Idaho Fish and Game urging salmon anglers to go digital
Fisheries managers for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are encouraging anglers to adopt e-tagging ahead of the annual spring chinook fishery that opens Saturday.
The agency says using its smartphone application to record harvest of chinook is more convenient than conventional paper tags and it gives fisheries managers real-time harvest information that allows them to be more precise when making in-season decisions.
“It allows almost real-time data analysis,” said Joe Thiessen, regional fisheries manager for the department at Lewiston. “We can get fairly precise estimates faster than we could using paper tags, which allows us to make quick management decisions and make more adaptive management decisions.”
That precision can matter when fishing is hot and the department is trying to ensure anglers meet the state’s harvest share without going over. Under the old system, the department relied solely on its creel surveys to estimate harvest. The surveys, collected by roving employees who interview anglers, take time to assemble into a harvest estimate. There is a significant lag between the time the information is collected and a harvest estimate is assembled.
Because of the lag, managers sometimes had to err on the side of caution when anglers were close to meeting the state’s harvest share or the management allocations for individual river sections.
Creel surveys are still conducted and the information is important, but managers are increasingly using e-tag data to make in-season decisions. Thiessen said all harvest data comes with confidence intervals. When the percentage of anglers who use e-tags increases, the estimates become more reliable. That, in turn, can allow Thiessen to wait longer to close river sections or seasons.
“Using real-time data is a really nice way to maximize the harvest,” he said. “But mostly, it is a huge convenience for anglers.”
Anglers who use the old system must carry the paper tags with their licenses. When they catch a fish, they have to record the date by cutting a notch in the tag and they have to note which river system they are on by writing on the coated paper.
With e-tags, they open the Go Outdoors Idaho app on their phones and select the salmon/steelhead e-tagging icon. The app automatically pulls up the date and they click variables like species and river section. No looking for a pen, scissors or knife.
“It’s a very efficient and effective way to tag,” Thiessen said.
When the season opens Saturday, there are likely to be few chinook available for anglers, but the fish are on their way. Counts at Bonneville Dam picked up last week and surpassed the 10-year average.
Thiessen will soon begin sending weekly run updates to a list of newsletter subscribers. Thus far, he is cautiously optimistic. He noted the fish outperformed the preseason forecast last year and thinks they might again.
“I think we are probably still going to overshoot our forecast given the early arrival of our fish, but it might be more reflective of our traditional forecast,” he said.