22,000 pounds of trout put in recovering Lake Davis

PORTOLA – State officials planted 22,000 pounds of trout in Lake Davis Tuesday and Wednesday despite the presence of chemicals lingering in the water from poisons applied in September to eradicate non-native northern pike.

By the end of the week the Plumas County reservoir will have 33,000 pounds of Eagle Lake trout, all of them between 2 and 4 pounds, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.

But the lake remains closed to fishing due to the continued presence of Fennedefo 99, one of several chemicals used to help disperse the poisons into the water.

Although the chemical poses no human health issues, state officials agreed to continue the public closure until Lake Davis shows no signs of toxins for three consecutive tests, said Randy Kelly, Lake Davis pike coordinator for Fish and Game.

The pressure to release trout into the reservoir before it is completely chemically free came from the American River hatchery, he said.

The fish intended for Lake Davis were growing too large to remain in the hatchery tanks, he said.

"We risked losing them to another lake," said Kelly.

Fennedefo 99 is the last remaining residue still detectable from the state's $16.7 million chemical treatment, said David Spath, who is overseeing the project for the state Department of Health Services.

Rotenone, an organic insecticide used to kill all of the fish in the lake, is now undetectable in the water, he said.

After the poisoning, department officials said no fish would be planted until lake waters tested chemical-free in three consecutive tests. They decided to plant the trout this week on the advice of state health officials, Kelly said.

Fennedefo 99 is commonly used as a food additive in gum and several soft drinks, he said. It was used in Lake Davis as a distribution agent for the toxins. It poses no risk to human health, he said.

It's apparently safe for fish, too.

Last month department officials put trout in cages for 96 hours at five different depths in the reservoir. All survived, said Kelly.

Trout fishing at Lake Davis has been declining since 1994, when pike were first found in the reservoir.

Eradicating the voracious Midwestern native species was the goal of a 1997 chemical treatment, which ended up costing the state $20 million.

When pike were discovered in Lake Davis 18 months later, state officials began working with the local community to control the pike population and contain them in the reservoir.

Pike escaping from Lake Davis could make their way downstream to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where officials feared their impact on the state native and commercial fishery.

In January they announced plans for a second chemical treatment, which was conducted throughout September.

The chemical treatment aimed at northern pike killed all the fish in the reservoir.

State officials removed nearly 50,000 pounds of dead fish after they poisoned the reservoir and its tributaries in eastern Plumas County. Pike represented around 6 percent of the total, said Kelly. Over 80 percent were bullheads.

Less than 1 percent of the fish removed from the former trophy-trout lake were trout, he said.

Kelly was optimistic that Lake Davis would reopen in time for ice fishing, a popular sport there.

The department plans to release around 75,000 rainbow trout into Lake Davis in the spring, said Martarano.