Roosevelt walleye/salmonid info.

[Bullkllr]

Interesting information that may shed some light on the Roosevelt walleye situation.

http://sites.ewu.edu/Eastern247/2013/04/17/solving-the-salmon-puzzle-in-lake-roosevelt/

One of the more interesting passages:

"When the Colville Tribe tried to restore natural-spawning kokanee and rainbow trout to the Sanpoil River, Scholz and his team discovered that walleye and smallmouth bass were waiting for them just as they were swimming out of the free-flowing Sanpoil River into a section that is inundated by Lake Roosevelt. In a controlled study, they discovered that in 112 days the walleye ate 94 percent of hatchery released 0.5-year-old kokanee fry, 40 percent of the 1.5-year-old kokanee smolts, 24 percent of the 1-year-old and 27 percent of the 2-year-old wild rainbow smolts. Individual walleye that had their stomachs pumped regurgitated as many as 47 kokanee!

This data led to the only real answer—reduce the walleye in the lake. After a good deal of educating the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the agency has finally done something to reduce the numbers of walleye in Lake Roosevelt."

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

 

[DoubleJ]

Years ago (I mean, like 20+ years) they said that due to the mercury content in the lake from some plant in Canada or something, that you shouldn't eat a whole lot of fish, especially walleye, from Roosevelt.  Has this warning gone away over the years or is it still not very safe to eat a bunch of walleye from Roosevelt?

[Roosevelt walleye]

Another passage I thought was interesting.


Over the years, through many experiments and research projects, Scholz has helped increase the number of salmon that return to spawn from 0.5 percent to between 2 and 5 percent, which is the normal rate of return in a healthy system