Here's a slightly different perspective from another attendee at the meeting.
The folks from the WDFW did just as Rick said. They did about a 15 minute presentation on what has transpired in the last year, and asked everyone to hold their comments and questions until "AFTER" the presentation. (Rick).
They also asked that we keep our comments limited to what "Else" we feel could be done to help reduce the pike population. They admitted that their plan was not going to be popular with the fishing community, but they did not want to debate any of their intended actions. They only wanted the people at the meeting to give
additional ideas on how to reduce the population.
They told us about the gill netting they have done, the warm water fish studies they have done, and the electroshocking they have done. They also told us about how they have "Listened" to the input from the fishing community that they have gotten over the last year. They thought we would all agree that they have listened and mentioned that we would be able to see that by the end of the evening. The only thing I could see that they felt was listening was letting anglers help reduce the population. They intend to do this by promoting pike fishing to the publiuc, by making more fishermen aware of the pike fishing opportunities in the POR, and by putting on a derby, for wich they do not yet have a date set. They also feel that a two pole fishing opportunity will help. (I doubt that will have any impact, but that's just my oninion).
When I asked why eradication efforts were not being put in place in Boundary Reservoir, I was told that it would be hard to do. The water is deeper there and in areas that gillnets would need to be set, they would need to stretch into the main channel and that could be detrimental to the fish they don't want to kill. (That kind of makes sense).
EVERY time I mentioned leaving the big fish in the river, I got a smirk and an "I wish I could agree with you" smile, or comment. When we mentioned the fact that big pike eat small pike and that a derby encouraging the release of fish over 30" would actually help their efforts to reduce the population of the 18 to 26" eating machines, we were told that if the big pike remain in the river they will continue to reproduce. That's it. Bill Baker flat made a statement to us that they are still "Not interested" in managing this situation as a fishery. They simply want the pike out of the reservoir. They want to reduce the pike population to what they refer to as a population of "Hundreds of pike" not the "Many thousands of pike" that are currently there. Their target number is to reduce the population by 87%.
I think we the fishing community agree with them on the subject that the population needs to be reduced. What I don't believe we agree on is, what is a manageable sized population, and how we can get to that particular point.
I even asked that if a bounty ever was put in place on the POR, would they consider only a bounty on the fish that fit in that eating machine slot, like the 18 to 26" range, thus leaving the big fish to eat small fish. Once again I got that smile and I wish I could agree with you comment, and a "No I don't think that's going to happen.
I was also told that a fish ladder would help the "Salmonid" population in the river. They said the Army Corps of Engineers was supposed to do that at Albeni Falls this year, but they were claiming a shortage of money and likely wouldn't be able to do that as planned. I recommended selling their gillnets on Ebay to generate funds for the ladders but that didn't sound like a good idea to them.
I thank them for comming last night and explaining their intentions to us, I just wish they would see it from a management point of view and not a "How can we get every pike out of the reservoir" point of view. I also wish they would have allowed an open question and answer session so everyone could participate and hear answers to common questions. I wonder why that didn't take place????
That's my 2 cents worth.
![[flapper]](./images/smilies/msp_flapper.gif "Flapper"){kind=small}
J/K
