05/12/2008

Associated Press

Two years ago, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife poisoned Oregon's Diamond Lake to deal with an exploding tui chub population that had ruined a showcase trout fishery.

Some anglers in Eastern Oregon want the agency to take similar action at Phillips Reservoir near Baker City, where the unwanted fish is perch.

During the 20 years or so since someone illegally released perch into the reservoir, the fish have largely replaced the rainbow trout.

"The glory days of the trout fishery in the 1970s and '80s have passed, and we are exploring ways to restore this popular fishery," said Tim Bailey, fish biologist at the ODFW's regional office in La Grande.

Bailey will discuss the issue and solicit ideas from the public during a meeting Tuesday in La Grande.

Local anglers have asked ODFW to poison all aquatic life in the reservoir and then restock it with trout. ODFW did just that in Diamond Lake, in the Cascades near Crater Lake, in 2006.

That project took several years and cost millions of dollars, though, and ODFW biologists have said it's unlikely the agency would do the same for Phillips.

ODFW has tried several tactics over the past decade to partially purge perch, but all have had less-than-stellar success.

The agency dumped adult largemouth bass into the reservoir, hoping the bass would munch perch. ODFW also started stocking larger rainbow trout, figuring a bigger fish could better compete with perch for food, and parry the predatory perch's attacks.

State biologists even tried to trick the procreative perch by putting out 40 artificial grass mats in Phillips. Biologists hoped to entice perch to spawn on the mats, then kill the eggs by lowering the reservoir and leaving the eggs stranded above water.

But not a single perch laid an egg on the mats.

ODFW got an unexpected assist a few years back when Idaho fish and game officials trapped more than a quarter-million Phillips perch and trucked them to a lake near McCall, Idaho.

But perch reproduce rapidly and have remained the predominant fish in the reservoir.

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Information from: Baker City Herald, http://www.bakercityherald.com/