FISHING -- Fisheries managers are seeking public input through July 25 on proposals for changing the daily catch limit on trout at Lake Roosevelt to further protect native fish .
Currently, anglers fishing the Columbia River reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam can keep five trout (hatchery or wild) per day, including two that are 20 inches or larger.
The Fish and Wildlife Commission voted in March to approve raising the hatchery fin-clipped trout limit and reducing opportunity to take wild unmarked trout.
Two proposed options revealed Thursday would:
- Allow anglers to keep up to 10 trout, only one of which can be a wild trout that is 18 inches or larger. This proposal also extends by two months the closure of the Sanpoil River arm of the reservoir where redband rainbow trout stage to make their upriver spawning run. Currently, the arm is closed Feb. 1 through March 31. Under this proposal, it would close Feb. 1 through May 31.
- Limit anglers to five hatchery trout per day with no harvest of wild trout allowed from Grand Coulee Dam to the Northport Bridge. Anglers fishing from the Northport Bridge upstream to the Canada border would be limited to two trout (wild or hatchery fish) that are 18 inches or greater in length daily.
Comments can be made online or at a public meeting, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. June 30 at the agency's Eastern Region office, 2315 N. Discovery Pl. in Spokane Valley.
Proposed changes to the catch limit are designed to help protect wild redband rainbow trout while still providing anglers with opportunities to harvest hatchery fish, said Chris Donley, WDFW Eastern Region fish program manager.
Redband trout are a subspecies of rainbow trout found in the Columbia River and its tributaries.
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission already has voted approval of increasing the hatchery trout limit , but will consider public testimony on the proposed options during its Aug. 5-6 meeting in Olympia.
