Notes from the Field: Steelhead fishing in Weiser
By Matthew Neal
Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:08 PM PST
Can you imagine fishing for steelhead on the Weiser river? Can you imagine standing under the fall trees, the sound of the water rolling over the rocks, drift fishing for steelhead in Midvale, Idaho? Can you close your eyes and imagine fishing for steelhead in Council, among the pine trees? Certainly, people caught them there in the past. The Hell’s canyon Complex of dams ended all of that. Since those days are over, and since there are no more steelhead in the Weiser river drainage, I can only try to imagine how a big sea run rainbow trout would feel like on the end of my line.
Every time I travel up highway 95 along the Weiser river, I look at it and I wonder, dream and yearn for the days when steelhead trout ran through its waters. They now consider it a good working river; it just doesn’t work for salmon and steelhead. But it should.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game recently transported one thousand adult steelhead from the fish hatchery at Hell’s Canyon in Oxbow, Oregon to the Boise river in Boise, Idaho.
One thousand steelhead made the journey by truck over Brownlee Dam to Cambridge to highway 95. They then continued South through Midvale, Weiser and Payette to Interstate 84, where they proceeded to the Boise river. The good people in Boise have been afforded the opportunity to fish for steelhead in the traditional habitat of the steelhead. The question to ask is: why did we get passed up? Why couldn’t have we been allocated some of those fish? Why could we not have had just a small slice of those fish, say one or two hundred of them planted in our river out here? Why did the Fish and Game decide to ignore the fact that the Weiser river is well within the historical range of steelhead trout? If we could have had some of those fish then we would not have to rely on our imaginations so much as our fishing poles to fish for steelhead on the Weiser river.
Certainly the Weiser river is cold, clean and clear enough this time of year to allow the fish to survive long enough for people to fish for them. Water quality is not the issue here. The issue, according to Idaho Fish and Game Fisheries Biologist, Sharon Kiefer, is access. Accordingly, the fish are transported to the Boise river because of the many easily accessible areas for people to fish. Also she said the Boise river offers many opportunities for the fisher, arguably, more so than does the Weiser river. However, when I mentioned the Weiser river trail to Sharon Kiefer, she said that the Department should take another look at the accessibility for fishers to fish for steelhead. She also agreed that the river possesses those types of rocky structures and riffles that steelhead need.
Idaho Power’s responsibility, or mitigation, only pertains to raising steelhead to their juvenile stage so they can be released. They do not transport fish. It is, on the other hand, the Fish and Game commission that bears the responsibility for adult steelhead and they budget the money from fishing licenses to pay for the transportation of fish. So, it is essentially a question of money and how best to spend it. In the eyes of the Fish and Game, transporting fish to Boise will offer more fishers with more access the opportunities to catch steelhead. While this program has continued to be successful on some level for over ten years, the Weiser river is still being passed up, unless, of course one chooses to travel to Boise.
Sharon stated very clearly that the issue is directly relative to access. She said that flow analysis and other water quality factors are acceptable for the fish to be placed within the Weiser river this time of the year. So, the issue now is what do local fishers and landowners want to do about it?
Perhaps if those interested in fishing for steelhead here locally developed a plan of action and became organized, we could then implement a creative solution.
Until we resolve issues of access along our river, we will still have to daydream of catching big beautiful sea run rainbows.
