“We hadn’t done any hard looks to where fish were moving once released, if they were surviving, catch rates from anglers, where anglers were catching them,” Thiessen said. CJ Strike Reservoir on the Snake River southwest of Mountain Home is one of the state’s top sturgeon fisheries. Traditional sturgeon fisheries in the state include the Snake River downstream from Shoshone Falls, and the Kootenai and Salmon rivers. Thiessen estimates that since 1989 about 7,000 sturgeon have been stocked above Shoshone Falls. In years when hatchery goals are exceeded, excess sturgeon are stocked above Shoshone Falls. Fish and Game began supplementing their numbers with hatchery sturgeon. Kennedy said the dams have deep pools that are the type of habitat sturgeon prefer.Īlthough sturgeon are native to the Columbia and Snake rivers, dams cut off the fish from spawning waters. Hot spots for sturgeon in the upper Snake River include areas below dams, such as the Gem Lake Dam and in particular, the American Falls Dam. Pat Kennedy, fisheries biologist in Idaho Falls, said the summer study reached up to the power plant just below the falls in downtown Idaho Falls. “Ultimately, this work will help develop management strategies to sustain and improve opportunity to catch these amazing fish,” Fish and Game’s Terry Thompson said in a statement. After initial findings, Fish and Game decided to dig deeper to study the population and collaborate with the University of Idaho over the next two years. Fish ranged in size from 2 feet to 8 feet long. IDFG’s summer survey collected 116 sturgeon from Milner Dam upstream to Idaho Falls. It is illegal to remove a sturgeon from the water. For those reasons – and because Snake River sturgeon have been blocked from migrating to traditional spawning areas by dams – sturgeon fishing in Idaho is catch-and-release only with specific gear regulations to protect the fish. Sturgeon can live to be more than 100 years old, grow to 10 to 12 feet long, weigh more than 200 pounds and don’t spawn until they’re 20 years old. That’s encouraging to see that they’re growing fast.” We did find out that growth rates were higher than what we’ve seen in our more wild, historic sturgeon populations, say in like Hell’s Canyon, and in and below Bliss Dam. “We did find out that it is a more robust fishery than we thought,” said Joe Thiessen, regional fisheries biologist and lead on the study. This summer, fisheries biologists decided to take a peek to see if it was worth a deeper study. Idaho Fish and Game has been dropping hundreds of white sturgeon into the Snake River between Idaho Falls and the American Falls Dam for the past 30 years but has never paused to take a look at what’s going on with the fish that is not native to the river above Shoshone Falls. IDAHO FALLS – Even though sturgeon have been around unchanged for more than 200 million years, knowledge of the relative newcomer now patrolling the upper Snake River of eastern Idaho is a big question mark.
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