Outdoor update flash!
Went fishing on Lake Coeur d’Alene yesterday for landlocked Chinook
Salmon. There is an interesting back-story
behind this fish population. I thought I’d
share.
Historically, it is believed that Lake Coeur d’Alene would
not have had salmon runs in it (but no one knows for sure). The salmon would have run from the Pacific
Ocean into the Columbia River, then up the Spokane River to spawn, but they
were blocked from entering Lake Coeur d’Alene by Post Falls, about 6 miles
below the lake on the lake’s outlet: the Spokane River. The construction of Grand Coulee dam on the
Columbia River in the 1930s blocked passage to all salmon upstream, and so the
salmon runs in the Spokane River near Lake Coeur d’Alene were extirpated.
Some salmon, however, lived on.
Life… finds a… way…
There were sockeye salmon that made the long runs from the
lake to the ocean and back prior to the dam being constructed. Sockeye salmon are different from other
salmon, in that they spawn in lakes, and spend a good portion of their juvenile
lives in the lakes before they run downstream into rivers and head for the
ocean. Most salmon spawn in rivers, and
more or less start their trek to the ocean on day one of their lives, as the
river washes them downstream.
The thing about sockeye is that some of them never leave the
lake, even back in the days when they still could head for the ocean. No one really knows why they adapted to do
this, but they’ve been doing it for millennia, and it gave them a unique
advantage over the other salmon species when we humans came along and built the
dams.
The sockeye that hang back and never go anadramous are
called “kokanee” and the lakes around here, including Coeur d’Alene, are all
full of them. They don’t typically get
as big as the ocean-run sockeye did. The
average ocean run sockeye in this system would be in the 3 to 5 pound
range. The average kokanee is less than
a pound.
The thing is that like their ocean-run brethren, the kokanee
are delicious. Anglers highly prize kokanee,
not for their size or their fight, but because they are excellent table
fare. But their size is a concern,
because, hell, if you’re going to go catch them, why not try to make them
bigger and better fighters?
Some lakes, like Lake Roosevelt (a lake actually created by
Grand Coulee dam, and isolated from the ocean-run salmon at the same time as
its creation) boast very large kokanee; they approach their size of the ocean
run brethren in that lake. The speculation
for this is that there are also landlocked Chinook (also known as King) Salmon
in Roosevelt. The landlocked Chinook in
Lake Roosevelt are 100% natural – no one put them there. Lake Roosevelt is a reservoir created by
Grand Coulee Dam, and is part of the Columbia River, meaning that the river
that used to run through where the lake is now used to have some of the most
epic salmon runs the world had ever seen, prior to the construction of Grand
Coulee Dam. In the Lake Coeur d’Alene
and Spokane River system, none of the Chinook survived the damming. In the Lake Roosevelt system, some did; and
those that did adapted to life in a huge freshwater lake, as opposed to a huge
saltwater ocean.
Dude, seriously. I’m
telling you that life… finds… a way…
The presence of the land-locked Chinook Salmon in Lake
Roosevelt had a curious effect on the land-locked Sockeye Salmon (kokanee) in
Lake Roosevelt: they got BIG. The theory
is that the Chinook, being very voracious, predatory fish, fed on the smaller,
plankton-feeding kokanee (that’s another interesting thing about the Sockeye –
they are the only salmon species that isn’t primarily a predator, and instead
eat zooplankton). The kokanee that
survived were typically the ones that had grown large enough to avoid being
eaten, meaning the genetic strain in the lake was modified to favor larger
fish. Also, the culling resulted in
there being more food for the larger kokanee that were left, meaning that they
grew larger.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game did not miss this
observation, and so decided that if it worked in Lake Roosevelt, it would
surely work in Lake Coeur d’Alene, which had a population of kokanee in it,
also (presumably a remnant from a time before Post Falls blocked the salmon
from getting into Lake Coeur d’Alene – or maybe they were introduced. I’m not sure). So, back in the 70s, they decided to release
Chinook Salmon into Lake Coeur d’Alene to see if they could help make the kokanee
fishery better, like they did in Lake Roosevelt.
When they released them, the IDFG made two assumptions:
1.
That the existence of Chinook Salmon in Lake
Coeur d’Alene would only be temporary, since it was assumed that they would be
unable to reproduce and create a self-sustaining population.
2.
That the Chinook population would necessarily
result in larger kokanee.
They were wrong on both counts, at least so far.
The kokanee population crashed. There was some speculation as to why this
might have been, but many people thought that this was actually part of the
process of culling the kokanee and allowing them to grow larger. No one knew what had happened to the kokanee
in Roosevelt after the dam was built – maybe their population crashed,
too?
Also, the Chinook started swimming up the Coeur d’Alene and
St. Joe rivers and spawning. Coeur d’Alene
lake became their new ocean, and they became a self-sustaining, viable
population.
I’m not going to say it again…
IDFG panicked. They
started flying helicopter sorties up the rivers to spot Chinook spawning reds
and destroy them, to no avail.
Throughout most of the 1980’s, the IDFG was on a mission to try and get
the Chinook out off the lake and save the kokanee. In the 90’s however, they had a realization:
The kokanee were coming back. They weren’t any bigger, but they were coming
back in good enough numbers to say that they had returned, and their
populations are still in good enough numbers that IDFG isn’t worried about them
anymore.
They also realized one other thing:
Anglers absolutely loved the Chinook Salmon fishery, and the
presence of Chinook in that lake was bringing in lots and lots of money to the
local economy.
So they built a hatchery and started putting Chinook in the
lake again. Everything seems to have
found a nice balance, and it appears as though maybe the kokanee are getting
bigger, slowly.
But the Chinook… oh,
man, the Chinook. They are getting
BIG. There is a reason that they call
them King Salmon, and it’s because on a size basis, none of the other salmon
species even get close. Last year during
the Chinook derby on the lake, a lady caught a 27.7 pound Chinook Salmon out of
Lake Coeur d’Alene. That is the size of
a three year old child. That is a big
fish, ladies and gentlemen.
And so, whenever the remaining anadramous rivers around here
aren’t currently experiencing a run of salmon or steelhead, I augment my
fishing habit by heading for Lake Coeur d’Alene and fishing for land-locked
Chinook Salmon. Yesterday, after work, I
did just that. I fished from 5 pm until
after dark. We hooked 4, and boated
two. They weren’t very big, but the big
ones are out there, and the intoxicating possibility that I might catch one of
them draws me back, day after day, to face the often rough and white-capped
waters of this amazing, beautiful lake.
Where and how do you fish for them? I just moved to Rose Lake and plan to learn the area. Thanks for any advice
ReplyDeleteIn the spring troll The east shoreline north of harrison, 100 to 200 feet off shore. Troll husky Jerk rappallas behind planer boards 60 to 100 feet out, with the rap about 25 feet back from the board. Go 1 to 1.25 mph. Depth doesn't matter, they're on the surface.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the year it's a downrigger show just like in the saltwater. Big flashers trolling cut plugs 48" behind the flasher, 20 feet behind the rigger ball. Depth varies from 30 to 100 feet depending on various things. Mark them with your fish finder and troll that depth. Go to fins and feathers in coerdalene website. All sorts of tips and tricks. Good luck.
Very informative! As an Alaskan troller, I was curious about how king salmon got into the lake. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDelete