As of the weekend of February 7-9th, we broke the 70 fish mark for steelhead brought back to Dworshak as broodstock! Since much of the river has been inconveniently locked up with ice, most of the fishing effort and success has been confined to a few miles upstream of Stites, Idaho. Despite the challenges, anglers rose to the occasion and made the most out of the hand that was dealt. So far, the largest eligible fish that an angler has landed for collection was a 36.6” male on February 8th, and the largest ineligible (natural origin) fish was a 37” male on our first day of collection, January 31st. Another fun fact: participating anglers have encountered almost 30 natural origin fish, which is always great to see!

That being said, our region was impacted by a significant cold snap and river conditions hampered collections last week. However, we are back in action as of Monday, February 17th!

Thank you all for your help in making the start of our 2025 localized broodstock program a success. It has been great to meet the many local anglers supporting the program, as well as quite a few folks from different states throughout the West.

Ice is always an unwelcome sight, but it will only last so long! We’ll see you on the river!