Tribes kills about 32,000 Lake Trout in first phase of plan

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have completed the first phases of a major suppression effort of lake trout in Flathead Lake.

The spring Mack Days fishing tournament and eight days of gill netting on Flathead Lake killed about 35,232 lake trout, according to a suppression plan outlined by the tribes.

The tribes’ Flathead Lake and River Fisheries Co-Management Plan is the culmination of three years of analysis of the environmental impacts of expanded lake trout suppression efforts under the Mack Days fishing tournament. The plan lays out specific suppression activities for 2014. The tribes prepared the plan to be subject to annual reviews and course corrections, rather than as a rigid and inflexible plan, spokesperson Germaine White said.

The 2014 implementation plan sets a harvest target range from 90,000 to 100,000 lake trout, and separates harvest by methods that include general recreational harvest, Mack Days, and gill netting. This target represents about a 30 percent increase in the harvest measured over the last several years.

The plan describes changes in the fishery of Flathead Lake over time, and an incremental and transparent decision process that includes public involvement, according to the plan.

White said each year a team of fisheries professionals will review the results  of suppression activities, followed by public scoping and review by the reservation fish and wildlife advisory board, and concluding with a decision by the Tribal Council.

Suppression efforts for 2014 began March 14 with spring Mack Days. The contest ended on May 18 with an anticipated harvest of over 30,000 lake trout, which is substantially higher than last spring.

The first phase of netting for 2014 took place during the last two weeks of April. The tribes used this period to be trained by an experienced netting team and to gain the necessary proficiency for subsequent phases to be conducted independently by the tribes, White said.

In eight days of netting the tribes caught 5,232 lake trout. One bull trout was captured and immediately released, so no mortality of bull trout resulted from the netting, White said.

A total of 2,487 lake whitefish were netted. Like Mack Days, the fish were donated to local food banks.

The netting was conducted within the constraints of a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address the incidental capture of bull trout. Wade Fredenberg, a wildlife service member, reviewed the netting and monitored it onsite for compliance with the permit, according to White.

“The tribes did what they were permitted to do, and the results were exactly what we expected … high lake trout catch with virtually no bull trout bycatch,” Fredenburg said. “As a result, we continue to give our full support to this adaptive effort to incrementally reduce lake trout numbers.”