Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation Fish & Wildlife: Fish Tags

Welcome to CCTFWFISHTAGS. This website serves to help collect and distribute information regarding fish identification tags, and fishing in general in Rufus Woods Lake. In its current form, this website focuses exclusively on the resident fisheries in Rufus Woods Lake, which are managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (CTCR), Fish and Wildlife Department, Resident Fisheries Division, Hatchery Subdivision.

Rufus Woods Lake is an 82 km (51 mile) long section of the upper Columbia River, impounded downstream by Chief Joseph Dam and upstream by Grand Coulee Dam. The reservoir is often termed a run-of-the-river reservoir due to its relatively low water retention times, averaging 72 hours; a result of its narrow and deep channel. Rufus Woods represents about half of the southern boundary of the Colville Reservation, and separates the Reservation from Douglas County to the south. Rufus Woods Lake is jointly managed by CTCR Fish and Wildlife and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

Species known to inhabit Rufus Woods included: Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), Walleye (Sander vitreus), Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka), Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio),Tench (Tinca tinca), Burbot (Lota lota), Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu), Lake Whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), Northern Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus oregonensis), Longnose Sucker (Catostomus catostomus), Largescale Sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus), Bridgelip Sucker (Catostomus columbianus) and Brown Trout (Salmo trutta), but a variety of additional species may also inhabit the reservoir based on its upstream connection to Lake Roosevelt and its tributaries.

The Rufus Woods Creel and Supplementation project has a primary goal of monitoring and evaluating the subsistence fishery for Tribal members and quality sport fishery for non-members. In order to do this, the project attempts to determine a sustainable supplementation strategy that will produce the highest level of angler effort and catch rate of desirable sized Rainbow Trout. The CTCR Fish and Wildlife Department on average annually stocks between 50,000 and 75,000 triploid Rainbow Trout. These fish are stocked at a large enough size to be immediately available for angler harvest after stocking. Most stocked fish are harvested within the same year they're stocked, but some fish do survive multiple years and these hold-over fish often grow to very large sizes. In order to provide information on the fishery for sustainable management, the CTCR has initiated studies to determine angling dynamics, Rainbow Trout entrainment rates and reservoir residence times, and production potential for a put-grow-and-take Rainbow Trout fishery. The goal of the survey is to determine stocking strategies that will meet management objectives, and provide the best overall experience for tribal and non-tribal anglers.