Predators won battle of the lake

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is offering a bounty of $10 for every predator fish over 12 inches that anglers can haul out of Lake Pend Oreille.

We think there should be a mutiny on that bounty.

It's not that there's anything wrong with offering incentives to remove rainbow and lake trout in an effort to save the lake's prized kokanee. It's just that now, it's too late.

Since May, 8,800 rainbow and lake trout have been harvested by anglers. Still, Fish and Game estimates that there are 36,000 lake trout over 20 inches — and many more under 20 inches — still there. Further, Fish and Game estimates the rainbow trout population at 27,000 over 16 inches. Combined, that's at least 63,000 big, kokanee-eating trout — which is big trouble for the kokanee.

Last month, in 36 trawl hauls, only three mature kokanee were captured — a record low. Fish and Game estimates there are about 17,000 mature female spawners this year.

Experts think at least 50,000 or more of the predators must be harvested just to stop the decline of kokanee. We contend it already is probably too late.

Longtime Pend Oreille sportsmen recall the days when their beloved lake was brimming with literally millions of kokanee. But two dams and numerous bureaucratic failures later, the kokanee population there is imperiled irreversibly.

To reach that 50,000 predator harvest minimum, Fish and Game would have to pay out half a million dollars in bounties alone and dedicate other valuable resources to the project. That's money and time that could be much better spent on behalf of Idaho sportsmen.

If there's a ray of hope for the Pend Oreille kokanee, it's in exploring the potential of other lake tributaries to support the small salmon's habitat. Even there, it may be too late.

Fish and Game should cut its losses and level with anglers about the real likelihood of successfully re-establishing kokanee as a predator food source and a recreational fishery. This would require establishing a realistic timeline to achieve that task and a budget to get it done. Otherwise, the glory days of kokanee fishing on Pend Oreille are long gone. The predators have prevailed, and ultimately, anglers and kokanee alike have lost.