First Salmon Season in 27 Years on Upper Salmon River

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has approved a salmon season on the Upper Salmon River for the first time since 1978. Anglers will be allowed to harvest adipose clipped salmon on a 17 mile stretch of the Salmon River from Iron Creek Bridge to a posted boundary near the mouth of the Pahsimeroi River. The season will begin Saturday July 9, and will continue until a very limited number of hatchery chinook salmon are harvested. Anadromous Fisheries Manager Sharon Kiefer said that number depends on data that changes daily as salmon return to the hatchery "We believe the state's share of the harvestable surplus for recreational anglers will be between 150 to 450 fish," Kiefer said. Anglers will be limited to one fish per day, three in possession, and ten for the season. Salmon caught in any Idaho fishery must be counted in the ten fish season limit. Anglers must stop fishing immediately once any of those limits are achieved. Fishing hours will begin one half hour before sunrise each day, and will end at 7 pm. The early daily closure is necessary so that Fish and Game personnel can adequately monitor the harvest while keeping workers safe on the busy highway. Anglers must take any chinook they catch to a check station by 8:30 pm on the day of harvest. Check stations will be set up approximately five miles upstream and downstream from the fishery boundaries. Barbless hooks measuring no more than 5/8 inch from the tip to the shank are required. NOAA fisheries approved a permit application for the Upper Salmon River this spring, but Fish and Game biologists became concerned when the number of Chinook passing dams on the Lower Snake River was lower than anticipated. The first priority among fisheries managers is to ensure enough fish return to the hatchery and to natural spawning grounds to spawn future generations of salmon. It is hard to know exactly how many fish will reach their final destination until they begin showing up at the hatchery trap. "Now that we're actually trapping fish we have good information in terms of projecting the run," Kiefer said "We need about 600 adults at Pahsimeroi to reach our broodstock goal of producing one million smolts. We're very close to that number. As of yesterday we had trapped 94% of the females necessary, so we're very confident we will achieve our production goal." The Pahsimeroi hatchery is funded by Idaho Power Company to mitigate for the Hells Canyon complex of dams.