Special Dry Bed Season Begins Two Weeks Early

Each year the head gates to the Dry Bed, or Great Feeder as it is also known, are shut off by the Great Feeder Association so that water users can make repairs to canals and head gates throughout the water delivery system. Because this results in the dewatering of a portion of the Dry Bed, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game allows anglers to use normally prohibited methods from April 1 through April 30. This year, because water users anticipate an earlier-than-normal demand for water, the shutoff is occurring about two weeks early and will begin on March 14. For this reason, Fish and Game has issued an order to allow the special rules opportunity to begin on March 15 and run through April 30. This order allows anglers to take fish by hand, dipnet or snagging. Spears, archery, seining, toxic chemicals, explosives, electric current and firearms are prohibited. The order does not remove the daily bag limit and applies only to that section of the Dry Bed between the Highway 48 Bridge and the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge, about 1.5 miles northeast of Ririe. There are no minimum size limits. But anglers are limited to the normal daily limits that apply to the Dry Bed, which is 6 trout in the aggregate - includes rainbow, cutthroat, or brown trout - and 25 whitefish. For further information, please contact the Regional Office of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at 208-525-7290.