Chinook Season Likely

Idaho fishing

The spring chinook salmon spawning run to Idaho looks good, and the Fish and Game Department says if early predictions hold up, the state could have its first sport salmon season in several years.

The projection is for a spring run of 20,600 fish, more than double the seven-year average of 10,700.

Agency officials said there appears to be a stronger survival rate this spring from the 6.7 million spring chinook smolts that migrated from hatcheries to the Pacific Ocean in 1995.

Hatchery adults returning to the Rapid River hatchery on the Little Salmon River near Riggins and the Dworshak and Kooskia federal hatcheries on the Clearwater river will form the bulk of this year’s hatchery spring chinook salmon return.

Those groups are not listed under the Endangered Species Act. When there are more fish than needed for egg-taking, anglers can fish for the salmon.

Nontreaty salmon fishing last was allowed in 1992 on the Clearwater and a year later on the Little Salmon.

By mid-May, there should be enough fish over the dams for the Fish and Game Commission to make a decision about spring chinook seasons.