Chinook Season Returns On Salmon’s South Fork

The Fish and Game Commission on Thursday authorized the first chinook salmon season in a generation on the South Fork of the Salmon River.

In a telephone conference call, the commission agreed to open a 6-mile reach of the central Idaho river to fishing three days a week from July 10 through Aug. 2, pending approval from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

It also extended the spring chinook season on the Little Salmon River near Riggins.

The season for hatchery-reared summer chinook on the South Fork is the first since 1964, resulting from a surplus of adult fish returning from the Pacific Ocean.

Fishing will be permitted from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday on the South Fork from Goat Creek upstream to a posted boundary just below the South Fork Salmon River weir. The limits are one fish per day, one in possession and two for the season.

Anadromous Fisheries Coordinator Sharon Kiefer said the state plan calls for a quota of 200 summer chinook each for sports anglers and fishers from the Nez Perce Tribe and Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

The season on the Little Salmon will now run through July 13. The commission also approved an increase in the season limit from four to six fish and extended the daily fishing hours three hours to 9 p.m.

Mixed prospects along the Clearwater River precluded the hatchery chinook season from lasting beyond June 19, when initially slow activity turned red the final two weeks and anglers quickly claimed the 650-fish quota.

Fishing success also picked up in the past week on the Little Salmon but not enough to dissuade the commission or its experts from permitting the extended time and higher season limit.