Washington Hunter
Well-known member
Published April 23, 2006
BY RICH LANDERS
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- Improving the Coeur d'Alene River cutthroat trout fishery could be fairly simple, if everyone goes along with it.
Backed by a draft report from a telemetry study that followed the movements of 75 cutthroats for more than a year, Idaho Fish and Game Department researchers are making recommendations that could lead to significant improvements in numbers of the native trout.
Educating anglers and stopping poaching would be a good start, they say.
Nearly 70 percent of the cutthroats longer than 12 inches die each year, and most of those fish are killed illegally, said Joe DuPont, the department's study leader.
"If it wasn't for the illegal harvest in the lower North Fork and Little North Fork, the annual mortality would be 30 percent or less, and that would maintain a lot more big fish," he said.
The illegal harvest in the upper river catch-and-release areas was fairly small, he said, "probably because fishermen tend to police themselves in those stretches."
The problem is in the catch-and-keep sections where anglers are killing fish within the protected range of 8-16 inches long.
"People are more likely to violate size restrictions than keep more than their limit," DuPont said. "A lot of people don't have tape measures, and you know how fishermen are with sizes."
The researchers also suggest that the agency establish catch-and-release sections based on where fish congregate rather than simply in the upper river sections.
BY RICH LANDERS
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- Improving the Coeur d'Alene River cutthroat trout fishery could be fairly simple, if everyone goes along with it.
Backed by a draft report from a telemetry study that followed the movements of 75 cutthroats for more than a year, Idaho Fish and Game Department researchers are making recommendations that could lead to significant improvements in numbers of the native trout.
Educating anglers and stopping poaching would be a good start, they say.
Nearly 70 percent of the cutthroats longer than 12 inches die each year, and most of those fish are killed illegally, said Joe DuPont, the department's study leader.
"If it wasn't for the illegal harvest in the lower North Fork and Little North Fork, the annual mortality would be 30 percent or less, and that would maintain a lot more big fish," he said.
The illegal harvest in the upper river catch-and-release areas was fairly small, he said, "probably because fishermen tend to police themselves in those stretches."
The problem is in the catch-and-keep sections where anglers are killing fish within the protected range of 8-16 inches long.
"People are more likely to violate size restrictions than keep more than their limit," DuPont said. "A lot of people don't have tape measures, and you know how fishermen are with sizes."
The researchers also suggest that the agency establish catch-and-release sections based on where fish congregate rather than simply in the upper river sections.
