Tiger Muskie Catch Topples Idaho State Record

A Spokane Valley angler caught an Idaho-record tiger muskie Sunday at Hauser Lake, the Idaho Fish and Game Department confirmed.

Kenny Biem said he hooked the 21-pound, 12-ounce bruiser a half-hour after he started trolling that morning.

The fish hit a Rapala Fire Tiger lure in water that was about 15 feet deep.

“He ripped off so much line, I had to put the boat in reverse to catch up and get some line back,” Biem said.

“It would barely fit in my net, and the lure popped out as I got it to the boat.

“I had to get my fingers in its gills to bring it aboard,” he added, noting that he and his partner, Dan Lybbert, had cuts on their fingers from the sharp teeth and gill plates before the fish was finally dispatched.

The fish measured 43 inches long.

Biem said he used 10-pound test line with no steel leader.

“I’ve been dedicating myself to catching a trophy tiger muskie this year,” he said. “But that’s the first one I’ve caught.”

Even though Biem let the record fish sit in his boat for 6 hours before having it officially weighed, it easily topped the previous record of 21 pounds, 8 ounces, which was caught last year out of Hauser Lake.

“Biem’s fish was one that had been stocked in 1990,” said Ned Horner, Fish and Game Department regional fisheries manager. “I believe there are some more fish from that plant in the lake that will top 22 pounds.”

The tiger muskie is a sterile cross between a northern pike and a muskellunge. They have been stocked in certain waters of Idaho and Washington to provide a trophy fishery.

“We don’t stock many of them,” Horner said. “We put 600 tiger muskies in Hauser for each plant, that’s only one fish per acre. The plants were in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1997.”

Input asked for hunting changes

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is revising a controversial proposal to simplify hunting regulations.

Public input workshops are scheduled for September on the revised proposals.

A series of 15 public meetings were held on the proposal earlier this year, but the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission tabled simplification for 1998 and directed the department to work on revisions for 1999.

The wildlife department’s Game Advisory Council, made up of 21 private citizens, will be working with wildlife managers to develop proposals for public review in the fall.

Group to boost coyotes

An Oregon group that believes coyotes have been taken for granted long enough is fighting to change the animal’s legal classification and stop thousands from being trapped, poisoned and shot each year.

“It’s a barbaric practice,” said Brooks Fahy of the environmental group Predator Defense Institute.

The institute, which was involved in the successful 1994 campaign banning dogs from cougar and bear hunting, is reacting to a Douglas County program authorized two weeks ago that put a $100 bounty on coyotes.

County officials and ranchers say the animals wreak havoc on livestock, killing thousands each year. In fiscal 1997, coyotes cost the state’s sheep industry an estimated $235,000.

But Fahy said indiscriminate killing of coyotes has proven worthless in livestock protection - a fact that is backed by state wildlife officials.

Dave Williams, director of the federal Wildlife Services state office, said livestock producers need protection from predators.

Carefully targeted removal programs have been effective in limiting livestock losses, he said. His agents killed 6,593 coyotes in 22 Oregon counties in fiscal 1997.

But Williams said blanket coyote-kill programs, such as the Douglas County bounty, are wasteful mistakes and don’t enhance livestock protection.

, DataTimes