Officials hope A-run steelhead just tardy

Idaho Fish and Game officials are closely watching returns of A-run steelhead and preparing for the possibility of bag limit reductions.

Returns of steelhead to Pahsimeroi and Sawtooth hatcheries in south central Idaho are flagging based on PIT tag detections at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

“We are still not seeing the number of one-ocean steelhead we would expect to see, but we are seeing slightly more two-ocean steelhead,” said Lance Hebdon, anadromous fish manager for the department at Boise.

Steelhead that spend just one year in the ocean are generally referred to as A-run fish and return to rivers throughout the Columbia and Snake river basins, including the Salmon, Snake and Grande Ronde rivers. The B-run of steelhead generally consists of fish that spend two years in the ocean and return mostly to the Clearwater River.

“This really low return of steelhead that have spent one year in the ocean is a basin-wide phenomena. We are not seeing as many one-ocean fish as we would expect in other places in the Columbia Basin,” Hebdon said.

The agency is preparing to recommend bag limit reductions to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission at its Thursday meeting. But Hebdon said there is a quickly closing window in which returns of A-run fish could increase enough to avoid that outcome.

“It’s early enough in the run that those one-ocean fish could still show, but if we don’t see them in the next week then the writing is on the wall and they just aren’t there,” he said.

From July 1 through Tuesday, 2,077 steelhead had been counted at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River. That is ahead of returns seen during the previous three years but still well behind the 10-year average of nearly 4,000.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

“It’s early enough in the run that those one-ocean fish could still show, but if we don’t see them in the next week then the writing is on the wall and they just aren’t there.”

Lance Hebdon, anadromous fish manager for the department at Boise