EILEEN DELEHANTY PEARKES
Special to the Star
It was early. Really early. The sun was not yet above the Purcell Mountains on the east shore when I met fisheries technician Gary Munro at the Balfour dock and headed out to learn more about the West Arm fishery. Since the closure of the main lake kokanee fishery in 2015, those looking to land some of the region’s tasty kokanee have to stick with fishing in the Arm, where the province has opened a fishery for the first three days of each month, April-July.
Each rod attached to a person in a boat can keep five kokanee, plus any whitefish or Northern pikeminnow they catch. Whitefish is tasty, but pikeminnow is not a popular catch, given its many bones. Gary goes out at the first of each month to get a feel for how robust the fishery is, based on two questions: How many have you kept? How long have you been out?
As previous columns have detailed, the management of the kokanee fishery on the Arm and Kootenay Lake is required, due to damage done by dams and other human intervention. The Sinixt and Yaqan Nukiy tribes of the Kootenay Lake area once managed their own harvest, too. For them, management included spiritual practices of gratitude to insure a good return. Slowly, over the past century, the settler culture has learned that this fishery needs to be respected and invested in, so that it can survive in a region where many dams trap the free circulation of nutrients.
As well as the nutrient feeding discussed in previous columns, management involves direct contact with the water and the people who love to be out there. Gary’s open aluminum boat wound its way through boats of every size and description, clustered on the water between the Balfour ferry dock and the main lake. Several fishermen crowded onto one 140-foot tinner. Just a few were sipping hot coffee on spacious, 25-foot excursion boats, complete with barbeque and fish finder. Everyone in every boat had one thing in common: they all looked really happy. As long as it floats!
This is one of the many strands of authentic Kootenay mountain culture: people who love to fish. As Gary repeated his questions and wrote down data, they told stories even as they lived them. Lost a big one. Lost four so far this morning. Look, a three-and-a-half pounder! The healthy, 20-inch fish glistened in the rising light. We carried on. Kinda slow. Better yesterday. First day was good. They were curious, and always searching for an explanation about why the fish weren’t biting. It’s the full moon. They were feeding all night long. What’s it like down at the other end? What’s it like up at the other end? They wondered if they had steered their boat to the right spot.
It was the third and final day of the monthly fishery. Gary surveyed over 40 boats, down from 60 that turned out on opening day. Some wondered if there was a connection. Maybe the fish have wised up? Maybe we’ve taken the easiest ones already? Seems that the catch is always better on the first day.
It’s a mystery.
As a culture, we’ve taken mystery out of many parts of life. But mystery still reigns on the water of the West Arm. While there is obvious skill in choosing the right tackle, the movements of the kokanee schooling down in the deep are still hard to predict. Will they be biting? Where are they now? To a degree, the same is true of the management of the Kootenay Lake fishery. Science can tell us a lot. For example, fisheries managers counted 1.1 million fry leaving their creek-homes in 2016, a healthy enough number to predict that, two years later (this summer), there would be enough kokanee to allow some to get hauled into a boat.
The sun rose. The happiest fishermen roared off with their limit squirming in a bucket. Those kokanee would show up in a frying pan. Dollar for dollar, one fisheries manager told me, the fish licence fee more than pays for itself, considering the cost of wild ocean sockeye in the stores. As Gary’s boat roars back to the dock to drop me off, the faithful who haven’t caught their limit yet were still bobbing along, trying this, trying that, hopeful that they would get one, or two, or five. And soon, it was over again for the month.
The Upper West Arm of Kootenay Lake (from Balfour to McDonalds Landing, at Six Mile) is open for fishing all year to licensed anglers. Kokanee must be released except the first three days of April, May, June and July, when the daily quota is five kokanee. For more fishing regulation details or how to buy your license, check the synopsis online www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/fish/regulations or call the local office at 250-354-6333.
