IDFG sincerely believes that sport and Tribal anglers can learn to fish together, and closures are not necessary. We will be testing this out this season with the Tribe, and this is where we need your help and involvement. If you see the Tribe setting out a drift net, be prepared to pull your boat off anchor and give space for them to drift by. Please speak up and encourage others to follow suit because if just one person refuses to move, this strategy becomes ineffective. If all sport anglers don’t buy in, the only recourse we may have could be to close river sections to sport fishing certain days of the week to allow the Tribe to drift net. As the Tribe learns whether this technique is feasible and which locations work best, we will be able to provide more specific details on locations and times you need to be aware of.

The Nez Perce Tribe will likely continue to gillnet in various locations, and you may see more nets out if the run is large. One area you may see more gill nets is near the mouth of the Clearwater River downstream of the Camas Prairie railroad bridge (see map above). Even though this area is not open to sport fishing, people commonly boat through this area, sometimes in the dark. To help prevent running over a gill net, be sure to look for buoys and stay well away from the shoreline when boating in this area.

It is important to remember that if the Tribe catches more fish through netting, it won’t influence the sport fisheries harvest share or fisheries goals like distributing harvest across the basin and trapping enough fish to meet hatchery broodstock goals. This is about the Tribe obtaining their harvest share. These techniques are not going to decimate the run, they will just allow the Tribe to acquire their fair share of the harvest. It’s also important to realize this is not how the Tribe wants to catch all of their fish. If these techniques prove successful, the Tribe will have to work out how to fairly distribute harvest between Tribal members fishing different methods, but at the same time ensure they achieve their full harvest share during larger returns. We have spent many days discussing similar issues with sport anglers, and I can tell you this is not an easy thing to do.

Finally, I want to bring your attention to an area near the mouth of the North Fork Clearwater River where there has been conflict between Tribal and sport anglers in the past. The area of concern is the green shaded area in the photo below. This is an area where sport anglers can fish from a boat, but fishing from the bank is only allowed by Tribal members. Conflict has occurred when somebody anchors a boat near the shore, which effectively blocks off all shore-fishing opportunities. We don’t have a problem with people fishing from a boat in this area; however, when a Tribal member comes down to fish this area, sport anglers should give way. Providing at least 30 yards for Tribal anglers to cast would likely be appropriate. Otherwise, this Tribal exclusive fishing area is not meaningful. Again, we are counting on you to follow these guidelines and also speak up and convince others to do so as well. If this conflict continues, boat fishing opportunities for sport anglers in this area may be restricted.