Fish and Game Commission suspends steelhead fishing

Idaho Fish and Game Commission on Nov. 14 voted to suspend the steelhead fishing season at the end of fishing hours on Dec. 7 under threat of a federal lawsuit by six organizations for Fish and Game operating a steelhead season without a federal permit, which is currently pending.

Fish and Game has not had the permit since 2010, but has operated steelhead fishing in coordination with federal fisheries managers.

Fish and Game officials contend operating the steelhead season as it traditionally has by allowing the harvest of hatchery steelhead while requiring the release of wild steelhead is not a conservation issue, and it intends to reopen the steelhead fishing season when it gets the permit in early 2019, potentially during March.

“Having been involved in steelhead management as a professional biologist, and being a steelhead fisherman for over 40 years, I’m well aware how important steelhead fishing is to Idaho anglers and local economies,” Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore said. “The loss of that opportunity, even temporarily, due to a lawsuit over an unprocessed permit, is truly regrettable.

“For whatever reason, these groups singled out Idaho for their lawsuit threat, and because there is not a biological basis to close steelhead fisheries in the Snake River basin, fisheries in the Snake River boundary waters remain open to anglers licensed in Oregon and Washington in compliance with those states’ rules, and tribal steelhead fisheries in Idaho will also continue,” Moore said.

Fish and Game met with representatives of the organizations in an attempt to settle the lawsuit without closing steelhead fishing, but those attempts were unsuccessful.

Catch-and-release impacts to wild steelhead are minimal. The best-available science suggests that of every 100 wild steelhead that enter Idaho rivers, about three will die as a result of angler encounters. This is a low level of incidental-take mortality that does not jeopardize long-term recovery of wild steelhead populations.

In 2010, prior to expiration of the previous permit with the National Marine Fisheries Service, Idaho submitted a Fishery Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for hatchery steelhead fisheries to renew the “incidental take” permit. The necessary permit was not issued at the time due to a backlog of other permits being processed by the federal agency. Fish and Game officials have conducted these fisheries consistent with this plan and previous permits in coordination with National Marine Fisheries Service.