Steelhead Still in Rivers

Steelhead anglers on Idaho's Salmon River may get some extra late-season opportunity this year thanks to cold water. The number of fish returning to the Pahsimeroi Hatchery is down from past years. Anadromous Fishery Coordinator Bill Horton believes the low return probably has something to do with low water temperatures. "We had a fairly cold spring, water temps have been down, and fish haven't been moving into the hatchery as early as usual" Horton said. Last week temperatures in the Salmon River finally started warming up. Water temperatures hit the 50s in some stretches of river, and the fish appeared to respond. On Thursday, April 07, 120 steelhead were trapped at Pahsimeroi. That's about twenty percent of the total number trapped at Pahsimeroi for the entire season prior to that date. On Monday, hatchery workers found 385 fish in the trap, which raised the total to about 1,400. "Normally we have more than 2000 fish in the trap by now, but we don't feel it's time to get too nervous yet" Horton said. Even if the number of steelhead returning to Pahsimeroi remains lower than average, Horton says there should be more than enough fish to meet hatchery goals. Fish and Game needs about three million "eyed eggs" from Pahsimeroi to produce the optimum number of steelhead for future runs. That requires a total of 2,000 fish returning to the hatchery. Horton thinks we'll get there "We've had no fewer than 3,740 in each of the previous four years." Meanwhile, up the river, the Sawtooth Hatchery is right on track. More than 800 steelhead have been trapped there. Of those, 65 percent are males, indicating to managers that most of the run is still to come. Production goals at Sawtooth require the capture of around 1,000 steelhead. Since the year 2000 Sawtooth has trapped at least 2,400 steelhead per year. Creel census indicates the best fishing on the main Salmon River has been in the stretch directly below the Sawtooth Hatchery. However anglers downstream from North Fork were still averaging 12 hours per fish as of April 3, an indication that there were still plenty of steelhead well downstream from the Pahsimeroi Hatchery. The general season for steelhead fishing closes on April 30. However, the Little Salmon River will remain open until May 15, and steelhead fishing remains open on the Snake River from Hells Canyon Dam upstream to Oxbow Dam and the Boise River until May 31. The main Salmon River downstream from Long Tom Creek closed on March 31.