Department of Fisheries Resources Management
Trout Ponds Project

The Trout Ponds Project was initiated in 1995 as part of the Northwest Power Planning Council’s Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program, using resident fish substitution actions to provide tribal members with resident fisheries to mitigate in part for lost anadromous fisheries caused by the construction of Dworshak Dam on the North Fork Clearwater River. Three put-and-take fisheries at Mud Springs Pond, in the Lapwai Creek drainage near the town of Winchester, at Talmaks Pond in the Lawyer Creek drainage near the town of Craigmont, and at Tunnel Pond in the Clearwater River canyon near Orofino. These ponds are managed by the project to provide subsistence and recreational harvest opportunities for hatchery-raised rainbow trout, as well as provided benefits to wildlife. The two reservoir ponds at Mud Springs and Talmaks, constructed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1964, were renovated by the project in 1996-99 to reinforce the dam structures damaged by floods in 1996 and deepen the ponds to increase trout habitat.

Tunnel Pond was designed and constructed by the project in 1999-2000 by excavating into alluvial sand and rock to create a pond fishery while preserving and enhancing an adjacent wetlands area. A benefit often expressed by users of the sites is chance to view wildlife ranging from birds such as bald eagles, ospeys, great blue herons, kingfishers, Canadian geese and other waterfowl, and Lewis’s woodpecker to beaver, otter, bear, and deer and elk.

Project activities include annual stocking of new fish, sampling to monitor fish population and condition, monitoring water quality and fisheries harvest, site maintenance and access road repair, as well as identification and analysis of new pond sites. The original project mandate called for the construction of 6 to 12 additional ponds but the current funding situation has stalled further development. Major events on the project work schedule include a season opener free fishing day at Tunnel Pond the first weekend in April in which the general public is welcome (a permit must be purchased thereafter by non-tribal anglers), and annual camps at Talmaks the week of July 4 and Mud Springs the first week in August.

Trout stocked into the ponds comes from a variety of sources including private hatcheries as well as the USFWS Dworshak National Fish Hatchery. Typically the stockers average about a pound, but occasionally larger fish are obtained resulting in memorable catches. The largest known fish caught was at Tunnel Pond weighing 5 ¼ lbs.