Letters to the Editor for April 27, 2009

Disappointed by perch trapping
To the editor:
About two weeks ago, I called Tim Bailey at ODFW in La Grande to volunteer to help in the big trapping project of perch at Phillips Lake. At that time, Tim told me that they had all of the help they needed.  I ask him when this project would be happening and he told me that it would run from April 20th through the 30th.

On April 23, I went to the lake to see how the project was going. I arrived at about 11 o'clock and what a disappointment. This big project that they asked the public to participate in involves two sheriff boats, two small rafts anchored in protected coves on the north side of the lake with what appeared to be one 16-foot fish trap attached to each one. There was a small backhoe and a large semi trailer to handle and haul the fish. There were seven vehicles parked there, but in four hours, I only saw six people. Two three-man crews for each boat. Compared to the number of perch in the lake, the amount of fish in the trailer was very small. I could have hauled all of them in my small pickup very easily.

Before 1 o'clock one of the boats was pulled out of the water and the other was beached at the boat launch. When I left at 3 o'clock, four of the vehicles had left and their appeared to be two people in the boat that was out of the water.

At this rate, I don't believe that they could trap all of the perch by next winter, let alone in 10 days. There were no private boats on the water and I believe, no volunteers. This is most certainly not what was portrayed by ODFW when they were asking for our input and help to return this fishery to the fine quality that it once was.  If I were purposely trying to make this project a failure, this would be a good way to do it.                                                                                                                                                 

Ed Shorts

Baker City