The Great Bass Invasion of the Pend d'Oreille River
The Pend d'Oreille River flows for 249 Kilometres through Idaho and Washington states from its headwaters at Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint, Idaho. After crossing the Canadian border it ambles for a brief 24 km before emptying into the Columbia River. Early French Canadian fur traders named the river the pend d'oreille , which literally means bend of the ear or earring in French, after the large ornate earrings worn by the Kalispell Native Americans who lived on the river.
From a fisheries perspective, the river has had a turbulent history. As early as the 
1880's, European settlers began introducing foreign and exotic species of fish into the river. White fish and brown trout were first introduced, and then in 1941 large Gerrard rainbows and kokanee salmon were stocked to create a viable fishery in Lake Pend Oreille. For years following WW II, the lake produced record-sized rainbow and bull trout until dam construction in 1953 caused kokanee populations to crash along with the trout fishery. Since then, brook trout, lake trout, bass walleye and many other species have been introduced. Today the river is home to 27 species of fish with more than half listed as exotic species. The river is also now extensively dammed, which has created a very different habitat for fish. The moral implications of damming rivers will be discussed later, but for now, for better or worse, this stretch of the Pend d'Oreille offers some of the best bass fishing in the province. 
A Swiftly Changing Current:
In 1895, a US Fish Commission Survey described the Pend d'Oreille River as “ one of the most beautiful and picturesque in America. It is a magnificent river, probably averaging over 1 000 feet in width and being very deep throughout most of its course. In most places there is a good, strong current, becoming dangerous rapids in the narrower places. The water is clear and pure and cold – an ideal trout stream… cutthroat trout are abundant in the river, salmon trout (bull trout) are also quite abundant, and both bite readily. We know of no other trout stream which offers finer opportunities for sport with the rod than the lower Pend d'Oreille River.” (Gilbert and Evermann, 1895.)
The Kalispell natives lived off the thriving salmon, steelhead, trout and char fishery. Whether using weirs to trap fish or dip netting salmon from pools, they relied on the bounty of fish from the river for food and trade as well as religious ceremonies. Today the salmon and steelhead are gone. The rolling rapids, scenic falls and deep pools have all but disappeared. The construction of several dams has completely altered the landscape and riparian course so that the once healthy trout population is only a remnant and the rushing river now a series of slow moving reservoirs and sloughs.
In 1897, recognizing the changing dynamic of the river, the Northwest Power Planning Council (now known as Northwest Power and Conservation Council, NPCC) and Kalispell Tribe's Natural Resource Development decided to amend their Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. Resident and once anadromous salmonids were substituted with largemouth bass and improvements to the habitat were made for optimal bass survival.
These initiatives saw the creation of a warm water bass hatchery on the Kalispell Reserve in northern Washington, which now raises and releases 150,000 bass annually into the Box Canyon Reservoir just below Boundary Dam. They also agreed to construct, monitor and operate bass nurseries in the Pend d'Oreille wetlands, and build, place and maintain artificial cover structures in order to increase the overwinter survival of bass fry. The resulting large and smallmouth bass fishery of the Box Canyon Reservoir has produced some of the largest bass in North America.