The number of Idaho-bound spring chinook passing Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River is quickly diminishing, and fisheries managers believe the state's harvest share estimate is stabilizing.
Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, expects anglers on the Clearwater River and its tributaries to have a harvest share of about 2,000 adult chinook. Survival of hatchery-bred chinook between Bonneville Dam and Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River has been about average. The same is not true for chinook returning to the Rapid River Hatchery. DuPont said survival of those fish appears below average, and the harvest share is estimated at only about 900 adult salmon. The Snake River in Hells Canyon is expected to have a harvest share of about 200 fish.
Harvest thus far has been modest on the Clearwater. The department estimates 41 were caught on the river last week. However, DuPont said flows are dropping and harvest is likely to improve for the four-day fishing interval that started Thursday. High flows on the lower Salmon River are expected to make fishing tough there, he said. Fishing is open seven days a week there. The department has yet to document harvest on the lower Salmon or Little Salmon rivers. About 10 were caught on the Snake River in Hells Canyon last week.
The Snake River in Washington will be open in select locations again this week. A short section near Ice Harbor Dam is open today and Saturday and short stretches near Little Goose Dam and Clarkston will be open Sunday and Monday. The state has about 550 adult chinook remaining on its harvest quota for the Snake River.
Washington raised the daily bag limit to two adult hatchery chinook per day at both the Ice Harbor and Little Goose fisheries in order to help ensure the state's quota is met. The Clarkston fishery will keep it's one adult bag limit. Jeremy Trump, district fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Dayton, said Clarkston's bag limit is remaining at one to prevent the fishery from disproportionately impacting the return chinook to the Clearwater River if the fish stack up near the mouth.
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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.
