State needs help in stopping pike invasion

Vicious, lethal, snaggle-toothed northern pike are storming down the Pend Oreille River from Idaho, intent on decimating our Columbia River salmon and steelhead fisheries. And now's the time for a few good anglers with attitude to man the barricades and help stop the advance of the barbarian hordes.

OK, that's perhaps a little over the top, but, hey, when your state fish and wildlife agency calls for help, it's time to grab the graphite stick and a handful of spoons and spinners, and do what you can. If catching a boatload of 3- to 5-pound northerns in the Pend Oreille this spring will help preserve summer chinook in the Brewster Pool, or steelhead off the mouth of the Wenatchee, then hand me a Blue Fox and stand back.

Here's an opportunity to catch one of the country's premier gamefish without going all the way to Michigan or Minnesota; to see a part of the state you probably didn't even know existed; and to fish one of the few northern-flowing rivers in Washington, even though Pend Oreille County, situated in the far northeast corner of the state, is a fair drive from Puget Sound.

And, seriously, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife is concerned that the pike, coming from Montana, where they were illegally introduced, could impact native species in the Columbia system, including salmon and steelhead. Starting this spring, state fishery managers plan to enlist anglers to remove as many northern pike as possible from the Pend Oreille -- particularly in the Box Canyon Reservoir portion at Ione.

Regional fisheries manager John Whalen in Spokane said Canadian anglers already have reported catching pike (true northern pike, not the sterile tiger muskie hybrids legally introduced into some state waters) in the Columbia near its confluence with the Pend Oreille, just north of the Washington/British Columbia border.

"That's a big concern," Whalen said. "Northern pike are a particularly efficient and voracious predator, and if they start spreading down the Columbia, they could create significant ecological and economic damage."

Northerns can reach 30 pounds in weight, and Whalen said the Spokane office has heard of fish in the 20-pound range coming out of the Box Canyon Reservoir, although most are smaller. Fish managers plan to use nets and other means to control the fish, but Whalen said sport fishermen can be an important part of the overall plan. The sport fishery has been both popular and productive over the past couple of years, he said.

Spring is the best time of year to catch the fish, when high water allows them to move into shallow sloughs and side channels. Standard procedure is to boat the shoreline, tossing hardware to logs, brush, and other cover.

For more information visit www.wdfw.wa.gov, where you will see a northern pike release listed under recent information. Clicking on the link will bring up the release, which has a link to a separate page on pike.

Roche Harbor Derby

Just 25 spots remain in the Feb. 2-4 Roche Harbor Salmon Classic Invitational, according to coordinator Debbie Sandwith, and she expects a full field of 100 boats. The team fee (up to four fishermen) is $700 per boat, with first place worth $10,000. For more information, call Sandwith at 360-378-5562.

Steelhead

Last week's substantial rainfall was expected to freshen local rivers and bring new steelhead in from saltwater just in time for the New Year's weekend. In some cases it did just that; in others, not so much, and in a few it blew out the fishery completely.

It didn't do much for the Cowlitz, according to Tracey Borsom at Fish Country Sports in Ethel.

"Fishing was pretty fair Thursday and Friday, but they started playing with the river levels and the last couple of days have been slow," she said earlier this week

Kent Alger at Three Rivers Marine in Woodinville said steelheading picked up in the Skykomish over the weekend, but conditions also brought out a crowd. He said anglers had a 30-plus-fish day at Reiter Ponds on Sunday, and steelhead also were caught at Proctor Creek, the Cable Hole, and other popular spots, despite high and somewhat colored water conditions. Wind on Monday and Tuesday put at least a temporary crimp in the Skykomish fishery, he said.

"The good news is that guys also hit fish farther downriver," he said, "indicating that there are still fish moving up."

Boaters have been finding action from Sultan down, and on the Snoqualmie, the mouth of the Tolt has been a consistent producer.

The Skagit had about 2 feet of visibility below the Sauk over the weekend, according to Stuart Forst at Holiday Sports in Burlington, and a few fish were taken in the Birdsview area. Better was the Cascade at Marblemount, which perked up after the rains hit and produced for those drifting float/jig rigs, including a 17-pounder over the weekend.

Best catch rates were again found on the coast, where the Forks-area rivers put out a bunch of fish over the weekend for large numbers of anglers, even though the waters are still high and somewhat dirty. Bob Gooding at Olympic Sporting Goods said the Bogachiel around the hatchery was the hot spot, particularly for those going with bait under low-visibility conditions.

This weekend could be good, he said, depending on how much rain hits the area later this week.

The Stillaguamish, as expected, blew out with last week's rains, and the North Fork was still dirty, at least on the lower end, early this week. Darrel Kron at Hook Line & Sinker said the North Fork had been slow before the rains, with an occasional fish coming out of the canyon.

For more outdoors news, read Wayne Kruse's blog at www.heraldnet.com/huntingandfishing.