State fisheries officials are making a tweak at Speelyai Hatchery that’s expected to result in better kokanee angling in Merwin Reservoir.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has been rearing part of the 93,000 kokanee annually stocked in Merwin in Speelyai Hatchery and the rest in a floating net pen in Speelyai Bay.
Net pen-reared kokanee will be nine per pound (about 7 inches) at release each March while fish reared inside the hatchery are 4 1/2 per pound (about 9 inches).
“In the net pens, the water is colder, you don’t get the growth and there are issues with predators,” said Luke Miller, a hatchery specialist at the Lewis River complex. “At Speelyai, the creek water (source for the hatchery) is warmer and you get more growth inside the hatchery.”
Larger fish at release generally have better survival rates.
The plan is to discontinue the net pens and move all the kokanee inside the hatchery.
Miller said hatchery workers capture kokanee in mid-September in a trap where Speelyai Creek flows into Speelyai Bay.
“We get in there a couple of times and select nice fish,” he said.
The adult kokanee are held in the hatchery and spawned during the first two weeks in October. They are in incubators until January, then fed for 10 months.
About 45,000 kokanee will be released in October at 11 fish per pound and 48,000 in March at 5.7 per pound.
Kokanee released in October of 2011 and March of 2012 will spawn in fall of 2013.
Kokanee catches ramped up in late March this year with trollers getting limits of fish averaging 13 to 13 1/2 inches.
Miller said some years the bite starts in February.
“A lot of years you’ll get a big storm that dirties up the reservoir,” he said. “It’ll stay dirty for a while. Last year, it was clear in February and the fish started to bite.”
Merwin-Yale bag limits — There’s a rumor floating about that it is illegal to catch five kokanee at Merwin Reservoir, then move to Yale Reservoir and catch 11 more to reach Yale’s 16-fish limit.
That rumor is not true, said Capt. Murray Schlenker of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“The customer service desk has been fielding this question on the phone and by walk-ins,” Schlenker said. “It’s been the flavor of the week.”
Schlenker said poor water conditions and slow spring chinook fishing in the lower Columbia ended up shifting a considerable amount of angling effort to Merwin Reservoir this year.
