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Out and About 6/20

The Columbian
Published: June 19, 2013, 5:00pm

Out & About

Bass club meets June 27

PORTLAND — The Oregon Bass and Panfish Club will meet at 7 p.m. June 27 at the East Portland Community Center, 740 S.E. 106th Ave.

Mike Baskett, a tournament angler, will discuss lake fishing strategies for largemouth bass.

Asotin County mannamed to wildlife commission

OLYMPIA — An Asotin County man, Jay Holzmiller, has been appointed to an Eastern Washington position on the state Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Holzmiller, 56, is an equipment operator for the Asotin County Public Works Department. He also raises livestock at his home in Anatone.

Appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee, Holzmiller has been involved for two decades in conservation, land-use and fish and wildlife issues.

He is a hunter. He places Chuck Perry of Moses Lake, whose term has expired.

The commission is the nine-member citizen commission that sets policy for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Members are appointed by the governor to six-year terms.

Holzmiller has been a member of the Asotin County Conservation District, Snake River Salmon Recovery Board and Asotin County Shorelines Committee.

Washington salmon testnegative for virus

OLYMPIA — Tissue samples taken from more than 900 wild and hatchery chinook, coho, sockeye, chum and steelhead — as well as farm-raised Atlantic salmon — show no sign of the virus ISAV.

Strains of Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus caused significant losses of farmed Atlantic salmon in Maine, eastern Canada, Chile and several European countries.

ISAV is not harmful to people.

John Kerwin of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the tests are part of a two-year monitoring program specifically designed to detect ISAV.

Wallow Lake kokanee bag limit doubled to 20

ENTERPRISE, Ore. — The state of Oregon has increased the daily bag limit at Wallowa Lake from 10 kokanee a day to 20.

While there is no minimum-size limit, anglers are limited to only five fish longer than 12 inches.

The lake in northeast Oregon has gone from a kokanee population of 70,000 fish in 2008 to more than 900,000 in 2012.

Wallowa Lake has gained a reputation for producing trophy-sized kokanee, breaking four state records and a world record from 2009 to 2010.

“In several lakes in Idaho and Canada, the catch of trophy-size kokanee was followed by major population crashes,” state biologist Jeff Yanke recalls. “Wallowa Lake appears to have bucked this trend for now, and is hopefully in the process of stabilizing.”

The replacement of record-setting trophy fish with a bigger population of smaller fish means anglers will be enjoying a different kind of fishery.

“Angler expectations were certainly raised when so many record fish were caught in 2009-2010,” Yanke said. “Even today, many anglers expect to catch huge kokanee when they come to Wallowa Lake.”

Yanke said he hopes the increased bag limit will help offset the loss of trophy-sized fish.

Comments sought on draft frog recovery plan

OLYMPIA — Comments will be accepted through Aug. 9 on a draft recovery plan for Washington’s population of Oregon spotted frogs.

The plan is on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/species. Comments may be submitted via email to TandEpubliccom@dfw.wa.gov or by mail to Endangered Species Section, WDFW, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, 98501-1091.

Oregon spotted frogs once were common from northern California to southwest British Columbia. In Washington, the species is known to persit in only six river drainages — half the historical number.

Remaining populations are in Skamania, Klickitat, Thurston, Skagit and Whatcom counties. The primary threats to the population are loss of wetlands, alteration of wetlands and river channels and introduction of non-native plansts and animals.

The frogs are not expected to recover without efforts to stem their decline.

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