Hatchery Steelhead Paradigm Shift

Some Idaho steelhead anglers will need to adjust their thinking about which fish can be kept and why in the next few years as a small but noticeable shift in the harvest management program takes hold. This shift is the result of a settlement negotiated between the Idaho, Washington, Oregon, the federal government, and the Columbia Treaty Tribes that reduces tribal harvest rates in the gillnet fisheries in the lower Columbia River but requires more steelhead smolts produced in Idaho's hatcheries be released without an adipose fin clip. This agreement was reached a few years ago and provides that the treaty tribes gillnetting in the lower Columbia River reduce their fall harvest rate of steelhead. Federally funded steelhead hatcheries in Idaho will in turn release approximately 2 percent of their smolts without an adipose fin clip. These fish are being tracked through the treaty and non-treaty Columbia and Snake River fisheries, and are not counted as wild fish. These unmarked fish will be released into Lolo Creek, the Little Salmon River, the South Fork Clearwater River, and several streams in Washington and Oregon as a part of a continuing experiment to test if stocking large numbers of smolts in a drainage can boost natural populations of steelhead. These drainages were chosen because they have a history of hatchery steelhead influence, and therefore pose a low risk of negative impacts to true native steelhead areas. The Little Salmon and South Fork Clearwater Rivers are very popular spring steelhead fishing streams, and anglers will ultimately catch some of these unmarked hatchery steelhead. While only 2 percent of the Idaho hatchery steelhead production will be released unmarked, up to 20 percent of the smolts released in these two streams will be unmarked. This is a significant change in the harvest program for these two drainages. Steelhead anglers will have to remember that an adult steelhead must have a missing adipose fin as evidenced by a healed scar in order to be legal to harvest. Many of these unmarked fish will have eroded dorsal and pectoral fins and may be recognizable as a hatchery fish, but with an intact adipose fin they must be released unharmed. While an angler may be puzzled about having to release an obvious hatchery fish, hopefully he will realize that with reduced downriver gillnetting there will be benefits to both wild and hatchery stocks of steelhead returning to Idaho. This agreement does not mean that Idaho is backing away from its long-standing commitment to protecting the genetic integrity and population status of its core wild steelhead areas, such as the Middle and South Forks of the Salmon River, or the Lochsa and Selway River drainages. These areas and fish are, and will continue to be, the backbone and future of wild, native steelhead populations in Idaho. For over 20 years, Idaho has led the nation in protecting relatively weak stocks of native steelhead while utilizing hatchery programs to build and sustain sport fisheries. This progressive management program has allowed Idaho to continue to have excellent sport fisheries for one of the world's greatest gamefishes in the face of ESA listings of wild steelhead. Larry Barrett is a Senior Fishery Technician working in the Clearwater Region. He has worked for IDFG for 13 years.