Washington opening Lake Wenatchee sockeye season July 26

From staff reports

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this week it is opening the sockeye season on Lake Wenatchee starting on July 26 for a season that is expected to run until Aug. 31.

The daily catch limit will be four sockeye salmon for fish that exceed 12 inches in length, according to a news release.

Anglers with a two-pole endorsement can use two poles and up to three barbless hooks per line. However, no bait or scent is allowed and all fishing must cease at sunset.

The current sockeye counts at Tumwater Dam and Columbia River dams suggest a surplus of harvestable sockeye destined for Lake Wenatchee that is well above the natural-spawning-escapement goal of 23,000 fish.

During the sockeye fishery, Lake Wenatchee State Park will modify park hours from 6:30 a.m. until dusk to 4 a.m. until dusk.

Only registered campers are allowed in the park between dusk and 4 a.m. during the sockeye fishery.

Visitors should review the Lake Wenatchee State Park alerts for more information.

The fishery will be monitored closely and is subject to closure on short notice depending on harvest rates and the number of anglers, according to the release. Updates will be posted on the department’s website.

Habitat grants awarded

The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office announced this week the award of nearly $190 million in grants to communities statewide to improve outdoor recreation and conserve important wildlife habitat.

The grants were awarded to a variety of organizations to renovate parks, build trails and create new places for people to recreate outdoors, according to a news release.

The grants also made investments in conserving lands that are support plants and animals at risk of extinction.

“These grants advance our priority to protect Washington’s world-class outdoor recreation offerings enjoyed by locals and travelers from across the globe,” said Gov. Jay Inslee in the release. “They will go a long way to ensuring Washington’s outdoor areas are healthy, open and usable by everyone.”

The state’s Recreation and Conservation Funding Board awarded most of the grants.

“These grants will provide so many benefits to Washington residents,” said Ted Willhite, who chairs the board. “We know that people are healthier, mentally and physically, when they spend time outside.”

The grants ranged from $7,000, to teach scout troops about horsemanship and trail stewardship, to more than $14 million to conserve a Kittitas County ranch and the wildlife habitat it supports. Grants went to projects in 37 of Washington’s 39 counties.

“We’ve seen such wonderful projects from grant applicants,” Willhite said. “Knowing that we could only fund some of them shows that there is a great need for continued investment in Washington’s outdoors.”

Among the grants that were awarded, Spokane County will receive more than $3 million. Here are the totals for other counties in the region.

Adams County: $850,000

Asotin County: $446,017

Ferry County: $180,000

Garfield County: $700,000

Grant County: $2,224,990

Spokane County: $3,065,392

Stevens County: $1,369,995

Okanogan County: $7,144,529

Whitman County: $2,617,539

Pend Oreille County: $67,500

Multiple counties, including Lincoln: $3,645,670

Fish passage feedback

State wildlife managers are seeking public comments on proposed fish passage and screening rules intended to support salmon and orca recovery.

The public is invited to a virtual public meeting, scheduled for 1:30-to-3:30 p.m. on Sept. 13, according to a news release.

The proposed rule would formalize an existing design for diversion screens and fish passage, introduce new standards for water crossings, and outline procedures that support regulatory compliance. The new rules are anticipated to go into effect in 2023.

The rule making effort is rooted in recommendations from Gov. Inslee’s Southern Resident Orca Task Force.

In 2018, the task force published its report identifying lack of prey as a key threat to killer whale survival.

One of the report’s recommendations was to enforce laws that protect salmon habitat.

The proposed rules are also undergoing a state-environmental-review process.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is accepting comments through Sept. 29 as part of that environmental review online and by email to FishPassageScreeningRules@PublicInput.com.

In addition, Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission is holding a public hearing on the proposed rules during its Sept. 28-30 meeting in Yakima.

More information will be posted to the Commission webpage as it becomes available.

Idaho salmon update

Currently, the only anglers trying for spring chinook in the Clearwater River basin are fishing in the North Fork Clearwater River.

Last week, some 32 fish were harvested with catch rates running about four hours a fish, said Joe DuPont, the regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

As of Sunday, anglers had caught 2,182 adult fish of the 3,337 fish-harvest share. For that reason, all sections of the Clearwater River basin will remain open until Aug. 10, DuPont said in a news release.

In Hells Canyon, fish managers estimate that 291 adult fish have been harvested out of the 358 fish-harvest share.

That area will likewise remain open until Aug. 10, DuPont wrote.

In the Lochsa River, the department estimated that 14 adult summer chinook salmon were caught for an annual total of 39 fish.

The low numbers mean that the Lochsa River fishery will no longer be supported, DuPont wrote.

“This is disappointing to us as we had great hopes to expand and spread this program to other areas in the Clearwater River Basin,” Dupont said. “However, this is the right thing to do as we have not been able to collect enough brood stock to fully support this program since 2018.”

Efforts to release salmon smolts did not produce many returns.

“These fish just haven’t survived well in their migration to the ocean and back,” DuPont wrote. “Because we are ending this summer chinook salmon program, we will not be collecting any fish for brood stock this year.”

All fish that are trapped will be transported downstream to provide fishing opportunities. As such, the Lochsa River season will remain open until Aug. 10.

The space once used to support the Lochsa River summer chinook will instead be used to raise 640,000s spring chinook smolts. But state managers and the Nez Perce Tribe have not yet decided where to release those smolts.

“These smolts will not be released until the spring of 2025, so we have some time to figure this out,” Dupont wrote.