Chinook season a mixed bag for anglers

Chinook fishing will end on the Lochsa River on Thursday night but continue on the Little Salmon and Snake rivers.

Anglers on the Lochsa have nearly exhausted the state’s share of summer chinook returning there, said Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston. He said the new fishery is showing signs of catching on with the public and showing the value of having a summer run to compliment the spring chinook run that returns to the Clearwater River basin.

Last year, anglers on the Lochsa caught only approximately 50 chinook. This year, they are expected to hit the state’s harvest share of roughly 200. Over the past two weeks of the season, anglers on the Lochsa averaged 10 hours of fishing for each chinook landed. DuPont said the fishery helped offset the spring chinook fishery that was closed because of poor returns.

“It shows the importance of diversity. You can have some runs that are not good and others that are.”

There are approximately 300-400 adult chinook remaining on the state’s harvest share for the Little Salmon River, said fisheries biologist Brett Bowersox at Lewiston. Last week, both harvest and effort dropped on the river near Riggins. Anglers caught just 77 adults during the last Thursday-to-Sunday fishing interval. That schedule resumes again this Thursday.

“There is still fishing to be had if you want to go wet a line,” Bowersox said.