Late run has finally run its course

BOISE – The chinook salmon season on the South Fork of the Salmon River will close after Thursday, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said.

“It was an unusual run this year in terms of timing,” Sam Sharr, a biologist with Fish and Game, said Tuesday. “I don’t think we’ve seen a spring chinook run over Bonneville any later than what we had this year. Early in the season it was looking as if we were going to have a total disaster.”

Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River is the first of eight dams salmon encounter on their way to Idaho. About 88,000 spring chinook were predicted to swim upstream past Bonneville Dam at the start of the season, but when the run fell behind 10-year averages fishing seasons were delayed. But eventually, more than 100,000 salmon went past the dam.

“We didn’t have an exceptional run this year,” Sharr said. “It came in a little stronger than forecast, but it was not a strong run relative to recent years.”

The closure comes only two weeks after the South Fork season opened. Fishery managers expect the state’s quota of 350 to 400 catchable hatchery fish in the South Fork will be reached by the end of Thursday.

Through Monday, anglers had caught and kept nearly 300 salmon, said Sharon Kiefer, anadromous fish manager for Fish and Game. She said anglers were catching about 50 fish per day.

The South Fork season opened June 29 and was based on a predicted return of up to 3,100 salmon to the McCall Fish Hatchery.

The run turned out to be smaller than expected.

The hatchery needs 1,300 fish for broodstock. After that, the state’s share was the harvestable surplus of 350 fish.

Through Thursday, anglers are allowed one fish per day, three in possession, and 10 for the season.

Idaho anglers still have an opportunity for oceangoing fish. The Clearwater River opened to catch-and-release steelhead fishing on July 1.