Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[chris gadsden]

http://www.cbbulletin.com/358401.aspx

Bumper Return Of Hatchery Steelhead To Snake River Basin Offers Generous Bag Limit
Posted on Friday, October 02, 2009 (PST)

A 2009 Snake River summer steelhead run that could well break the existing record has allowed the Idaho Fish and Game Commission to expand harvest opportunities in the Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers by nearly doubling bag limits on a portion of the big trout returning from the ocean....
...More than 155,000 fish in the large return are so-called A-run hatchery fish destined for the Snake River, the Little Salmon River and in the Upper Salmon River, fishery officials say.

The Commission voted Wednesday to raise the bag, possession and season limits in those rivers for the fall 2009 and spring 2010 steelhead seasons.

The daily limits, effective today (Friday, Oct. 2) until further notice, for steelhead trout is five, of which no more than three may be 32 or more inches in total length. The possession limit is 15, no more than nine may be 32 or more inches long...

[anejo676]

Chris,

Trust me on this one,  you don't want OUR fishery management up there.  As an example.  Puget Sound Steelhead were listed by National Fisheries Service in 2007 as a threatened species.  So as I write this OUR fisheries is in the process of closing eight rivers in Puget Sound early to safe guard the runs.  One of those rivers is the Nooksack which even the fisheries department admits they aren't sure what kind of numbers are returning.  Over the last five plus years my catch of wild steelhead in the Nooksack remains pretty good prior to the river closing on Feb. 28th.  The new regulation will be Feb 15 and than in two years they are already talking about January 31 as the closing date.  Once it closes they aren't talking about helping the runs so much as they are hoping ocean survival will increase.  The upper Columbia may be getting a lot of hatchery steelhead this year but it's an oddity and even the bio's have no idea how come.  Our fisheries as a whole are in real trouble down here.  I just may see you on the river this year for steelhead up there!