It’s a case of baiting switch on Clearwater River
The catch-and-release steelhead fishing season on Idaho’s Clearwater River has been a fixture for about 30 years, but some changes could be coming.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is collecting comments on a proposal to ban bait on the popular and unique fishery. The stated objective of the proposal is to reduce fishing pressure and retain the laid-back feel of the season that typically gives anglers lots of elbow room.
Catch-and-keep steelhead season in the rest of Idaho opens Sept. 1, but the Clearwater doesn’t open until Oct. 15. The delay in harvest was implemented in the late 1970s to give wild B-run steelhead that typically show up early a chance to move upriver and escape some of the early fishing pressure.
The later opening also allows hatchery steelhead to reach upriver areas in higher numbers prior to the harvest seasons.
That serves to spread the fish out and give more anglers a fair chance at catching and keeping a steelhead instead of giving fishermen near Lewiston a chance to pick them off as they enter the river.
In recent years the department has received complaints that the catch-and-release season is becoming more popular and more crowded. Some anglers also argue allowing bait posses a threat to wild fish. They reason steelhead tend to take baited hooks deeper than hooks without bait. It’s a theory that department officials dismiss.
“We think it’s more of a social issue,” Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the department at Lewiston, said at a public meeting on the proposed change.
Steelhead anglers, no matter their fishing method, tend to keep tight lines and set their hooks when fish strike, DuPont said. That limits the chance of fish ingesting hooks, baited or not.
“The fish are almost always hooked in the mouth,” he said.
Will Godfrey of Lewiston disagrees. He was on the Idaho Fish and Game Commission in the late 1970s when the catch-and-release season was implemented.
“When we initially set that season up way back when it was a biological issue and we were protecting wild fish,” he said.
He said the commission of old made a mistake when it allowed bait.
“It just seems intuitive to me if you are going to have a catch-and-release season you do it with the kind of gear that allows you to release really easily.”
Keith Stonebraker of Juliaetta also served on the commission that implemented the catch-and-release season and said it was done for biological reasons. He attended the meeting and said he supports keeping the season as it is if the department does more to train anglers how to properly handle wild fish. He would like a pamphlet to be written and given to anglers.
The meeting also was attended by several anglers who use bait during the catch-and-release season and don’t want to see it banned. They maintain the Clearwater has little pressure during most of the catch-and-release season. The season runs from July 1 through Oct. 15.
But the pressure does increase around Oct. 1, when out-of-town anglers start showing up. They said that is when many of the conflicts occur, especially from anglers who are accustomed to more crowded conditions.
“When our coastal guys come they have a different ethic. They are pretty brutal,” said Spokane fisherman Chris Donley.
For years local anglers have complained about the tactics used by anglers from Washington’s Skagit River. That river is more crowded and different unwritten rules apply. Jason Schultz, owner of Hells Canyon Sport Fishing, said rules don’t need to be changed but people do need to figure out how to co-exist.
“It’s not broken,” he said of the season structure. “The people out there need to figure out how to get along better.”
DuPont said the comments will be forwarded to the department’s fisheries headquarters in Boise. The idea could then be killed, modified or passed on to the commission for its consideration.
It’s possible the proposal could be changed to either encompass just a portion of the catch-and-release season or just a portion of the river, he said.