Wanted: Lake Sammamish Cutthroat and Kokanee Reports

[sebastes]

Hello All,
My name is David Kyle and I am a Project Manager for Trout Unlimited working on the restoration and recovery of Lake Sammamish kokanee. As you may know, the kokanee populations in the Lake Washington/ Sammamish watershed are in severe decline and the fishery was closed in the mid-1980’s. I am working with a group called the Lake Sammamish Kokanee Working Group (KWG) with the goal of bringing the kokanee population back to a sustainable population that we will be able to fish for in the future.

Part of my job is gathering information about the fish in the lake to fill knowledge gaps for the recovery team. We believe that the fish population structure has shifted from a kokanee dominated system to a cutthroat and other predator system. I have been conducting angler interviews at the Lake Sammamish State Park to discern what fish species people are catching, how many fish did they catch, what depth were the fish caught, what general location were you fishing, any kokanee bycatch, fish condition (skinny, fat, sores, parasites), and any other observations of note. Although this information is anecdotal, it does help develop an idea of what’s happening in the lake.

Interviewing people at the lake can be very inefficient so I wanted to ask anyone on this board who is fishing Lake Sammamish and is willing to share information on your trip, I would love to hear about it. I can be reached via email at dkyle@tu.org

Cheers!
Dave

[Sideburns]

I just read a very long and very informative paper on the state of the lake sammamish kokanee that mentioned you and this project!

Last winter, fishing near the surface for cutts, I caught far more kokanee than cutts, on one of my three outings. All good sized, and healthy, some up to 16 inches! Mostly near the weather buoy. This was during the midge hatch. I'm afraid many didnt make it though..... several of them deep throated the hooks and/or did serious gill damage unfortunately.

[Sideburns]

http://your.kingcounty.gov/dnrp/library ... 66-txt.pdf

This is the info I just read recently. Publish date of march 2017.

I found it researching possible explanations for the Lake Meridian kokanee disappearance.

[sickbayer]

I just read a very long and very informative paper on the state of the lake sammamish kokanee that mentioned you and this project!

Last winter, fishing near the surface for cutts, I caught far more kokanee than cutts, on one of my three outings. All good sized, and healthy, some up to 16 inches! Mostly near the weather buoy. This was during the midge hatch. I'm afraid many didnt make it though..... several of them deep throated the hooks and/or did serious gill damage unfortunately.

switch to spoons and speed up will stop the kokanee hook ups.

[The Quadfather]

I have fished Lake Sammamish a ton for cutts, as well as Lake WA. Although lake WA. not in recent years.
Lake Sam. I frankly quit fishing for Cutts. as I found the Kokes were too hard to get through, to actually get to any cutthroat. If all that makes any sense, I am saying that during the period of 2 through 4 or 5 years back, I felt that the Kokanee fishery was off the hook! Since I really wanted to catch Cutts. I just quit fishing the lake.

So, are you saying that now in the past two years the Kokanee are in trouble/not doing well?
Sorry, if I misunderstood your original post.

[Sideburns]

Ive read a bunch of these documents http://www.kingcounty.gov/services/envi ... ments.aspx (list of research/kokanee related studies from wdfw)

There appears to have been at least 2 subspecies of kokanee in the Lake Washington /Sammamish watersheds. 1 may already be extinct, or diluted by hatchery fish from Lake Whatcom stocks. Many of the creeks that kokanee historically spawned in by the thousands now have none or only a handful. The 2013 document that Ive not finished reading, does show evidence of large scale lake spawning.

The fact that fisherman catch an abundance of Kokanee as bycatch in sammamish doesn't seem to be addressed adequately in the documents that i've read so far, but I still have more to get through....

[Mike Carey]

Our winter trolling trolling video for cutts on lake Sammamish produced one kok out of 20 cutts plus several lost fish.

[Bodofish]

Like Sicky said, speed it up and you won't have any Kokes on the line. It sure doesn't seem to slow the Cutt bite either. After a large stream habitat rebuild on Issy Creek a number of years ago the Koke numbers seem to have risen. All the houses crammed in on the streams is a killer for them. I grew up in Issy and have been fishing the lake for 50+ years. We used to laugh at all the socks in the creek heading up to spawn, you could literally walk across the creek on them and the kings. As for cuts, there used to be some big fish coming through but just the same as Lake Wa, the guides found them and 6 people per boat, five fish each. Guess what? No more big fish in the breading age.

[Sideburns]

Some of the above articles I linked to indicate repeatedly the need to fill in major knowledge gaps in this fishery. Reading through some of this stuff, It looks like some of the conclusions that have been drawn about the history of these kokanee runs are based off of one or two peoples testimony, from 60-100 years ago! The lack of information is very evident. It seams like they really need to hear about these eyewitness accounts etc.... ?

[sebastes]

Thank you everyone for your responses and emails. Please, keep them coming!

There appears to have been at least 2 subspecies of kokanee in the Lake Washington /Sammamish watersheds. 1 may already be extinct, or diluted by hatchery fish from Lake Whatcom stocks. Many of the creeks that kokanee historically spawned in by the thousands now have none or only a handful. The 2013 document that Ive not finished reading, does show evidence of large scale lake spawning.

From what we understand the Lake Sammamish/Washington watershed historically hosted three runs of kokanee. The “Early” ran into Issaquah Creek and is extinct, the “Middle” ran in tributaries of Lake Washington and the Sammamish River and are likely extinct or have hybridized with sockeye. The “Late” run is the last one that we believe are native fish and spawn in the remaining tributaries of Lake Sammamish. From records of the Smithsonian in the late 1800's, kokanee were the most abundant pacific salmonid in the watershed. The construction of the ship canal in Lake Washington and the rerouting of the Cedar River have changed the population dynamics in the system, not to mention the introductions of other non-native species. Like most salmon populations in decline there are a number of factors which have also contributed to the kokanee decline (urbanization, stream access, habitat degridation, etc.).

So, are you saying that now in the past two years the Kokanee are in trouble/not doing well?

From the records I have seen the kokanee returns have become very sporadic. They have been exhibiting a three year pattern with a poor, then ok, and finally a better return. We did have an odd return of 15,000 in the 2012-2013 season which is contrasted with a poor return of 82 fish this season. However the average has been around 800 fish from 1996-2016. In a response to the decline of the kokanee WDFW closed the fishery to all take in the mid 1980's.


There are a lot of knowledge gaps that we are trying to fill to start recovering the kokanee. As I said in my OP, fishermen knowledge is a key part which is why I reached out. Kokanee Identification, bycatch, fishing mortality, condition, and presence of parasites or disease are all important to know.

If you are interested here are a number of links:
Kokanee Ecological Survey (http://your.kingcounty.gov/dnrp/library ... 66-txt.pdf)
Kokanee Working Group Restoration Blueprint http://www.kingcounty.gov/services/envi ... print.aspx
My kokanee site http://lakesammamishkokanee.com/ under construction
Lake Sammamish Kokanee Work Group http://www.kingcounty.gov/services/envi ... group.aspx

I am also happy to meet or speak with anyone about the kokanee, what history I know, and whats being done.

Thanks again and I hope the reports keep coming in.
Dave

[The Quadfather]

Interesting, that 2012-2013 15k return. I probably fished the lake heavily, exactly at that time, as well as 2 years either side of that. I just remember that it was ridiculous trying to get through the Kokes.

[drycreekvalley]

3 trips in late Jan/Early Feb this year produced many cutts and no kokanee for us.