BOISE — The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has approved spring Chinook fishing on the Clearwater, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers.
Fishing will open on April 27, with a two-day-a-week season on the Clearwater River and a four-day-a-week season on the Salmon and Little Salmon rivers. The season will run until sport anglers’ shares of the harvest are met (which varies by river) or Aug. 11 -— whichever comes sooner.
“Due to very low projected returns the Upper Snake River in Hells Canyon, fisheries managers did not propose to open a spring Chinook season for the fishery this year,” according to Fish and Game spokesman Brian Pearson.
“Chinook have just started entering the Columbia River, and a small portion of them are working their way through Columbia/Snake river systems,” he said.
Fisheries managers are forecasting a run of about 32,000 spring Chinook through Lower Granite Dam, which is about 25 miles downstream from Lewiston -- and the last of the eight dams that returning salmon cross on their way back to Idaho. The forecast is similar to last year’s actual return of 39,000, and below the 10-year average return of 75,000.
Included in the forecast are about 26,000 hatchery Chinook and 6,000 wild Chinook. The 2018 returns were 32,000 and 7,000, respectively, and the 10-year averages are 58,000 and 17,000, Pearson said. “Forecasts are a starting point for managing Chinook returns, and they will be adjusted as fish migrate through the river systems,” he added.
The number of days open to fishing are set according to the projected sport anglers' share for each fishery.
Because the forecasted Chinook return for the Salmon River basin is about 8,700 fish -- and the sport anglers’ share would be 1,430 fish this year -- fishing will be open Thursday through Sunday, with a daily limit of four total fish, only two of which may be adults.
For the Clearwater River basin, the projected return is about 9,400 adult fish, and the sport anglers’ harvest share would be 470. Fishing will be open on Saturday and Sunday, with a daily limit of four total fish, only one of which may be an adult.
Just 123 adult fish are projected to return the Upper Snake River in Hells Canyon, where fisheries managers do not expect a sport angler harvest share at all.
“Due to extremely high flows at Hells Canyon in 2017, we had high total dissolved gasses, which are potentially lethal to fish,” said Jim Fredericks, Fish and Game’s Fisheries Bureau Chief. “In 2017, we chose to release the fish allocated for Hells Canyon at Rapid River instead, to ensure that they survived. For that reason, we have hardly any two-year-old fish coming back to Hells Canyon this year.”
Only hatchery Chinook with a clipped adipose fin may be kept by anglers, and all others must be released unharmed. Chinook anglers are restricted to barbless hooks.
Anglers should refer to the 2019 spring Chinook salmon seasons and rules brochure for other rules and special restrictions, which will be available online in early April, and in paper form prior to the spring Chinook season at Fish and Game offices and license vendors.
The Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to decide on summer Chinook salmon fisheries on the Lochsa River, South Fork Salmon River and upper Salmon River at its May meeting. Fish return to those areas later than to the Clearwater River and Rapid River hatcheries, allowing fishery managers more time to develop season proposals.
Waters open to fishing:
Clearwater River drainage — open Saturday and Sunday
•Mainstream Clearwater River: Camas Prairie Bridge to Highway 12 Bridge; Pink House Boat Ramp to Greer Bridge
•North Fork: Open, no boats
•Middle Fork: Open
•South Fork: Harpster Grade to Mount Idaho Grade Bridge.
Salmon River drainage — open Thursday through Sunday
•Rice Creek Bridge to Vinegar Creek Boat Ramp
•Entirety of Little Salmon River
Snake River — closed
