Field reports: Northern pike expanding in Lake Roosevelt

FISHING – Despite a tribal gillnetting effort and a sportfishing bounty, non-native northern pike continue their downstream invasion of the Columbia River and Lake Roosevelt.

Northern pike have been confirmed this season as far downstream as Hunters, according to a July 12 report to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. That’s roughly 40 miles downstream from where the Spokane and Colville tribes and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have been taking a stand with spring gillnetting focused on the mouths of the Kettle and Colville rivers.

More than 1,080 northern pike have been removed from the reservoir in this year’s round of gillnetting. The effort started in 2015 after pike were first confirmed in Lake Roosevelt in 2011.

The state and the tribes consider northern pike to be a threat to native fisheries with the potential for impacting salmon runs downstream from Chief Joseph Dam.

A 26-pound female pike was taken from Lake Roosevelt in June, the largest one caught since the removal program began, said Holly McLellan, fisheries biologist for the Colville Tribe.

Northern pike have caused significant disruptions to ecosystems after being introduced to nonnative waters in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Washington, she said.

Pike illegally introduced in Montana have worked their way down the Flathead, Clark Fork and Pend Oreille Rivers to the Columbia despite efforts to curb their advances in the Pend Oreille and Columbia –in both British Columbia and Washington.

The tribes are requesting funds from the council to expand pike removal.

Classes teach skills for mountain biking

CYCLING – A wide-ranging month-long series of mountain biking classes is being offered in the Spokane area starting Saturday by Evergreen East Mountain Bike Alliance.

Classes offered Saturdays through Sept. 23 include sessions for kids and Levels 1 and 2 classes with coed and women-only sessions.

Private sessions also are available.

The classes start Saturday with an Intro to Freeride class at Silver Mountain.

Details: evergreeneast.org.

Fish farming protest set in Puget Sound

FISHING – Planned expansion of Atlantic salmon net pens in Puget Sound is being met with protest by wild fish proponents, who are organizing an anti-fish-farming flotilla off Bainbridge Island on Sept. 16.

“For three decades, Atlantic salmon net pens have been quietly operating in Puget Sound,” said Kurt Beardslee, executive director of the Wild Fish Conservancy. Now that the industry is poised to dramatically expand its operation in the Sound, the public is learning about the destructive record of net pens, locally and around the world.”

While fish farming has been banned in Alaska, California and Oregon waters, eight Atlantic salmon net pen facilities are sited in Puget Sound.

“Cooke Aquaculture is proposing to expand a new facility east of Port Angeles Harbor, directly in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a major outmigration corridor for salmon of the Salish Sea,” Beardslee said in a release.

Atlantic salmon, which are not indigenous to the region, escape regularly from net pen and they can compete with wild Pacific salmon.

Net pens also are connected with the spread of parasites, viral outbreaks and pollution, Beardslee said.

Info: oursound-oursalmon.org.

Kokanee show up in Rock Lake

FISHING – Not that he’s complaining, but Dick Thiel of Spokane was a little surprised to catch a kokanee in Rock Lake this week.

The lake has bass, rainbows, brown trout and even surplus steelhead stocked a few years ago. But nature did a little rearranging of fisheries with all the high water this spring.

The kokanee in Rock Lake likely were washed out of upstream Chapman Lake, says Chris Donley, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regional fisheries manager.

Jet boat races set on Snake River

BOATING – The annual Thunder on the Snake Jet Boat Race will unleash boats reaching speeds up to 140 mph next weekend starting Saturday at 9 a.m. running from Hell’s Gate State Park Marina at Lewiston 32 miles to Bear Bar and back.

A circuit race will begin with a mass start at 1:30 p.m. from Lewiston Elks Lodge to Three Mile Island. Racers will go around the island and then head back downriver in a circuit that will be repeated three times.

The course can make for exiting spectating if boats are close to each other as they approach the island.

The event concludes Sunday with another round trip to Bear Bar starting at 9 a.m.