I was speaking with Tim Peone of the Spokane Tribe about the joint efforts of the Tribe and the WDFW supplying triploid rainbow trout to Lake Roosevelt and learned some things that I wasn’t aware. I did know that there are 750,000 fish released each year into the reservoir, but I didn’t know that that the Tribe, WDFW and volunteers help maintain the net pens and feed the fish prior to release. There are a total of 63 net pens placed at various locations, starting at Keller on the lower reservoir. I have seen the ones at Keller but didn’t know that there were so many others in place further up the big lake. He also told me that there is an effort to improve the trout fishing in the Spokane Arm, and they are releasing the same fish that are being grown at the pens on Rufus Woods. There are already fair numbers of rainbow being caught up the Arm weighing up to 2 pounds, but there are also some tipping the scales at 4 to 5 pounds. The program is just getting started but it could provide some very exciting fishing in the near future.
The Spokane Tribe, WDFW and volunteers maintain, and help feed 750,000 rainbow that are released into Lake Roosevelt every year.