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New, unpublished fishing rules apply to trout at Lake Roosevelt

Wild redband trout are native to the Columbia River and tributaries. Idaho’s public universities will split a $20 million National Science Foundation grant aimed at better understanding how keystone organisms adapt to changing environmental conditions, including redband trout. (COURTESY OF COLVILLE TRIBES / COURTESY OF COLVILLE TRIBES)
By Rich Landers richl@spokesman.com(509) 459-5508

Anglers have to go beyond the Washington Sport Fishing Rules pamphlet to be legal when fishing portions of Lake Roosevelt this spring.

Important rule changes made by the Fish and Wildlife Commission last fall were enacted to protect wild redband trout, but the changes were too late to be in the current printed regulations.

Some important changes begin on Saturday.

For example, the Sanpoil River Arm of Lake Roosevelt usually opens to fishing April 1 – and the current regulations pamphlet still indicates that – but it doesn’t open until June 1 this year under new Lake Roosevelt rules adopted last fall, says Madonna Luers, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department spokeswoman in Spokane.

Catch limits also have changed.

“Anglers must now release any trout with an intact adipose fin in Lake Roosevelt from Grand Coulee Dam to the Little Dalles power line crossing, and on the Spokane and Sanpoil arms,” she said.

“Only hatchery-produced trout, marked with a clipped adipose fin, can be retained.

“The daily catch limit is still five trout, not including kokanee. But there is no longer a limit on how many of those fish can exceed 20 inches.

“The changes protect wild native redband rainbow trout staging, spawning and migrating in the Sanpoil Arm.”

These rules changes affect the current fishing pamphlet listings on Pages 67 and 92. See the complete changes online at wdfw.wa.gov/news/dec2916a.

“This is an unusual rule change,” said Luers. “Normally something like this would be an emergency rule change and fishermen who subscribe to our emergency rule change listings would get an email alert. But this commission action was not made as an emergency, so that feature did not apply.”

UPDATE

Following is the wording on the changes released by WDFW:

Action: Updates fishing regulations in the 2016-17 Sport Fishing Rules pamphlet for Lake Roosevelt and the Spokane and Sanpoil Arms of the 150-mile reservoir to protect wild native redband rainbow trout.

The correct fishing regulations include:

—Sanpoil Arm (listed as Sanpoil River in the pamphlet): The Sanpoil Arm opens to fishing June 1, instead of April 1.

—Lake Roosevelt from Grand Coulee Dam to the Little Dalles power line crossing, Spokane Arm and Sanpoil Arm: Only hatchery-produced trout, marked with a clipped adipose fin, can be retained. The daily catch limit is still five trout, not including kokanee. But there is no longer a limit on how many of those fish can exceed 20 inches, as is currently indicated in the WDFW fishing rules pamphlet.

—Little Dalles power line crossing to the Canadian border: The daily catch limit is now only two trout (marked hatchery or unmarked wild), with a minimum size of 18 inches.