A marina upgrade project this spring dealt a blow to a multi-million dollar effort to restore kokanee salmon populations on north Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille, wiping away 15 percent of the wild fry produced this year.
Oregon and Washington fishery managers decided Tuesday that the risk of breaching Endangered Species Act impact limits is low enough to allow a reopening of sport fishing for spring chinook on the lower Columbia River mainstem.
Anglers can earn cash and help save salmon by participating in the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program, which kicks off May 14 in the lower Columbia and Snake rivers. The program continues until Sept. 30.
The Columbia River's 2007 upriver spring chinook salmon return has begun to show some signs of life in recent days, but the jury's still out on whether it's a "late-time" run or it's smaller than anticipated.
The National Hydropower Association has awarded Avista the “Outstanding Stewardship of America’s Waters” for the Northwest utility’s collaborative efforts to protect the fisheries in Lake Pend Oreille by working with stakeholders to reduce predatory species.
For some anglers it’s catch-and-release, but for Idaho Power it’s more a matter of haul-and-release.
Last month company crews moved nearly 500,000 juvenile spring chinook salmon from the company’s Rapid River Hatchery near Riggins, Idaho, to locations on the Snake and Little Salmon rivers where they were released to begin their trip to the Pacific Ocean.
Prospects for salmon fishing are down this year with fewer chinook and coho expected to return to most rivers in the region, according to preseason forecasts developed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and treaty tribes.
Mike Hepper, a veteran angler from Richland has set a new state record for the largest walleye caught in state waters, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed.
Fishing outfitters and private anglers both agreed Friday night that the lower Clearwater River is becoming more crowded during the annual steelhead season.
The future outlook for kokanee in Lake Pend Oreille is better today than it was a year ago.
However, efforts to reduce predators must be sustained to restore the popular kokanee and rainbow trout fisheries, say Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials.
The level of northern Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille will be held higher longer, then dropped more rapidly than normal this fall in hopes of leaving newly laid lake trout eggs high and dry and, ultimately, reduce the number of those voracious predators.
Anglers on the Columbia and Snake rivers have been busy reeling in tens of thousands of northern pikeminnow this spring and summer as part of the Northern Pikeminnow Management Program’s sport reward season.
Hot late August and early September chinook salmon fishing could force closure of that sport fishery on the lower Columbia River mainstem as early as next week, according to Oregon and Washington officials.
Columbia River mainstem fishers will make a smooth transition next week to "fall" salmon fishing after one of the most successful summer seasons in more than three decades.
In Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho, populations of predatory fish species, particularly rainbow trout and lake trout, are too high to be sustained by the declining kokanee salmon population.
Oregon and Washington fishery officials expressed optimism that this year's upriver spring chinook salmon will eventually make a surge towards their home hatcheries and spawning areas in reasonably high numbers.
The Pacific Fisheries Management Council voted this to allow what would be the lowest combined sport and commercial salmon harvest ever off the Oregon and California coasts, and sharply reduced harvests north of Oregon's Cape Falcon to the Canadian border.
One angler earned $39,620 this year fishing for northern pikeminnows with a hook and line. His closest rival reeled in $38,084 during the five-month season.
Tribal and non-Indian commercial fishers were given more harvest opportunities on the mainstem Columbia River while sport fishers were shut down because a successful season has resulted in the catch of more than their share of "upriver bright" fall chinook salmon.
A relatively thin but steady stream of salmon passing the Columbia River's Bonneville Dam has pushed up the overall forecast of the 2005 upriver spring chinook adult return and allowed on June 4 the reopening of a mainstem sport fishery that has been closed since late April.
More than 80 interested sport, recreational and tribal fishers turned out Jan. 28 to hear Oregon and Washington officials' management strategy for maximizing the Columbia River mainstem harvest of hatchery-produced spring chinook salmon while minimizing the impacts on the wild portions of the 2005 run that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
A better-than-average return of steelhead -- the ocean-going rainbow trout -- resulted in moderate to high success among Idaho anglers during the 2004 fall season.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission supports options to extend 2005 Columbia River spring chinook season into May
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission Friday (Jan. 7) supported restricting either the bag limit or the number of open fishing days each week for Columbia River spring chinook in the area immediately below Bonneville Dam in an effort to extend the 2005 recreational season into May and to spread the allowable harvest to all parts of the river.
Volunteers and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff successfully collected 107 adult steelhead in the lower Grande Ronde River at Troy in the second year of a hatchery management project.
When fall salmon fishing gets under way Aug. 1 in the lower Columbia River, anglers below Bonneville Dam will face a tighter chinook bag limit intended to keep the season running through December without interruption.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
