Although more o<»iiplete determinations are neoessai-y to secure 

 all information which may be needed, it appears advisable to consider, 

 at leas-t, a stocking program for Roosevelt Lake. It should be made 

 clear at this point that the lake is too extensive to make an overall 

 stocking program successful. Therefore, if an attempt to stock the 

 lake is made em area should be selected irtilch most closely resembles 

 the natural habitat of the fish introduced. Then if a local popu- 

 lation is built up sufficiently to support a sport fishery in that 

 particular area the program can be gradually expanded to other lo- 

 cations. 



Careful consideration of the type of fish best suited for Roosevelt 

 Lake should be made. At ihe present time stocking of Kokanee (land- 

 locked blueback salmon) has been carried on by the Washington State 

 Game Department in Roosevelt LaJce. These fish have been observed 

 spawning in the San Foil River and are occasionally taken by local 

 fishermen. They have not proven satisfactory, however, because of 

 their migratory habit which carries many of them to death over Grand 

 Coulee Dam each spring. 



Rainbow trout are known to inhabit the lake in the winter, but 

 migrate into various tributary streams in the svonraer, providing ex- 

 cellent stream fishing for sportsmen, but no lake fishing for family 

 groups* An important factor then, in introducing a stock into the lake, 

 is to introduce a fish which would remain in the lake to provide fishing 

 in the summer. 



Before a stocking program is formulated, however, more detailed 

 study of existing problems should be made taking careful account of 

 the above points. The turbidity of the water found in July and scarcity 

 of plankton material in the upper reservoir should be examined in a 

 normal year, as the condition found in the summer of 1948 might merely 

 be a temporary result of the unprecedented floods of 1948. It is also 

 recommended that more widespread experimental fishing with various 

 types of gear be carried out at various times of the year. This should 

 be done especially in early spring, as more reliable information on 

 the fish populations in that season is needed. 



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