Idaho Fish and Game needs your help

Greetings kokanee anglers! Idaho Fish and Game needs your help collecting fisheries data.


For the past two years, Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) has been stocking Chinook Salmon into Lucky Peak, Deadwood, and Anderson Ranch reservoirs as part of a research program to explore their performance as a trophy species. Chinook have been stocked in these waters at low densities and IDFG is interested in evaluating their growth and survival. Stocked Chinook are sometimes difficult to distinguish from kokanee, but in these waters the Chinook are marked by a clipped adipose fin.

How can anglers help us collect data?

We are asking anglers to provide a fin clip from any Chinook Salmon caught at Lucky Peak, Deadwood, and Anderson Ranch reservoirs (and Spirit Lake if you venture north). There are kiosks at most of the boat ramps (see attached photo) consisting of a sign, coin envelopes, and a drop box. We kindly ask you to clip a small portion from any fin of your chinook (the size of a hole punch), place it in a coin envelope (provided at the kiosks), and drop the envelope into the kiosk drop box at the end of your trip. After collecting a small fin clip, you are free to harvest or release the Chinook as you’d normally do. The most important part of this process is to keep the fin clip dry; wet fins go rancid quickly and cannot be analyzed in the laboratory, so fin clips should be placed in anything that can “breathe”. You can even stick them between folded pieces of paper, but please avoid ziploc bags. Feel free to take a few envelopes with you out on the water to keep on hand. These fin clips will likely be our best way to evaluate Chinook growth and survival in these waters.

Attachment 9288
Attachment 9289

If you have any questions or need any further clarification, please email Idaho Fish and Game biologist Phil Branigan at phil.branigan@idfg.idaho.gov or call 208-465-8404 ext. 233.

Thank you and happy fishing!