Summary Of IFPAG Meeting
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:48 pm
I'm only going to post a brief summary of today's IFPAG meeting as it affects muskie anglers for now. I'll post a more complete report later.
Stocking. We have 6,100 fingerlings in the hatchery right now. If all survive, and they're distributed to our 7 tiger muskie lakes in proportion to the surface acreage of the lakes, which is the baseline calculation WDFW probably will use, Curlew would get 466 fingerlings, Evergreen would get 132, Mayfield 1179, Merwin 2193, Newman 638, Tapps 1231, and Silver 261. Don't interpret these numbers as actual stocking plans; these are only very rough guesstimates and the actual stockings probably will be different. If you feel a particular lake needs more than its "fair share" of fingerlings, let Bruce Bolding (or me) know.
New lake. The chances of adding an eighth lake to the list of lakes being stocked with tiger muskies are improving, but don't read this to mean we're going to get another lake soon. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. We may finally get some action on this, but that's not for sure, and I don't know when, nor do I know which lake. For several years now I've been lobbying WDFW to create a tiger muskie fishery in the northwest corner of the state, somewhere in Whatcom, Skagit, or Snohomish counties. Lake Samish is a possibility that has been discussed in the past, and there are a couple of lakes in Snohomish County that are potential candidates. (Don't ask me which ones, because I can't answer that.) I'm sorry to be so vague about this, but this is all I can tell you right now.
Long range strategic plan. Many tiger muskie anglers also fish for other warmwater species (bass, walleyes, etc.) Therefore, you may be interested to know that WDFW's long range strategic plan (2011-2017) calls for increased emphasis on warmwater fishing opportunities, and possibly converting some trout lakes that are better suited for warmwater species into warmwater fisheries (and using those trout to increase trout stocking in other trout waters).
Stocking. We have 6,100 fingerlings in the hatchery right now. If all survive, and they're distributed to our 7 tiger muskie lakes in proportion to the surface acreage of the lakes, which is the baseline calculation WDFW probably will use, Curlew would get 466 fingerlings, Evergreen would get 132, Mayfield 1179, Merwin 2193, Newman 638, Tapps 1231, and Silver 261. Don't interpret these numbers as actual stocking plans; these are only very rough guesstimates and the actual stockings probably will be different. If you feel a particular lake needs more than its "fair share" of fingerlings, let Bruce Bolding (or me) know.
New lake. The chances of adding an eighth lake to the list of lakes being stocked with tiger muskies are improving, but don't read this to mean we're going to get another lake soon. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. We may finally get some action on this, but that's not for sure, and I don't know when, nor do I know which lake. For several years now I've been lobbying WDFW to create a tiger muskie fishery in the northwest corner of the state, somewhere in Whatcom, Skagit, or Snohomish counties. Lake Samish is a possibility that has been discussed in the past, and there are a couple of lakes in Snohomish County that are potential candidates. (Don't ask me which ones, because I can't answer that.) I'm sorry to be so vague about this, but this is all I can tell you right now.
Long range strategic plan. Many tiger muskie anglers also fish for other warmwater species (bass, walleyes, etc.) Therefore, you may be interested to know that WDFW's long range strategic plan (2011-2017) calls for increased emphasis on warmwater fishing opportunities, and possibly converting some trout lakes that are better suited for warmwater species into warmwater fisheries (and using those trout to increase trout stocking in other trout waters).