Chinook Fishing Heats Up

The chinook fishing season that began a little slowly is heating up fast. Fishing has been exceptionally good on the Lower Salmon River and the Little Salmon River. On the Clearwater River fishing has been a little slower but is still considered good. In the first two weeks of the season many fish had not migrated far enough upstream to provide fishing. More than 115,000 chinook salmon have passed over Lower Granite Dam on their way to Idaho in the last 30 days. Anglers have fished more than 96,000 hours on the Clearwater system to catch 5,750 salmon since the season began on April 21. That is an average of about 17 hours per chinook salmon caught. In the Lower Salmon River, anglers have fished 17,700 hours and caught 2,600 salmon, averaging seven hours per fish caught. The Little Salmon River catch rates were also seven hours per fish, and the anglers fished for 18,800 hours to catch 2,530 chinook salmon. Fishing has been extremely limited on the Snake River from Dug Bar to Hells Canyon Dam, the only area on the Snake open to salmon fishing in Idaho. There is no official information on fish caught yet. Fishing is restricted to specific boundaries in all of the rivers open for salmon this year. Check the Idaho 2001 Spring Salmon Seasons and Rules brochure for details. They may be picked up at most vendors where fishing licenses are sold. Anglers can also go online at http://www2.state.id.us/fishgame/ for additional information updated each Monday on salmon that have returned to the hatcheries and come across the last dam before entering Idaho.