Responding to a strong return of A-run steelhead, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission agreed Wednesday to raise daily and seasonal bag limits on steelhead in the Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers.
Starting Friday, October 2nd, 2009, the daily bag limit for steelhead in the three rivers will go from three per day to five a day, but no more than two of those can be 32 inches or longer. Bag limits on the Clearwater River and its tributaries, which don’t open to catch-and-keep fishing until Oct. 15, will remain at two per day.
The size limits on the Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers and the exclusion of the Clearwater from higher bag limits, were adopted to protect B-run steelhead that are not returning in high numbers like the A-run fish.
The commission also raised the season limits for the spring and fall to 40 fish but no more than 20 of those can be caught from the Clearwater River. Anglers who have a permit with reported harvest from the spring of 2009 can purchase a second permit to catch their fall season limit of 40.
“We have a lot of fish so we might as well go out and catch them,” said Larry Barrett of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston.
Fisheries managers are predicting this year’s steelhead run counted at Lower Granite Dam could far surpass the previous record of about 250,000, which was set in 2001. More than 155,000 of those are predicted to be hatchery A-run steelhead bound for the Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers. The rest of the run will be composed of wild A-run steelhead, B-run steelhead and A-run steelhead bound for the Grand Ronde and Imnaha rivers
Through Tuesday, 163,517 steelhead had been counted passing Lower Granite Dam, 35 miles west of Lewiston on the Snake River. The 10-year average for this time of year is 73,316. The run at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River has slowed some but is still holding strong at 1,500 to 1,900 steelhead per day. So far this year, 583,661 steelhead have been counted passing Bonneville Dam.
Washington and Oregon are also considering adopting a five steelhead per day limit with the same size restrictions.
This article originally appeared in the Lewiston Morning Tribune on October 1st, 2009.
