if any, would be socially acceptable for a commercial fishery on lake trout? If a commercial fishery were established, should it be limited entry or open to everyone? Should it be limited to rod-and-reel or consider Great Lakes trap nets? Should commercial anglers be limited to a certain number of rods or be able to fish as many as they can? Should there be some type of sunset clause or let the fishery be controlled by market conditions? The CAC will be discussing and debating this issue with a recommendation expected to go to the Fish and Game Commission this summer. It is our sincere hope that the Citizens Advisory Committee will help start a new chapter fisheries management for Lake Pend Oreille. This world-class fishery is just too great to lose.