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Chinook Season Approved by Outdoors briefs Spokesman Review, June 21, 2000

Spokane -- A sports fishing season for hatchery summer chinook salmon on the South Fork of the Salmon River was approved Tuesday.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission authorized the first fishery for summer chinook on the South Fork since 1997 and only the second since the McCall hatchery was opened in the early 1980s.

But it is the third salmon fishery opened this season following some of the strongest salmon returns in years.

Assuming the National Marine Fisheries Service signs off as it has on the other two, the summer chinook season will open June 30 and run through Aug. 4 unless the season must be closed sooner.

Fisheries managers estimate about 1,700 surplus hatchery fish will be available for tribal and nontribal demand.

The limit on the South Fork will be two fish daily and four in possession, down from the three daily and six in possession for hatchery spring chinook on the Little Salmon River, the North Fork, South Fork and main Clearwater River and the Lochsa River.