Office of the Governor
For Immediate Release: Friday, July 12, 2002
For More Information: Bob Mercer or Mike Mueller, 773-3212

Lake Oahe’s Smelt Hatch Improves After State’s Lawsuit

(Pierre) -- Gov. Bill Janklow said Friday that South Dakota’s lawsuit over water levels on the Missouri River definitely paid off this spring, with Lake Oahe posting its best hatch of rainbow smelt in years.

"Because smelt are the main source of food for walleyes and other game fish, this is great news for the entire fishery.  And it’s great news for everybody who enjoys fishing on Lake Oahe or depends upon the fishing for their livelihood," Janklow said. "Had we not gone to court, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would have kept taking water from Oahe in those crucial few weeks of April and May, and they would have left the smelt eggs high and dry to die."

Typically, smelt lay their eggs near shore in about six inches of water.  The Corps of Engineers had planned to draw down Lake Oahe by about three feet during the spawning and incubation period, which would have wiped out any opportunity for a smelt hatch this year.  Instead Janklow went to U.S. District Court and received a preliminary injunction that temporarily barred the Corps from drawing down Oahe until May 25, when the hatch would be substantially completed. A federal appeals court lifted the judge’s order one day early.

State Game, Fish and Parks Department biologists estimated that approximately half of the smelt eggs were protected as a result of the order. GF&P crews recently completed their annual sampling and found an average of five newly-hatched smelt per 100 cubic meters.  That was the best hatch since 1997 and more than double the 1998-2001 average of two newly-hatched smelt per 100 cubic meters.

In very good years, the hatch can run as high as 50 to 100 per 100 cubic meters.  Lake Oahe’s smelt population was decimated in summer 1997, when millions of smelt were flushed through the dam as the Corps released heavy flows because of high water.

"Our fishery experts tell me the hatch this spring still wasn’t as high as it’s been in the past, but they feel the fishery is showing some good signs of recovery," Janklow said.

-- 30 --