Fishing

I'm not sure we will ever allow fishing for sockeye in Redfish Lake - but I'll bet we have a sockeye season in the Salmon River within the next decade.  With our new Springfield hatchery coming on line with a goal of releasing ~1 millon smolts for migration to the ocean, we are confident we can re-establish sockeye in the Salmon River Basin and have excess fish for anglers to pursue in the Salmon River. Because Snake River system sockeye were listed under the Endangered Species Act, we will need to satisfy National Marine Fishery Service that we can protect wild, returning sockeye while we fish on hatchery sockeye.  They will give us a "take" number (incidental mortality on wild fish).  We have not started discussions on what that number will be. We have stopped stocking Redfish Lake to reduce incidental take on sockeye and competition with juvenile sockeye that spend some of their life in the lake.