Grassroots movement asks F & G to open Clearwater River for steelhead

A grassroots movement aimed at forcing the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to open the Clearwater River to consumptive steelhead fishing during the spring season appears to be picking up steam in both Lewiston and Orofino.

A petition requesting such a season gathered 58 names at an Orofino sportsman’s shop recently and was sent to fish and game headquarters at Boise. Two more such petitions have been gathering names in Lewiston.

The petition makes four basic points, but the thrust of it is that fish and game has taken a high-handed approach to closing the river and is not serving the best interests of the citizens of the state who live near the river.

But despite the movement, the department says that it has no intention of changing its decision to close the Clearwater this spring. It says it is willing to explain its position in a meeting with the fishermen.

But it has taken the stand that there are just enough fish coming up the Clearwater now to meet the needs of both the hatchery at Dworshak Dam and for use in other projects around the state and not enough for consumptive fishing.

That approach is not sitting well with some local fishermen. One is Larry Cooley, a Lewiston barber. He filled one of the petitions by posting it in his shop on Thain Road and was close to filling a second early this week.

He thinks that there are plenty of fish in the river and other fishermen agree with him.

Cooley feels that the Clearwater could be opened if it weren’t for stubbornness on the part of the fish and game department. The Snake and Salmon rivers are open.

“My personal opinion is that I just think that they (fish and game) have miscalculated the number of fish coming back (up the Clearwater) and they don’t want to admit it,” Cooley said.

He says that throughout the fall season, when the Clearwater was open for catch-and-release fishing, people were coming into his shop and telling him that they were catching 30 to 40 fish. He takes that to be an indication that there are plenty of fish in the river.

Bob West of West’s Guns and Tackle Shop at Orofino, says the feeling is much the same there. The first petition was filled at his shop.

“All we hear is people saying that there are lots of fish in the river,” West says. “Some say they are catching a fish every half hour.”

Does the fish and game department doubt what Cooley or West are saying?

Not at all, says Bert Bowler, a fish biologist with the Lewiston office of the department. But he says the petitioners are misinterpreting what is happening.

“I’m sure a lot of people have done that this fall,” he said, referring to Cooley’s and West’s statements. “That’s not unusual.”

Bowler also says that such catch figures don’t indicate that there are more fish coming back to Dworshak than the 3,000 estimate that fish and game expects.

“The fishing is good because, with catch-and-release, a lot of fish are being caught more than once,” he said. “And there haven’t been that many people fishing and that means less harassment.” That, in turn, Bowler says, means the steelhead aren’t as wary.

The combination of those two conditions, Bowler says, can make it appear that there are a lot of fish in the river.

The fishermen also feel that there has been a contradiction between what fish and game says it needs and what the hatchery says it needs.

West pointed out that Wayne Olson, manager of the hatchery, said that he needs 1,800 fish for spawning purposes while the fish and game says it needs 3,000 fish at the hatchery.

Bowler said the difference is not a contradiction. He says while the hatchery may need just 1,800, fish and game needs about 1,200 more for other purposes, such as projects to enhance populations in other rivers.

Another point on the petition is a demand that catch-and-release policies be stopped. Cooley and others contend that it is harmful to the fish.

But Bowler counters by saying that extensive department studies have shown that catch-and-release is not a problem for steelhead, as long as fishermen follow the regulations, which include the use of barbless hooks.

He said it would be a problem in the spring, when the fish are packed with eggs. But he said that is why there is no catch-and-release season in the spring — only in the fall.

But Cooley says he has heard all those arguments and is not satisfied.

Along with his first petition, he sent the department a letter of his own, in which he explained his own lack of satisfaction with the way the department is going about its business.

He feels the conservation officers from the department are too concerned with being “policemen” and that Nez Perce fishermen — who currently do not have to follow the same regulations as non-Natives — should be more tightly regulated. He also feels the department should take more time to deal with the people it serves, explaining its actions to them.

“Here we have this fishing right here and we can’t take advantage of it,” he says. “Instead, we have to go 50 or 60 miles (to fish the Salmon or other parts of the Snake).

“I guess it’s just that some guys like me have had their bellyful. It all gets a little asinine, it seems to me.”

This story was published in the Dec. 31, 1981, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.