Lake rehabilitation plans offer no-limit fishing opportunity

OLYMPIA -- Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife temporarily will remove all catch, size and possession limits on game fish on a number of eastside lakes before treating them with rotenone.

The lakes are in Grant, Okanogan, Stevens, Adams and Pend Oreille counties. WDFW will plant trout or other game fish in the lakes after undesirable species are removed.

Licensed anglers will have opportunities to keep as many fish as they can catch before the lakes are closed for the rotenone treatments. Rotenone is a natural fish poison derived from roots of a South American tree. It breaks down rapidly in the aquatic environment.

Catch, size and bag limits have been lifted on the following Grant County lakes as of today through Sept. 14: June, North North Windmill (stet), North Windmill, Windmill, Canal, Heart and Pit. They will be closed from 12:01 a.m. Sept. 15 through midnight Oct. 31.

Catch, size and bag limits will be lifted for the following lakes from 12:01 a.m. Aug. 15 through midnight Sept. 30. They will be closed Oct. 1 through Oct. 31:

• Stevens County: Heritage, Thomas, Gillette, Jump Off Joe, Sherry and Leo (including the portion of Leo Lake in Pend Oreille County)
• Pend Oreille County: Halfmoon
• Grant County: Corral, Blythe, Chukar, Scaup, Aztec, Desert, Dune, Lizard, Meadowlark, Sedge, Tern, North Desert
• Okanogan County: Aeneas

Catch, size and bag limits on game fish from the following Adams County waters are suspended from Aug. 15 through midnight Sept. 30. Anglers should check the WDFW Fishing in Washington regulation pamphlet for future openings: Deadman, Shiner, Hutchinson, Morgan, Halfmoon lakes; Coyote and Bobcat ponds and Coyote, Bobcat and Hays creeks.