Steelhead Trout

New Fall Chinook Salmon and Steelhead Seasons and Limits

Hi everybody, our commission met today to discuss and take action on fall Chinook Salmon and steelhead seasons and limits in Idaho.  They have made some important decisions that I am sure many of you would like to know about.

Fall Chinook Salmon

Wild Salmon Move All Year Long

Salmon were made to move and they start while very young. In Idaho, baby salmon start spreading out soon after hatching out from their gravel nests in early spring to find good habitat. Some roam in summer looking for food and shelter. Here is a fish eye view of what that looks like. Many head downstream  in the fall to larger rivers to find a good place to spend the long Idaho winter. These young salmon will then wait through winter until the next spring, when they ride the high water of spring snow melt  on the long journey to the Pacific Ocean.

Fish and Game’s Magic Valley hatcheries lead the way in steelhead production

Each year, steelhead anglers throughout the state reap the benefits of fish reared in Magic Valley steelhead hatcheries. Because of the area’s cold clean water, three local Idaho Fish and Game hatcheries in the Snake River canyon raise steelhead that will ultimately be released as smolts to begin their migration to the Pacific Ocean. Depending on the strain of either an A-Run or B-run, Idaho steelhead will spend the next 1-2 years maturing in the saltwater before returning to Idaho. Steelhead have an anadromous life history that begins in freshwater.

Steelhead Graduate Study field work gets underway

Written by Will Lubenau, University of Idaho

As you have hopefully heard by now, the University of Idaho and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game have teamed up to study the potential influence of catch-and-release angling on wild steelhead. We’ll be doing project updates like this one once a month during the study to let folks know how things are going.

How we monitor steelhead habitat restoration

Trapping Success Despite Low Return of Steelhead

The Lochsa River is managed as a wild steelhead refuge that does not allow steelhead fishing and does not have hatchery steelhead stocking.  A number of other drainages across the state are manged the same way such as the Middle Fork Salmon, South Fork Salmon and Selway rivers to name a few.

Making steelhead habitat complex

See some differences between these two pictures? You may be wondering where all the logs came from in one of the pictures. Well, they were put there as part of a steelhead habitat restoration project to help make more complex habitat for fish living in the East Fork Potlatch River. Complex habitat is good because it provides cover for rearing fish to avoid predators, creates places for fish to rest and feed, and moves the river flow so that new pools are formed and spawning gravels stay in the stream rather than flush downstream.

Sampling Adult Steelhead at Lower Granite Dam

We are starting to see steelhead show up to Lower Granite Dam as summer Chinook are now slowing down. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game teams up with the US Corps of Engineers, and NOAA fisheries to gain information on fish bound for Idaho waters. The adult trap (pictured) allows the team to sample adult fish from the run as they are coming through the ladder. Some of the information we gain include where these fish are likely to go (based on genetic analysis), how old these fish are, how big these fish are, and what kind of injuries do we see on these fish.

Preparing for electrofishing

Idaho Department of Fish and Game crew blocks off a section of stream to electrofish for wild steelhead. Electrofishing is a common survey method used to sample fish to determine what kinds of fish and how many of a given species are in a section of stream. Block nets are temporarily placed on the lower and upper ends of a stream section to keep fish from leaving the area before being sampled.

Fish and Game partners with University of Idaho to study catch rates of wild steelhead

Idaho Fish and Game has teamed up with the University of Idaho on a new research program to study how often anglers catch wild steelhead, and how well those fish survive after being released.