COEUR D'ALENE, ID - Idaho is trying to give kokanee salmon a fighting chance in Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho. State officials are now offering a big cash incentive to anglers who catch the fish’s toughest predator, the rainbow trout. Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.

Someday, Idaho Fish and Game officials hope Lake Pend Oreille will be a world-class rainbow trout fishery. But not yet.

The agency’s Jim Fredericks says, first, the lake needs to establish another fish species, the kokanee salmon.

Jim Fredericks: “Kokanee are a real ideal fish in that they provide a sport fishery in their own right, but, also, they feed the trophy rainbow trout in that lake.”

To build the kokanee population, Fredericks’ agency pays $15 to anglers who catch its predators, lake trout and, especially, the rainbow trout.

To encourage fishing for rainbows, the state created something like a fish lottery. A hundred of the fish have been implanted with little tags. The lucky anglers who reel in those fish could win anywhere from $50,000.

Money to fund the rainbow trout project comes from the utility, Avista.

Copyright 2009 Spokane Public Radio

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