Rainbow trout rule wishes cover spectrum

SANDPOINT — Lake Pend Oreille anglers are lobbying the Idaho Department of Fish & Game to close the increasingly popular catch-and-release rainbow trout fishery in the Clark Fork and Pack rivers.

Those rivers and their tributaries are closed to rainbow trout harvest from Dec. 1 to the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. But the catch-and-release period is a draw for anglers, particularly fly fishermen.

“It’s an opportunity to catch a 10- to 25-pound fish on a fly. That’s become popular,” said Jim Fredericks, Fish & Game’s Panhandle fisheries manager.

But anglers on the lake are pushing for Fish & Game shut down the catch-and-release fishery.

“People that primarily fish the lake don’t like the idea of people catching, handling or targeting fish when they’re on their spawning migration and would just as soon see it closed to fishing entirely,” Fredericks said.

Lake anglers are concerned the catch-and-release fishery places undue stress on the basin’s coveted rainbow trout, although Fredericks said there is little biological evidence to support that argument.

“It’s more of a social issue,” he said.

River and stream anglers, meanwhile, are calling on Fish & Game to make no changes to the fishery.

“I’ve received a tremendous amount of input from the angling community that fishes the river and values that fishery. I’ve heard from a lot of people that are very supportive of leaving it alone,” said Fredericks.

Another concept being talked about by Fish & Game and anglers is a more restrictive bag limit on Lake Pend Oreille rainbow trout.

Fish & Game doesn’t yet have any specific ideas on what that rule may look like, but it was greeted favorably at last week’s State of Lake meeting in Ponderay.

Previous restrictive rules, such as the one fish/none under 24-inch rule that held sway in the late 1980s and early 1990s, helped improve size structure in trophy rainbow trout.

The current rule restricts harvest to six fish, only one of which can be greater that 20 inches. There was no limit on Pend Oreille rainbows from 2006 to 2012 as the state worked to restore the lake’s predator/prey balance and rebuild the lake’s kokanee population.

“We’re getting to a point where we can probably afford to be more restrictive on rainbow rules to further build the trophy component of the population and people are in favor of that,” Fredericks said.

The rule changes are being discussed as Fish & Game completes a detailed survey of anglers and conducts scoping for potential rules that could take effect during the 2016 season.

“I’m not sure what, if anything, we’re going to propose in terms of changes at this point,” said Fredericks. “But whatever happens, the public will have another opportunity to weigh in.”