FISHING -- Idaho's first specific coho fishing season opened Friday on the Clearwater River and before the weekend was over, the state had a new record for coho salmon.
Ethan Crawford caught a 9.4-pound coho in the Clearwater and had it officially weighed, according to Joe DuPont, Idaho Fish and Game Department Clearwater Region fishery manager.
Crawford, 32, of Moscow, is a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist. He's also worked for Idaho Fish and Game.
"Seeing this is basically the first fishery we have had on ocean going coho, it was not surprising to me to see the old record fall which was caught out of Cascade Reservoir (6 pounds) in 1992," DuPont said. The previous records was a fish the spent its life in freshwater.
"I can tell you that there are many more out there that are even bigger," he said, noting that a lot of fish in the 10-pound range are moving up the river.
Anglers, many of them steelheaders, were bonking the coho and filleting them for the dinner table this weekend without even thinking about record books, DuPont said. Both clipped and unclipped coho can be kept during the fishery that runs through Nov. 16.
Be sure you know how to ID a coho while fishing the Clearwater.
If you catch a fish that you believe could be a new record, see this link for directions on how to get your fish verified:
The Snake River run of coho was declared extinct in 1985. But the Nez Perce tribe began a restoration effort in the Clearwater River starting in 1995. The run gradually improved before taking a giant leap forward this fall with the return of more than 15,000 adults.
