Chapman lake ******Revised*******

[Larry3215]

That may all be true, but then you still have the other issue the biologist brought up - if they stop stocking the lake it could take two or more years for the fishery to come back once they re-start. Whats the point of adding access to a lake with no fish?

[ridgeratt]

That may all be true, but then you still have the other issue the biologist brought up - if they stop stocking the lake it could take two or more years for the fishery to come back once they re-start. Whats the point of adding access to a lake with no fish?

Granted, But then plant a smaller amount of fish to maintain it until you aquire the access, Lakes that do have a accessable fishery get on average No fish to 20 % of the fish they release in Chapman and Loon which is advertized as the top Koke fishery in Eastern Washington last year received 33% less than Chapman.

So then whats the point in planting that many fish if you never get access?

[Larry3215]

I would have to assume they have some kind of plan in mind when they decide how many to plant in which lakes, but I really have no idea. It seems from the biologists reply, that changing the numbers in other lakes has nothing to do with how many go into Chapman - or any other lake.

As far as access, he did say they would stop planting if the access plan did fall through. For now they still plan to open the lake as soon as possible.

Maybe the better question is how they come up with those numbers in the first place?

[ridgeratt]

Larry
I'm not sure the WDFW were real Keen on the fact I used the Stocking Data from their website!!
A lot of the folks I have talked to had no idea this information was out there. So I'm guessing that you may not get the answer you hope for if you ask them.. Sort of like Wolf topics in this state.

I can tell you that while my Father was alive he always kicked open a feeder creek in a lake that does have a Kokanee fishery. Since he has passed I now also keep the creek open and it is amazing to see the fish swim up up to replenish the fishery.

I have chased the Kokanees in Washington since the Mid 70's. Davis used to have a great Kokanee fishery that a few folks knew about. It wasn't the floating city that loon has in fact most folks used very little lite. Barely enough light to see the end of the rod. They would use a screen to block the light from the road. (Thanks Dad for that lesson) Then a few folks talked and it started to see more lights on the lake. Know people who have a cabin on it and they don't see much interest. I haven't heard of many folks fishing it much lately. Deer was the same and that lake had some heavy Weight in it. I would like to see both of these lakes get back to the fishery they once were. As opposed to the planting of more fry in a lake with no access than they plant in a lake they claim is the top Koke lake in Eastern Washington.

Some one posted my Letter on the WDFW Facebook page and it has since been removed. Perhaps it was viewed as Bad publicity.

[G-Man]

From a management perspective, you have to keep in mind that there is a finite amount of food available to the fish in a given body of water. Overload the lake with fry, like Lake Whatcom, and you can catch your daily limit of 6" fish in short order. On the other hand, you can see what reducing the number of planted fry can do for the overall size of the adults in Lake Chelan and Cle Elum.

For a real head scratcher, tell me what happens to the kokanee that get planted in Banks lake. Used to be a great fishery and it gets planted with about 1/2 million fry per year. I suspect if the walleye get more out of those plants than the fishermen.

[Larry3215]

Thats ok with me. Id rather the walleye eat the kokanee than bass fry. In fact, I would much rather catch walleye, and bass over koks any day

[ridgeratt]

Chapman is full of large mouth bass. We used to pull some heavy weights out of it. Since it has been closed for over the last 5 years I guessing it would knock your pantaloons off the size of some of them. Yes the fry plants are noting more than chum for the bass population for the most part.

[ridgeratt]

This was published in the Spokesman Review today!!

http://www.spokesman.com/outdoors/stori ... pman-lake/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



OUTDOORS

OutdoorsStory
THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015
Public access issues remain for Chapman Lake
By Rich Landers
richl@spokesman.com
(509) 459-5508
Twitter Facebook Reddit

Chapman Lake is in Spokane County.
Related stories
Hundreds of lakes open Saturday for lowland trout season
Chapman Lake, a once-popular trout and kokanee fishery south of Cheney, will remain closed to drive-in public access this season.

After decades of providing sportsman access, owners of the former Chapman Lake Resort locked the gates in 2011 on the only road access to the lake.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has continued to stock kokanee in the lake on the prospect of being able to develop a public road and access through adjoining state property. Getting the necessary funding and permits has stalled the work.

Meanwhile, only the owners of lakeside cabins have been able to get fishing boats onto the lake.

The public can access the lake by foot through the Department of Natural Resources property, said Randall Osborne, district fisheries biologist.

“The department submitted a Boating Facilities Program project through the Recreation and Conservation Office,” he said. “The funds for these projects will be awarded in June 2015. If RCO receives the level of funding they anticipate, the Chapman Lake project will receive partial funding but not enough to conduct the entire project.”

He said the agency is exploring alternative funding to complete the project.

The other kokanee lakes in the Spokane region, such as Deep, Loon, Deer and Pierre, continue to get the number of hatchery fish the biologists estimate they can handle.

The state continues to stock the lake with kokanee so it will be ready for sportsmen as soon as access is acquired.

“Kokanee populations are different than trout populations,” Osborne said. “There is at least a two-year lag time between when kokanee fry are stocked, and when they grow large enough to be caught by anglers. It is important to maintain consistent kokanee year class strength. One or two missing year classes could result in gaps in the fishery that would be extremely hard, if not impossible, to recover.

“The kokanee that are stocked into Chapman Lake are fairly small and require little cost to raise – less than 2 cents per fish. This is a relatively low cost to ensure that when access is regained, an intact kokanee fishery will be present for anglers to enjoy.”

The state has suspended trout stocking in Chapman. If public access cannot be worked out, kokanee stocking also would be suspended, he said.

PUBLISHED APRIL 23, 2015, MIDNIGHT in: 2015 fishing, fishing, outdoors

[bluegrouse bill]

You can never convince me or anyone else who's ever fished Deer lake that it doesn't need more kokanee. It doesn't take a fisheries biologist to know that 25,000 fry a year isn't even in the ballpark of what Deer lakes holding limit should be. No one ever catches them there anymore when it used to have big 2-3 pounders, and lots of them too. All the fish in the lake are skinny and need forage, even if the Mack's & Bass ate the fry it would feed them and save the other fish that would've got ate to grow another day. Wake up WDFW! But planting kokanee with fisherman's taxes in a private lake makes sense to them. This **** drives me crazy...

[ridgeratt]

I do believe that the state record was held by Deer lake for several years until Roosevelt knocked them out. If you ever fished it and knew what the lake had in it.

While I was chasing fish this weekend the topic came up about the article that was posted in the Paper. I just listened to the comment's. One person who seems to have inside information made the comment about a total catch of 1300 fish last year. I did the ruff math and at a 10 fish limit based over the number of days I think he never got off the lake,or he and his kids did really well. Perhaps he might have removed a few more than the legal limit per day as well but then that's just speculation.