Warmwater Enhancement Program

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's warmwater game fish enhancement program began in 1997 at the request of fishing organizations interested in bass, walleye, and other warmwater fish species that are found in Washington. The enabling legislation authorized WDFW to fund the program through a $5 fishing license surcharge. Today the enhancement funds come from a share of the freshwater fishing license dollars at a reduced rate.

The Warmwater Gamefish Enhancement Program's goal is to increase opportunities to fish for and catch warmwater game fish. To do so, the program is conducting fish community assessment surveys in select lakes and identifying management stratagies to improve the quality of fishing. Cooperative groups and volunteers are used whenever possible, to minimize costs and gain the greatest return for the investment.

At the same time, the program is working to ensure no negative impacts to native anadromous species or other native species of fish and wildlife. Current objectives and tasks include:

• Assessing the current status of Washington's warmwater fish resources
• Develop new lakes and ponds for warmwater fishing
• Provide and improve public access to existing warmwater fisheries
• Purchase and produce warmwater fish for stocking
• Develop and maintain warmwater fishing opportunities in urban settings
• Evaluate new species and strains for introduction to state waters
• Use lake rehabilitation to improve warmwater fishing
• Use a variety of habitat-improvement projects to enhance warmwater fish populations
• Prevent the importation of deleterious exotic fish species.

In the first 3 years of the Warmwater Gamefish Enhancement Program WDFW has:

• Established four Warmwater Research Teams around the state to conduct fish community and habitat surveys on 100+ lakes.
• Stocked more than 2 million bass, walleye, tiger musky, channel catfish, crappie and bluegill sunfish into more than four dozen Washington lakes.
• Conducted standardized biological investigations on nearly 40 lakes to determine the best mangement strategies to enhance fishing in these waters.
• Rehabilitated four lakes to remove undesirable fish populations, and restocked these lakes with more desirable warmwater game fish species.
• Placed artificial habitat structure into five waters to enhance them for warmwater fish.
• Completed planning and improvements to provide more public access on over two dozen state waters, including fishing piers, improved launches, a new public access on Sprague Lake, and other similar projects.
• Initiated research to determine how to enhance warmwater fishing without adversely impating native fish and wildlife populations.
• Increased efforts to protect Washington's freshwater ecosystem from deleterious exotic species such as zebra mussel and undesirable aquatic plants.
• Funded a major research effort to determine the impact of warmwater fish on various species of fish and wildlife
• Provided funding to complete construction of the new Ringold warmwater hatchery, completed in 1999.
• Expanded the Youth Fishing Program including the establishment of new waters for juvenile access, improved access at existing juvenile waters, and the sponsoring of several new Youth Fishing Events across the state.