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Idaho Fish and Game

Another year of South Fork steelhead broodstock collection success

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Thank you to all the volunteer anglers for making this program possible!

Fish and Game fisheries staff started collecting broodstock fish on the South Fork of the Clearwater River on Feb. 3 and wrapped up March 23. Volunteer anglers tubed 781 steelhead, and 580 (295 females and 285 males) of those met the hatchery origin and length requirements for broodstock.

Low February flows in the South Fork Clearwater delayed upstream steelhead migration, limiting catch and brood collection. The second week of March picked up significantly with 20-30 steelhead each day being collected, with several consecutive days averaging 40 fish per day. 

Again this season, hundreds of volunteer anglers signed up to participate and make this program the success it is. Thank you to our volunteers for making this program possible in the Clearwater Region!   

Volunteer anglers gather throughout the South Fork Clearwater River to fish for steelhead to meet Clearwater hatchery broodstock needs.
Volunteer anglers catch fish to use for the hatchery broodstock program.
Steelhead are placed into tubes set in the river until fisheries staff arrive to pick them up for transport to hatchery.
Fisheries staff scan steelhead for a coded wire tag (CWT) and/or a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag.
Steelhead are transported to an aeriated tank on the back of a hatchery truck. Steelhead fins are marked to identify them as hatchery fish.
Steelhead are transported back to the hatchery for spawning.
Back at the hatchery, steelhead are sorted and ripe fish are spawned. Females are opened up and eggs are collected and placed into stackable egg trays. Eggs reside in trays until hatching. When fish hatch, they are eventually put into outdoor raceways and raised at the hatchery for almost a year until they are released back into the South Fork Clearwater as smolts. Smolts then migrate from the South Fork Clearwater out to the ocean to hopefully come back as adults to the South Fork Clearwater in another few years!