Hopefully you had a good year of fishing on Coeur d’Alene Lake. From what we have seen and heard, the fisheries are doing well. This article is quick update on several ongoing programs.

First, the kokanee fishery:

Depending on your preference, kokanee are either delicious, or they are food for Chinook salmon. Either way, having oderately high kokanee numbers are good for both kokanee and Chinook anglers. The number of kokanee fisherman on the lake also appears to be up and the reports are that anglers are doing well. The fishery during September and October was especially good at the northern end of the lake where the kokanee stage before they begin spawning. Anglers were getting limits in a morning’s fishing, so it was about as good as it gets. This fishery is nearly over now (end of October), as the kokanee are getting “colored up” and the flesh is getting softer. Is there a danger that anglers are harvesting too many kokanee as they prepare to spawn? No, not with the current population of kokanee. Based on our population estimates there is an excess of several hundred thousand kokanee that could be harvested without impacting the next generation. Another thing that anglers will notice is that most of the kokanee they catch late in the season are males. They are more aggressive and get caught more often, so angling does not reduce the number of eggs as much as you might expect.

Here’s another piece of interesting data. We generally don’t stock kokanee in Coeur d'Alene Lake, but we stocked 100,000 early spawning kokanee in 2009 in Mica Creek. It was partly because we had some surplus and partly because we thought it would be worth seeing if we could re-establish a September run of fish into Mica following some habitat improvement work.

As you know, early spawners don’t tend to last in Coeur d’Alene Lake, and the population is almost entirely supported by late, shoreline spawning fish. It was neat to hear that we did have a return of some of these fish this year, which makes them 2-year-old spawners. I would not be surprised to see another bunch of them return next year as 3-year-old spawners. Al Beardsley sent me picture with a note about how they were seeing kokanee at the ranch. (See photo next page) These Kokanee would definitely look different as they approach spawning. Early spawners get bright red (as in picture) and late spawners are more blackish red. In 3-4 years we’ll know whether we get any natural reproduction out of the fish that returned this year.

Chinook fishing always takes considerable time and patience. More Chinook in the lake could increase catch rates and mprove the fishing in the short term, but Chinook numbers need to stay in balance with kokanee. If we over-do the numbers of Chinook, kokanee will drop, and then it may take several years to restore the balance. We have been adjusting Chinook numbers since 1982, when they were first stocked, hoping to achieve the perfect “balance” between predator and prey. We have a pretty good idea of what the lake can support, but it is increasingly clear that Mother Nature has a way of tipping the scales. High spring runoff, unusually good survival of Chinook eggs, unusually poor survival of kokanee, variable losses of Chinook and kokanee out of the lake, all tend to keep the program rather dynamic. But currently, the situation is looking quite good. With recent increases in kokanee, we are less worried about the increases in wild Chinook. So, this fall we did not attempt to destroy any Chinook redds. In addition we stocked about 20,000 Chinook fingerlings this year. The second batch of 10,000 fingerlings were stocked on October 4th. All of these Chinook have their adipose fin clipped, and have a very small tag injected into their snout.

Any anglers catching a legal Chinook over 20” with an adipose fin clip are encouraged to save the head and bring it to the Idaho Fish and Game Office on Kathleen Avenue, in Coeur d’Alene. From these returned fish we can determine the best way to stock Chinook in future years.

When Chinook spawn they build a redd- a spawning bed in which they lay their eggs. Studies in other places have shown that each female Chinook builds only one redd. By counting their redds we get an estimate of the number of adult Chinook. This year we hired Panhandle Helicopter to fly the Coeur d’Alene River and count the redds. We omitted flying over the St. Joe River to save on costs. They counted 75 redds in the Coeur d’Alene River drainage. Based on past years, there are on average about 22% of the total redds in the St. Joe drainage, so we would estimate a total of about 98 redds this year, as seen from the air. Ground surveys indicated that a lot of these redds were really clusters of redds and the total may be considerably higher. Either way, wild Chinook are doing well and adult numbers are on the high side. We will keep a close eye on the kokanee population to look for the effects of too much Chinook predation.

Mica Creek Spring Spawn

Idaho Fish and Game will continue stocking hatchery produced Chinook in Coeur d’Alene Lake this year. Similar to the last two years, IDFG plans on stocking 20,000 Chinook; half in June and half in September. Fish stocked in June were about 5” long and the ones stocked in September will be about 7” long because of the extra rearing time. Both groups of fish will be released at the Mineral Ridge boat ramp in Wolf Lodge Bay.

Stocking the fish in two separate groups is an experiment to see which date works the best. All of the Chinook will be marked with an adipose fin clip (the small, fleshy fin on the back by the tail) and have a coded wire tag in their snout. Chinook stocked in past years should be approaching the 20 inch size. If you catch a fin-clipped Chinook, please save the head for us. Just freeze the head and bring it by the Fish and Game office on Kathleen Avenue. The only way we can determine the best time to stock, is to get the heads of these hatchery fish returned. We anticipate it will be difficult to recover many of these heads, so every one is important. Please do not try to remove the tag yourself. It is only as thick as a hair and about 3/16” long. It is also imbedded in the cartilage in the snout and requires a special metal detector to be able to find it. The three photographs (at right) show what they look like; a close up, on a finger tip, and in several small fry.