As I mentioned earlier, my plan for Wednesday of last week was to join the All Hands northern pike suppression effort on Lake Roosevelt. The plan was to have a combined effort by tribes, Chelan PUD and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife staffs to meet at Kettle Falls and spend a week catching as many northern pike as possible. I was invited to go aboard the Colville tribal boat and watch and video the process of pulling gillnets and resetting them. We left the Kettle Falls marina and headed down river to the area known at French Rocks. Here nets were scattered along the shore and in among the islands. I watched the crew work very efficiently, pulling the nets with the assistance of a hydraulic drum and pull fish, identify, and measure them and log the location. It was explained to me that through experimentation they had reduced the bycatch of walleye by 80 percent through using braided nylon lines rather than monofilament nets. So far the combined effort of the tribes, Chelan PUD and the WDFW, over 16,000 northern pike have been removed from Lake Roosevelt. Sport anglers are also making a significant contribution through the Colville Tribe’s Rewards Program.
Sport anglers caught 30 percent of the northern pike removed from Lake Roosevelt. They earned $10 for each head turned to these Rewards Programs Stations.