Fish & Game keeping an eye on walleye

SANDPOINT — Walleye have proliferated throughout Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille River, but the Idaho Department of Fish & Game has no near-term plans to change its strategy for managing the non-native fish.

A fall walleye index survey was conducted in 2011, which indicated that walleye are widely distributed, but not that numerous.

“They’re relatively low in abundance,” said Rob Ryan, a regional fisheries biologist with Fish & Game in Coeur d’Alene.

As a result, the state is staying its course on managing Pend Oreille walleye, which involves no harvest or size limits. The policy is meant to discourage impacts to native westslope cutthroat and bull trout populations, in addition to non-native kokanee.

“We’ll manage for where we intend them to be and we won’t manage for them where we didn’t intend them to be” Ryan said.

It’s widely agreed that walleye entered the Pend Oreille via illegal introduction into the Clark Fork River at Montana’s Noxon Reservoir. However, some regard walleye as an uninvited guest while others welcome them.

“There’s a fair number of fishermen on the lake who would like walleye established and they’d like them managed,” said Pete Thompson, a walleye fisherman.

Walleye can be difficult to catch and have a reputation for a lethargic fight, but Thompson said they are quite palatable.

“They’re a tough fish to catch, but they’re probably the best-eating fish you’ll ever eat in your life,” Thompson said.

Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks said walleye were illegally introduced into the Noxon Reservoir in the late 1980s, raising concerns for downstream fisheries. Annual gill-net monitoring since 2000 indicates that the population is successfully reproducing and their numbers are on the rise.

A study started in 2004 suggests that most, if not all, spawning occurs in a small area at the head of the reservoir and scoping is under way to develop a plan to suppress the population.

Ryan said upstream suppression efforts could reduce the number of walleye coming downstream to the Pend Oreille, but it’s still not clear what impact they’re having on cutthroat and bull trout or kokanee.

“In general, they’re a predator so their consumption of other fish that are important to Lake Pend Oreille has been on our minds,” said Ryan.

However, Fish & Game has not done any specific diet work on walleye yet, although it does plan on doing another fall index survey in 2014.

Although Thompson, a former Idaho Fish & Game commissioner, does not expect the department to start managing the fishery for walleye, he anticipates its population growth in Idaho is unavoidable.

“My feeling is one day the walleye fishery will explode here,” he said. “We’ll have walleye and there won’t be a damn thing they can do about it.”