Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Spring chinook salmon season cancelled on Icicle Creek

First closure in 17 years

Posted

Officials from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have decided to cancel the spring chinook salmon fishery on Icicle Creek for 2017. WDFW District 7 Fish Biologist Travis Maitland said forecast for the season was not too bad initially, though it was definitely on the low end.  

“Some of things that went into that modeling was the poor ocean conditions the fish experienced in 2015 and some in 2016,” Maitland said. “We had very poor outmigration conditions in 2015. We had a very low water year. Some of the survivals of those stocks going down river were not very good. Now, we’re getting some of those fish back as adults. We’re seeing those lingering affects from what happened that year.”

Maitland said they were hoping the run would not be so low, but there was speculation out there for a couple years on what might happen. He said they saw the same thing happen last year. 

“The steelhead run started last year. The steelhead spawning right now are in pretty low abundance, just because of what happened,” Maitland said. “We’re likely to see that again this year for upper Columbia steelhead as well. Hopefully, after that, we’ll be out of it, if we have good ocean conditions. We’ve had a great water year here. We’ve had a really good out-migration happening right now with the juveniles.”

There is some speculation with the amount of water being spilled on the lower Columbia River dams that it might have some affect on run timing, Maitland said. He said they are starting to see some signs the run is past the 50 percent mark. 

“Most of the times, when we start seeing the numbers of jacks (early returning salmon) increasing, that a pretty good indication you’re getting toward the tail end of the run, because they are always the later group that shows up,” Maitland said. “We had an update yesterday with the Fish and Wildlife Service, the tribe, the state. We’ve been having a call-in every week just to see where we’re at on the estimates. It’s still looking pretty poor.” 

As of last week, Maitland said there were only 10 PIT tag detections at Bonneville Dam that were for Leavenworth bound fish. That expands out to 700 fish. The Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery needs at least 1,000 for their brood stock needs. LNFH is also helping the Colville National Fish Hatchery at Chief Joe Dam with an additional 640 fish. 

“So, with those numbers, we’re not even looking to meet even those. That’s why we’re holding off on the fishery for now in hopes we can at least meet brood stock objectives,” Maitland said. 

There is the potential the salmon season could open, but Maitland said as every day goes by, they are losing more hope. 

“Some of us are still hanging on to maybe there is a group hanging out between the mouth and Bonneville that are late are not moving for whatever reason,” Maitland said. “It’s not a done deal yet. We’re still monitoring it. If we see more fish above and beyond what those objectives are, we could very well open it.”

It is definitely getting more and more unlikely, especially when they are not seeing the huge bump in the run at Bonneville, he said. It is getting toward the end of the run, so if they don’t see any significant numbers by the end of this week, that would probably be about it. 

The Icicle run has been open at least 17 years in row, so it has been a fairly consistent fishery. 

“There was one year in the mid-90s it did not open, because of low run year. That’s why we decided to put the fishery in the permanent rules. It’s in there this year. That did not work out the way we wanted it to,” Maitland said. “We put it in the permanent rules to open May 15 every year. We did that because the fishery has been so consistent. That is about the average date we’ve been able to open it up each year. We thought instead of announcing this by fishery rule change every year, let’s just put it in the phamplet.”

Of course, once they put it into the pamphlet, they have to cancel the fishery. Murphy’s Law, he said. To date, there have not been much in the way of calls and emails about the fishery. 

“I think most of the anglers that are familiar with this fishery are watching the dam counts too. They know. They get it. We put out our news release which I think explains the situation fairly well in a nutshell,” Maitland said. “Those folks are on it as far as watching the numbers themselves.”

Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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