Chinook salmon returning to Idaho this year may bring the second-best salmon season in decades along with an economic lift to some rural communities and salmon fishing to the Sawtooth Valley.
Fishery managers are forecasting nearly 100,000 Chinook salmon across Lower Granite Dam on their return to Idaho.
During a special meeting last month in Boise, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission heard an optimistic forecast for spring and summer Chinook salmon seasons.
The good news is that 83,550 hatchery salmon are expected to cross Lower Granite Dam, with most of them returning to Idaho. But only 14,150 wild fish are expected. That's a four-fold increase in hatchery fish, but a little less than twice as many wild fish, anadromous fish manager Pete Hassemer told commissioners.
In 2007, the total forecast return was 27,700 and the actual count was 29,240 at Lower Granite Dam, the last of eight federal dams the fish encounter on their way back to Idaho rivers.
The salmon return is good news for anglers, and it's also expected to have a positive economic impact on Idaho communities along the Clearwater, Salmon and Snake rivers.
High hatchery returns in 2001 left an estimated $90 million impact on the state's economy, when 141,000 hatchery fish returned. In 1997, the salmon fishery had an estimated $14.6 million impact with 40,000 fish.
The forecast for 2008 is about halfway between those two.
It is still too early to set salmon seasons, but Fish and Game anticipates opening some stretches of river that haven't seen a salmon season in 30 years. Seasons this year may include Chinook fishing on the upper Salmon River. The last time anglers could fish for Chinook in the Sawtooth Valley was in 1977.
Because a season is possible, managers want to plan carefully to ensure the opportunity isn't missed.
Still there are limits on salmon take to protect the wild-origin Chinook salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Under a permit from NOAA Fisheries, Idaho anglers can take only up to one-half of one percent of the wild return. When that limit is reached all fishing would stop. Because wild fish cannot be kept, the amount of take that occurs is estimated based on the number of wild fish caught and released by anglers. Fish managers estimate that 10 percent of wild fish caught and released die.
"We have to monitor the catch very closely," Hassemer said.
But with the numbers of hatchery-origin fish expected to return, fishing seasons probably will be more liberal than in recent years. Anglers will be handling fewer wild fish, he said.
That means longer fishing hours, perhaps seven days a week in most open areas. Regional fishery managers are working and planning to provide as much fishing opportunity as possible, Hassemer said.
Part of that planning will be regional public meetings to determine angler preferences about fishing hours and bag limits.
When fish start coming across the dams, information from PIT tags - computer tags implanted in some wild and hatchery fish - will help managers validate the forecast numbers and identify the drainages the fish are from.
Some forecast numbers available for nontribal anglers include:
- On the Clearwater Rivera - more than 8,000 fish.
- On the Snake between Dug Bar and Hells Canyon Dam-about 1,000 fish.
- On the Salmon between Hammer Creek and the Rapid Rivera-about 9,000 fish.
- On the South Fork Salmon Rivera-about 2,300 fish.
Fish and Game expects to propose Chinook spring seasons to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, which would set any seasons and limits, by mid-April. And if the forecast holds up, seasons may open by late April.
"The fish may not be in Idaho in late April; that depends on a several environmental factors," Hassemer said. "We're looking at late April openings because we want to let anglers know as early as possible when and where the seasons would occur and we want anglers to be able to start fishing on those salmon as soon as they return."
--Idaho Department of Fish and Game
