joel scruggs, public affairs specialist, bonnevillepower administration (off camera): 2010 was the best year for adult salmon and steelheadreturns in the columbia river basin since 2002. and snake river fall chinook were especiallysuccessful. nearly 42,000 adult fall chinook crossed lower granite dam this year — almostthree times as many as last year. they are spawning in record numbers too. theirnests, called redds, can be seen from the
snake river fly fishing report, air and shore throughout the clearwater basinabove the dam. state and tribal fish managers have counted at least 1,600 redds in the clearwaterriver this year, compared to 1,142 last year, which was also a record. aaron penney, hatchery supervisor, nez percetribe fisheries resource management: the salmon
actually do dig nests that are called redds.the female will pick a spot and scour up the bottom, digging up a lot of the fine sedimentsand exposing the coarse gravels to deposit her eggs. and with the fall chinook salmonthe redd can be fairly large. a female fall chinook salmon will usually deposit rightaround 4,000 eggs, average, but we’ve had fall chinook females give us over 6,000 eggs. joel scruggs (off camera): fir island on theclearwater river is a key spawning area for snake river fall chinook and this year nezperce tribal hatchery managers counted more redds than ever. aaron penney: fir island currently has thehighest concentration of fall chinook spawning
in the clearwater river. there are a lot ofgood gravels, the river flows are perfect, and currently, right now, i think we’vebroken over a thousand redds just in this particular quarter mile stretch. it’s gonefrom less than 50 redds back in the early 1990s to well over a thousand and more. joel scruggs (off camera): with federal, stateand tribal partners working together improving fish passage at dams, restoring essentialhabitat and using hatcheries effectively, salmon are returning to columbia basin riversand streams where they’ve been absent for years. aaron penney: historically, fall chinook couldbe found down throughout southern idaho in
the boise, ahwahnee areas; even up into theupper tributaries of the salmon, selway and lochsa rivers. but every year more and morefall chinook are coming over lower granite dam into idaho and hells canyon. and we’restarting to see their expansion moving farther
and farther up more tributaries. they’repioneering up a lot more tributaries. joel scruggs (off camera): so keep your eyeout for redds if you’re boating or fishing in the snake river basin, because the eggsin these nests will be returning adult fall chinook in three or four years.
