Steelhead status in Idaho – 2012 Update Talk presented by Alan Byrne (Idaho Department of Fish & Game) at the Pacific Coast Steelhead Management Meeting, March 13 – 15, 2012, Port Townsend, WA.

Dworshak 1972 Hells Canyon 1967

Lower Granite Dam Snake River Steelhead DPS. Three MPG’s in Idaho—Hells Canyon ,Salmon, and Clearwater. Two in Oregon – Imnaha and Grande Ronde. One in Washington (Tucannon and Asotin are the major main rivers).

So what’s new since the last meeting? Spillway passage at all dams Expanded sampling at Lower Granite Dam of smolts and adults Proportion wild, clipped hatchery, unclipped hatchery Age composition GSI on wild stocks. Can now report wild abundance by reporting group not just the total return to LGR Ability to use PBT to identify hatchery fish Transitioning to PBT based sampling for harvest estimates in sport and tribal fisheries BYRNE Use of PIT-tags for management.pptx The year in which surface weirs began operating are as follows. LGR 2002 ICE 2005 MCN 2007 LMO 2008 LGO 2009 TDA 2010

Hatchery Run-timing at Bonneville Dam Combined all detection data since 1998 but most occurred since 2008 (when returns from expanded tagging began)

Steelhead return to Lower Granite Dam

Proportion of wild Steelhead at Lower Granite Dam

Snake and Salmon drainages--Steelhead fishing area

Clearwater drainage--Steelhead fishing area

Steelhead harvest in Idaho since 2002 Sport harvest is from anglers with an Idaho permit only. Does not include harvest in WA & OR waters or sport harvest of anglers who only purchased a Nez Perce tribal license. Snake harvest is of anglers who purchased Idaho permit only (does not include anglers who only had an Oregon or Washington permit).

Idaho Steelhead harvest in 2010 and 2011 Sport harvest is from anglers with an Idaho permit only by calendar year. Does not include harvest in WA & OR waters or sport harvest of anglers who only purchased a Nez Perce tribal license. Snake harvest is of anglers who purchased Idaho permit only (does not include anglers who only had an Oregon or Washington permit). 2010 2011

Comparison of Chinook and Steelhead sport harvest Chinook harvest includes jacks Chinook harvest includes adults and jacks (jacks are defined in regulations as fish < 24 inches total length).

Yearly Angler effort (days fished) Chinook effort was estimated as hours fished. I converted it to days fished by assuming 1 day = 6 hours fished. Steelhead effort was estimated as “days fished”