Sockeye Salmon

(Onchorhynchus nerka)

There is no fishing season for Sockeye Salmon in Idaho.

Description
Average adult males 7-11 pounds, around 20-30 inches long. During spawning, males bodies turn bright red, their heads turn green and they develop a hump and nasty set of teeth.

Life History
Redfish Lake sockeye enter the Columbia River in June or July and reach Redfish Lake in July and August. They spawn in the lake shallows in October. Juveniles emerge in April to May and feed on zooplankton in the lake for one or two years. They begin their out-migration to the ocean in May. Most Redfish Lake sockeye spend two years in the ocean before heading back to the Stanley Basin.

Feeding Habits
While in fresh water, juvenile sockeye salmon feed mainly upon zooplankton (such as ostracods, cladocerans, and copepods), benthic amphipods, and insects. In the ocean, sockeye salmon continue to feed upon zooplankton (such as copepods, euphausids, ostracods, and crustacean larvae), but also prey upon larval and small adult fishes (such as sand lance), and occasionally squid.

Status
Between 1991 and 1998, 16 wild sockeye returned to Idaho. Between 1999 and 2007, 355 hatchery produced adult sockeye salmon returned to the Sawtooth Valley. Over the previous 14 years, 77 natural-origin sockeye returned.

In 2000, 257 fish returned - 119 at Redfish Lake and 138 at the Sawtooth Hatchery.

Last year, one fish returned to Redfish Lake and three to the Sawtooth Hatchery.

At the end of July, more than 800 had crossed Lower Granite Dam on their way back to Idaho. Sockeye returning in 2008 are from smolts that migrated to the ocean in 2006 when 180,765 natural and hatchery origin smolts left the Sawtooth Valley.