Chinook salmon fishing limited this year

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has opted not to open the South Fork of the Salmon River to summer chinook fishing this year.

According to a news release from the agency, too few hatchery chinook are returning to the river east of McCall this year to support a fishery. However, the return does appear strong enough to meet spawning goals at the McCall Hatchery.

That is not the case on the Clearwater River, which closed early to spring chinook fishing when salmon and steelhead managers determined not enough hatchery fish would return to meet spawning goals. The lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers were open to salmon fishing for a few weeks, but closed after anglers met harvest quotas.

The only open chinook fishing season in Idaho is on a portion of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River east of Kooskia. Anglers there are targeting about 1,200 hatchery chinook bound for the Selway River, where the are no facilities to trap the fish for spawning in hatcheries. Last week, anglers caught about 18 chinook there and averaged more than 40 hours of fishing for each chinook harvested.

Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston, said 70 percent to 90 percent of the spring chinook bound for the Selway River have already passed through the Middle Fork of the Clearwater. However, there is a small number of summer chinook that have yet to enter the Selway.

“I wouldn’t expect the fishing to get better this week, but if you are looking for an excuse to go camping, hang out on a river and potentially catch a salmon, this may be just the ticket for you,” DuPont said in a blog post updating the status of the fishery.

The river is open to salmon fishing seven days a week, from the Nez Perce Indian Reservation boundary east of Kooskia, to the confluence of the Selway and Lochsa rivers.

Eric Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.