Blockbuster Steelhead Run Heads for Idaho

The 2001-2002 steelhead run is charging toward Idaho rivers early and big. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission received the good news at its meeting in Driggs August 8-10 where the department recommended keeping limits the same as last year while dam counts are monitored. Increased limits are a possibility if current count trends continue. Coming over Bonneville Dam--the first dam steelhead must negotiate on the Columbia River--the August 12 count was 356,000 with about 25 percent wild fish in the mix. The 1991-2000 average is 96,000 steelhead. The number on the same date last year was 132,000 compared to 95,000 in 1999. The current forecast for Bonneville calls for at least 500,000 steelhead, more than double the 1975-2000 average of 217,000. Last year, 274,000 crossed Bonneville. At Lower Granite DamÑthe last dam on the Columbia-Snake River system before anadromous fish can re-enter IdahoÑ11,600 steelhead had already crossed by August 12. On that date, the average is 2,500. About 4,200 had made it by that date last year. The current forecast for steelhead returning to Idaho waters is 200,000, more than twice the average 74,000. A-run fish are estimated at 166,000 with 34,000 of the larger B-run steelhead. The total of both runs was 115,000 last year which was well ahead of the 73,000 in 1999. Catch and release steelhead fishing has been allowed since August 1. Catch and keep begins September 1 on the Snake and Salmon rivers, October 15 on the Clearwater River. Only hatchery-reared, adipose fin-clipped, steelhead may be kept at any time. The same favorable runoff and ocean conditions that contributed Idaho's outstanding chinook fishing this year also allowed enough juvenile steelhead to pass over dams to feed well in the ocean before returning in strong numbers. Idaho's fisheries biologists are encouraging anglers to enjoy this huge bump in numbers but remind Idahoans that this is a rare thing and does not constitute recovery of steelhead.