Boise River salmon not cooperating with anglers

BOISE – Salmon fishing is starting out slowly this year in the Boise River, an urban fishery that uses hatchery salmon trucked in from Hells Canyon Dam.

But that hasn’t stopped Sergio Herrera, who drove 56 miles from his home in Nyssa, Ore., to wet a line Friday despite drenching rain and chilly weather.

“I tried it once before,” Herrera said, putting on a waterproof poncho and preparing to go down to the river. “It’s fun.”

Idaho Fish and Game managers stocked about 200 chinook salmon in the river Wednesday to bring the cousins of ocean-run fish to urban anglers on a stretch of the river where the fish once returned naturally.

The fish stopped coming when the government built Hells Canyon Dam on the Snake River in the 1950s and ‘60s.

In recent years, the salmon have been trucked upstream. This year, the agency expects to stock 500 salmon over the next few weeks.

The first fish were stocked Wednesday, but action was slow Friday morning.

“I haven’t touched a fish,” said Derek Dahms of Boise, who also fished Thursday.

Fishing may be slow for now, but biologists expect about 50 percent to 75 percent of the salmon stocked in the Boise River to be caught. The rest will go upstream or downstream seeking the chemical trace of their home spawning grounds.

They won’t find it, of course, but eventually they will try to spawn in a gravelly spot someplace in the Boise River or its tributaries.

Salmon that don’t wind up on the line can live until mid-August to mid-September, when they normally spawn in a hatchery.

Fish and Game set the salmon season in the Boise River to end Sept. 6. It is possible that some of the salmon will remain in the river until then, said Bill Horton, Fish and Game anadromous fish coordinator.