Salmon Still Not Seen At Redfish

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game still has the door open on the sockeye trap at Redfish Lake, but no adults from this endangered salmon run have returned this year.

Salmon enthusiasts were excited earlier in the summer when observers at the federal dams on the Columbia and Lower Snake Rivers reported seeing 19 adult fish returning to the system. However, hopes for a return all the way to the Redfish Lake spawning waters have not been fulfilled.

According to fisheries biologist Paul Kline, the Corps of Engineers counted 19 sockeye at Lower Granite Dam, the hydro-electric barrier to salmon returning to Idaho. Of those fish, only two were hatchery-produced, having clipped adipose fins. The other 17 were wild.

In 1995, IDFG estimated that 360 wild smolts left Redfish Lake. Given recent rates, 0.6 fish could be expected to return. Because 17 is such a much-larger number, it is likely that year’s fish were Dworshak kokanee or other strays, the department theorizes. That possibility was boosted by two observations of adult sockeye in tributaries of the Lochsa River. Those fish had adipose fins and showed spawning behavior in August. Redfish Lake sockeye spawn in October.

Local DU regrouping

A group of waterfowl conservationists are trying to revive the Spokane Ducks Unlimited Chapter, which once produced one of the region’s top fund-raising banquets.

A group of organizers is inviting all interested hunters and wetlands conservationists to meet today from 7-9 p.m. in the Executive Boardroom of the Downtown Double Tree Hotel.

Info: Wally Hoch, (509) 754-9668.

Barbless hook rules retained

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission voted to retain the current set of rules covering barbless hooks when it met in Boise Thursday and Friday (Oct. 2-3) to approve 1998-99 fishing rules.

Commissioners considered dropping the requirement for barbless hooks in favor of recommending their use, but that proposal failed on a 4-3 vote.The commission approved all other proposed rule changes, most of which applied to the central and southern portions of the state.

, DataTimes