Steelhead
outlook
is healthy
Season started
Sept. 1 in Idaho
Idaho’s
fall steelhead fishing season started Sept. 1 with a run of fish that
may be twice as good as average.
Early
predictions said about 170,000 steelhead could be on their way to Lower
Granite Dam—the last barrier before entering Idaho waters.
If that
figure holds up, it will be about twice the 10-year average, subtracting
last year’s epic run. About 85,000 steelhead at Lower Granite Dam is
the average, and an amazing 260,000 showed up last year.
Last year’s
steelhead run overwhelmed Idaho hatcheries and provided some of the best
steelheading anglers could remember.
The
predicted run this year would be about 66% of last year’s.
More than
400,000 steelhead are predicted to enter the Columbia River at
Bonneville Dam this fall.
Normally,
steelhead fishing attracts anglers when river water temperatures drop
enough to encourage fishable numbers to run actively upstream—about
early- to mid-October.