Walleye harvest can lead to a big windfall
Fishing Guide Rich Lindsey hoists a 10-pound Lake Pend Oreille walleye caught in 2018. An angler incentive program pays anglers to harvest the fish in addition to efforts by the Hickey Brothers, a commercial net fishing operation based out of Wisconsin,.
(Courtesy/file photo)
PRIEST RIVER — Walleye have worn out their welcome in the Pend Oreille.
The Idaho Department of Fish & Game is rolling out a harvest incentive program which offers a $1,000 award if an angler catches one of the 51 microscopically-tagged walleye.
“Those fish are worth $1,000 apiece,” fisheries biologist Ken Bouwens told the Idaho Lakes Commission on Thursday.
The non-native fish were illegally introduced in Montana’s Noxon reservoir in 1991 and have found a home in the Clark Fork River and the Pend Oreille watershed. The state has generally viewed walleye as vaguely tolerated house guest that needed to be closely watched.
But, it turns out, this particular guest turned out to have an entourage that’s too big and an appetite which cannot be slaked.
“They’re voracious predators. They eat like crazy and they do pose a threat to our fishery because of that,” said Bouwens.
Walleye also have a extremely high reproductive potential.
“They have the ability to invade an ecosystem that they’re not normally in very fast,” Bouwens said.
Fish & Game surveys the Pend Oreille walleye population every three years and found that the population is expanding.
“About every three years the population of walleye is doubling. That’s extremely alarming to us,” Bouwens said.
Fish & Game suspects the walleye abundance is relatively low, although the speed at which they reproduce and grow is swift.
Andy Dux, Fish & Game’s Panhandle region fisheries manager, said walleye reach maturity in two to three years, compared the lake trout, which take six to eight years to mature.
“We’ve seen in other places where walleye have become established — once they get there they can more quickly increase and reach high levels of abundance,” Dux told the commission.
In addition to the $1,000 prizes, Fish & Game will be conducting 10 $100 drawings for walleye heads that are turned in but haven’t been microscopically tagged.
The pilot angler incentive program only applies to the portions of the Pend Oreille basin in Idaho. There are no harvest limits on walleye caught in Idaho.
The state is also planning further research into the walleye population to determine how many walleye are coming upstream from Montana and how many walleye are being produced within the Pend Oreille Basin. There will also be telemetry research to home in on walleye movements in the basin.
“We’re really putting an emphasis here in the next few years over really trying to understand more about the population, how they operate here and what our abilities might be to manage it,” said Dux.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.