Northwest Fishing Reports

Although Tigers are not my expertise I would interject this for thought while debating planting tigers. Tigers have been planted in Curlew for several years and are doing very well (from what ive read?). It seems that over the years since their planting the lil buggers have found a way out of Curlew Lake as well. Curlew Ck flows to the north into the Kettle river at the town of Curlew Wa. It seems that some of these tigers discovered curlew Ck and have exited the lake into the river down the Kettle and into Christina Lake BC. I realize that there is also the option that the fish were illegally transplanted. Tigers (in limited numbers) have been caught below cascade falls (in BC on the Kettle river) as well as in Christina Lake/ck (mostly at the south end). The southern end of the lake has good tiger habitat and they have been scaring the crap out of bass fisherman who are scoping the lakes docks.

The intent of this thread isnt to get everyone fired up that theres a new tiger lake (their numbers are very low). However, I would point out that fish are wild, no matter which species. As a result of them being "wild" they will go and do whatever they so feel inclined to do. Fish (or turkeys or sheep) cannot be guaranteed to stay where we put them. To often we neglect to see the forest for the trees? TTFN

Cheers The Chironomid Guy

Hmm, it's pretty easy to put in some sort of grate system that keeps larger fish from migrating but still allows smaller fish to pass. They do this on Spirit Lake between Iowa and Minnesota, between Big Spirit and Little Spirit. No muskies in Little Spirit, so no conflict with seasons and regs between the states. Several fish have gotten out of Merwin into the Lewis River and freaked the steelhead fishermen out in the past. It seems it would be pretty easy to predict this sort of behavior, I mean if there's a path, it will be taken at some point. Even if it involves a spillway. Of course, this doesn't bother me in the least, beyond the fact I'd rather they stayed in a more concentrated area where I can catch them more easily. There must be a reason they didn't make some sort of gate, unless it just "didn't occur to them", which would be kinda scary.

Escapement is a factor WDFW biologists consider when evaluating new waters for possible stocking. Except in a closed system that isn't connected to other waters, it's assumed a few tigers will get out of the lake into the connected waters. Even dam spillways and grates don't completely stop them. However, because tiger muskies are sterile, these escapees won't establish a new population in the downstream waters, and they're too few in number to damage other fish populations. For example, I know of a tiger muskie that was removed from the Columbia River in the vicinity of the Priest Rapids dam, and another one that was caught in the Willamette River in Portland, but 2 tiger muskies in the Columbia River aren't going to eat out the river! Likewise, the small number of tiger muskies that make it into the Lewis River may create a sensation among the river anglers but they're not a threat to the river fishery.

Even though northern pike are prolific breeders and have had access to the entire Columbia Basin system via the Spokane River for decades, their numbers remain very low in Long Lake and their range hasn't expanded because they can't reproduce in the river conditions, which limits their population to the small number of pike migrating out of Lake Cour D'Alene.

Don, I have been comunicating with a fish bioligist about the northerns in long and he had told me they have established at least one large spawning area in there. He also stated that they are slowly and surely building there population. I personally have seen one in the little spokane and I know a couple of people who claim they catch them on a regular basis in long. You are probley right about the rest of the system, like lake roosevelt the waters in there fluctuate wildly.