Hatchery coho surplus to provide special lake opportunities

(MEDIA NOTE: Hatchery personnel will plant adult coho in Puyallup's De Coursey Pond at 1 p.m. Friday. WDFW personnel will be available at the site for interviews about this unique fishing opportunity for children)

OLYMPIA -- The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will plant 4-to-5- pound adult coho salmon in De Coursey Pond in Puyallup plus three Pierce County lakes in a novel experiment to provide freshwater salmon fishing opportunities to children and adults.

De Coursey Pond will be planted with 500 coho on Friday. Wapato and Waughop lakes each will receive 2,000 coho on Friday. Tule Lake will receive 1,000 coho on Oct. 8.

De Coursey Pond and Wapato Lake are open only to children age 14 and younger. No fishing license or catch record card is needed and the limit is five coho. Waughop and Tule lakes are open to all licensed anglers. The coho limit at both lakes is five fish.

Bern Shanks, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said additional fish will be planted in the pond and lakes if the plantings draw anglers and the fishing is good.

The fish are surplus to spawning needs at Puyallup's Voight Creek Hatchery.

The hatchery has surplus fish because of conservation measures taken in the ocean and Puget Sound to protect wild salmon.

Here are the locations of the pond and lakes:

• De Coursey Pond: in Puyallup's De Coursey Park on 7th Ave. SW., approximately one mile from the Western Washington Fairgrounds. The fishery is being sponsored by WDFW and the Puyallup City Parks and Recreation Department.

• Wapato Lake: east of Interstate 5 on 72nd Street East in Tacoma.

• Waughop Lake: in Fort Steilacoom Park off Steilacoom Boulevard in Steilacoom.

• Tule Lake: on Weyerhaeuser Co. property southwest of Harts Lake Loop Road in southern Pierce County.