Ask Fish and Game: Chinook Limits

Q. Why can I only keep one adult salmon on the Clearwater River when the limit is two adults in most other places? A. Chinook salmon fisheries are managed to provide diverse angling opportunities and to ensure hatchery brood goals are met. In the Clearwater River drainage, there are around 230 miles of river open to salmon fishing at the start of the season. Fish and Game tries to distribute harvest out across this reach so that all the communities located along the river have a chance to enjoy the fishery. The challenge when managing this fishery is how to keep the most people satisfied. Over the years, Chinook anglers have repeatedly commented that the most important thing to them is to keep the season open as long as possible. Anglers felt the seasons were too short and that they wanted Fish and Game to do something to make them last longer. When given various season-length alternatives, anglers responded that their preferred strategy was to lower the limits (based on thousands of responses collected). Using this input, fish managers usually only allow a daily adult limit of one fish. In years when the run is higher, managers have found that they can increase the limit to two adults per day and still keep the season open an acceptable amount of time.