Idaho Pays Anglers Cash to Catch Lake Trout on Pend Oreille
Get Paid to Fish Lake Pend Oreille
Anglers and spearfishers on Lake Pend Oreille can earn cash rewards by turning in the heads of lake trout and walleye through the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Angler Incentive Program. The payout structure differs by species.
Every lake trout head turned in earns a flat $15 reward. Turn in 100 heads, and you receive $1,500. Walleye rewards work as a raffle. Each walleye head turned in earns an entry into a monthly drawing for ten rewards worth $100 each, so the more heads you turn in, the better your odds.
Roughly 60 walleye in the lake carry tiny tags placed by Fish and Game biologists at any given time. Each tagged fish is worth $1,000 to whoever catches it, representing $60,000 in potential rewards swimming in the lake. Turning in more walleye heads improves your chances of both landing a tagged fish and winning the monthly drawing.
Why the Program Exists
The program helps Fish and Game manage Lake Pend Oreille’s diverse fisheries, which include trophy rainbow trout, kokanee, bull trout, lake trout, walleye and other species. Lake trout and walleye are effective predators, and without management both can reduce kokanee populations. Kokanee support the lake’s world-renowned trophy rainbow trout fishery and provide popular fishing opportunities of their own.
“Anglers and spearfishers participating in the AIP have played and continue to play an instrumental role in Lake Pend Oreille kokanee recovery,” said Rob Ryan, mitigation staff biologist with Fish and Game. “Walleye are also a real challenge for maintaining balance in Lake Pend Oreille, and we hope walleye anglers and spearfishers will be just as influential in managing that species.”
Track Record and Funding
The lake trout incentive program began in 2006, and thirteen years later it was expanded to include walleye. Anglers have earned approximately $1.5 million in rewards from lake trout since 2006 and roughly $125,000 from walleye since 2019. Over the past year alone, lake trout anglers earned about $32,000 and walleye anglers around $23,000.
The program is funded by the Clark Fork Settlement Agreement through Avista. The agreement’s goals include the protection, mitigation and enhancement of fish and wildlife populations and habitat within the lower Clark Fork River and Lake Pend Oreille Basin.
Anglers can find program details and the locations of freezers where heads can be turned in through Fish and Game. Questions can be directed to the Panhandle Regional office at (208) 769-1414.
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