I wanted to get a final fishery update out today, even though the Clearwater Region’s spring/summer Chinook fisheries are still winding down for the year. I have included the most recent fishery information from the Little Salmon River and Hell’s Canyon as well as a look toward next year based upon the jack returns we have seen in 2017. In addition, Joe DuPont is back from his time in Boise so look for future updates from him in the next few months on upcoming Fall Chinook and steelhead seasons as well as an end of season spring Chinook brood stock collection update.
Fishery Updates:
Little Salmon River
Anglers continued to catch Chinook on the Little Salmon River during the past interval. Effort has dropped significantly over the past few weeks but those anglers getting out and fishing still are having good catch rates at 11 hrs/fish caught. Since effort was low we didn’t document much harvest but estimate 18 adults and 19 jacks were harvested. The fishery is still going to remain open this coming interval and it sounds like fish condition is still decent so get out and take advantage.
Hell’s Canyon:
We continued to document limited angling effort in the Hell’s Canyon fishery as well. Folks that did fish down there documented the best catch rates of the entire season with 4 hrs/fish caught! Similar to the Little Salmon, since effort is low even these great catch rates did not amount to a ton of harvest. We estimated 15 adults and 12 jacks were harvested in the fishery last week. The fishery will remain open this week.
If closures are issued on either of these fisheries over the next few weeks, we will get the word out.
Jack Returns in 2017 and what that may mean for 2018:
As many of you know, we use jack returns from the current year to predict 2-ocean adult returns for the next year. The thought being that the performance of jacks, which spend one year in the ocean, is a good predictor of how 2-ocean adults will perform. We know that this method is not exact and certainly, this year has shown us how a lot of variables, many out of our control, can affect how well salmon return to Idaho. With that in mind, I hope you will find the following information useful.
During the 2017 run year we estimate a jack return of 2,336 for the Clearwater River hatcheries and an estimate of 1,331 for Rapid River hatchery. Based on past data of known jack returns and the following years adult return we can estimate an adult return for 2018. This estimate is represented by the yellow dot on the two charts below. The estimated 2018 adult return for Clearwater Hatcheries is 15,423 adult Chinook and Rapid River is 12,762 adult Chinook.
You can see these estimates are not as good as some years in the dataset but they are better than the returns we estimated to Bonneville this year (red dots on the chart). Based on jack returns this year, the data makes us optimistic next year will be a better run.
Like many of you, even as one season starts to wind down we are already excited to start looking to the next. This is a place to start and rest assured as we get more information regarding next year’s run prediction and the seasons in 2018 we will pass it along. - Brett Bowersox. Fish and Game Fisheries, Clearwater Region