Good Outlook for a Spring Chinook Fishing Season

So far four Chinook salmon have been counted at the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, but all were headed downstream. Still, the early forecast is a for a good Chinook fishing season in Idaho this year. "We're confident that enough Chinook will return to Idaho this spring for a mid-to-late April season opening," anadromous fish manager Pete Hassemer told the Idaho Fish and Game Commission Wednesday, January 28. Predictions based in part on the number of jacks returning last year, suggest more than 105,000 hatchery Chinook and more than 22,000 wild Chinook may cross Lower Granite Dam this year. Most of those fish are destined for the Salmon and Clearwater river basins in Idaho. The number of returning wild fish is the fourth largest since 1979. The predicted return of hatchery fish means Idaho recreational anglers' share could be more than 9,000 fish on the Clearwater River, more than 9,000 on the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers, and almost 1,400 on the Snake River. Idaho Fish and Game fish managers expect to propose fishing seasons on the Clearwater, Salmon, Little Salmon and Snake rivers in March, Hassemer said. And in May, they expect to propose summer seasons on the upper Salmon River and South Fork Salmon River. Chinook salmon fishing seasons can be set only by the commissioners.