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Once extinct, Idaho coho are back and season opening |
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October 8, 2017 |
The Idaho Fish and Game commissioners on October
2 set a fishing season for coho salmon, which
will run October 17 through November 16, or
until further notice.
Fishing will be open on sections of the
Clearwater, South Fork of the Clearwater and
North Fork of the Clearwater. Fishing for coho
salmon is permitted daily and 24-hours a day
during the designated season and locations.
Bag limits will be two coho daily, six in
possession and 10 during the 2017 season. Coho
season limit is in addition to the chinook
season limit. Coho Salmon with an attached
adipose fin can be harvested. Anglers must have
a valid salmon permit to keep coho.
Anglers should beware that steelhead and fall
chinook fishing seasons occur in the same
waters, and they must have a clipped adipose fin
to be kept. Know the difference between these
species.
Coho were reintroduced into the Clearwater River
system by the Nez Perce Tribe, and Idaho held
its first coho sport fishing season in 2014.
This year’s return is enough to replenish
hatcheries and provide a modest sport fishing
harvest. Through October 4, 2,874 coho adults
and 140 coho jacks had crossed Lower Granite Dam
about 30 miles downstream from Lewiston. Last
year on the same date, 1,252 adults and 162
jacks had passed. The 10-year average is 1,978
adults and 187 jacks.
Coho were declared functionally extinct in 1985
after counts at Lower Granite flat-lined at zero
in the 1980s. Annual adult coho counts at Lower
Granite from 1984-1996 registered zero 10 times
with a total of 11 tallied combined in the three
other years.
Coho salmon once returned to the Clearwater
River Basin (tributary to the Snake River) in
abundance and supported an important fall tribal
fishery.
Earlier efforts to restore coho during the 1960s
failed. Snake River coho were never listed under
the Endangered Species Act.
The Nez Perce Tribe’s reintroduction program
began in 1995 with hatchery coho releases into
the Clearwater River. |
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