No Sockeye Return To Central Idaho Lake

No Snake River sockeye have made it back to central Idaho’s Redfish Lake to spawn this year, but fish advocates have not given up hope for the endangered salmon.

“The fish are so incredibly strong and they have such a tremendous will to survive that they constantly surprise me,” said Charles Ray of Idaho Rivers United.

Brent Snider, director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Sawtooth Fish Hatchery near Stanley, said only three sockeye have passed eastern Washington’s Lower Granite Dam, the last of eight dams on the fish’s 900-mile return trip up the Columbia and Snake river from the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s grim. Grim,” Fish and Game biologist Sharon Kiefer said.

The peak return season typically runs from mid- to late-August.

The trip from Lower Granite to spawning beds at Redfish Lake usually takes the salmon 10 to 20 days. The last fish cleared Lower Granite 28 days ago.

Last year, 14,000 captively bred sockeye were dropped into Redfish Lake. Those fish made their run for the ocean this spring. But with the projected adult return rate for sockeye at 0.2 percent, that means only about 28 fish will make it back to spawn.