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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Idaho Extends Salmon Season After Fish Surge Into Hatcheries

Associated Press

Idaho’s chinook salmon season on the Little Salmon River has entered the bonus round.

Anglers will be able to fish the stream until July 13 thanks to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s decision to scrap the 1,200-fish quota for the Little Salmon. A surge of chinook into Rapid River Fish Hatchery - more than enough to spawn the next generation - led to approval from state officials to continue fishing.

Along the lower four miles of the Little Salmon, dozens of anglers lined the banks even in the midday heat Thursday. But U.S. Rep. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, was not among the throng. He already had his limit of two fish for the day and was relaxing at the Riggins Hot Springs Lodge with his family.

Crapo, House Water and Power subcommittee vice chairman, managed to wedge a fishing trip into a busy schedule.

He and his wife, Susan, loaded four of their children into the car Wednesday evening in Idaho Falls, then drove all night, arriving at Riggins about 5 a.m. Within an hour the Crapo family was salmon fishing.

“It’s my first time out salmon fishing,” he said.

The experience was a rich one.

“All you have to do is have the opportunity to see these beautiful, magnificent fish and you realize how important a part of our culture they are,” Crapo said. “These fish have come 600 miles, getting past all kinds of natural and manmade obstacles to get here. That’s Idaho.”

Crowds along the Little Salmon show how much people value having salmon as a part of their lives, said Charles Ray, an Idaho Rivers United spokesman in McCall.

“This ought to be a real clear message to the leaders of Idaho that these fish are worth saving,” he said.

Anglers already had landed 1,051 fish by Monday, state fishery biologist Paul Janssen said, and had almost certainly caught more than the 1,200-salmon quota by Thursday. But Fish and Game decided to abandon the quota when the hatchery got more fish than it needed.

The hatchery is holding about 4,000 fish in its ponds and has released another 2,900 so anglers can have another chance at them, hatchery manager Rick Lowell said.

The best return of spring chinook to the hatchery in two decades attracted thousands of anglers to the Little Salmon and the Clearwater River. The Clearwater season lasted a month until sports anglers landed their quota in a final flurry of fishing in mid-June.

Dworshak and Kooskia national fish hatcheries along the Clearwater are within a few hundred fish of the 1,600 to 2,000 fish they need, said hatchery manager Bill Miller of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“We think we still have several hundred fish waiting outside Dworshak but they just haven’t come in yet,” he said. “We’re not worried about getting there.”