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Spring Chinook Angling Hot in Idaho by Rich Landers Spokesman-Review, May 28, 2013

FISHING -- Anglers had very good success rates for spring chinook in Idaho waters upstream from Lewiston last week with catch rates below 10/hrs a fish in the Clearwater, Salmon and Snake rivers.

Check out the following detailed Clearwater Region salmon update for the week of May 20-27, by Joe DuPont, Idaho Fish and Game's regional fisheries manager in Lewiston:

First, the majority of Chinook destined for release sites in the Clearwater Region appear to have mostly passed over Lower Granite Dam. Some Chinook are stuck behind a couple of the dams. Once these fish figure their way out, Idaho's harvest shares should go up some, but not a lot. We are estimating that our harvest share for the Clearwater River will end up around 600 fish.

Clearwater River drainage (only the harvest of Jacks are allowed): The most Jacks were harvested in the Clearwater River near Dworshak Hatchery although the best catch rates (3 hrs/fish) occurred near Kooskia Hatchery in the Middle Fork Clearwater River (a lot of adults were caught and released there). We are very close to our harvest share of adults in the Clearwater River. We still have some harvest share remaining so the fishery will remain open with the same rules this coming weekend as we had last week. (Open Friday -- Monday; Jacks only; Jack limit 4; same areas open to fishing). Harvest this coming weekend and how much the harvest share changes will dictate how long the season will remain open.

Salmon River area fishing was very good as well last week. Early in the week most fish were being harvested downstream of Time Zone Bridge; however, by the weekend fishing picked up considerably in Park Hole (between Time Zone Bridge and Shorts Creek). People are now reporting that fishing is good in both the Park Hole and Little Salmon River. With good flow conditions and a bunch of adults reaching the Riggins area, I expect fishing to be excellent this week. It would not be unexpected if over 1,000 adults were harvested this week. The only thing I could see that would slow down the fishery is if it rained like crazy and muddied up the river.

Now is the time to fish the Rapid River run. Due to the expected high harvest, we are currently having discussions on how to prolong this fishery and make sure we don't go over our harvest share in the future.

Hells Canyon fishery was also very good with catch rates running at 7 hrs/fish. Our anticipated harvest share for this fishery is 336 fish, and last week we estimated we harvested 132 adults bringing the total adult harvest to 183 fish. I expect another good week of fishing at Hells Canyon Dam.