Four of the fish will be used in the Eagle Hatchery captive breeding program. The sockeye spawners have in the past shown up at Redfish as late as early October. A total of 21 sockeye sightings were reported at Lower Granite Dam about 430 miles downstream, though some could have been multiple sightings of the same fish, Kline said. No wild fish returned to the lake in 1995 and 1997. The seven adult fish that returned from the ocean were among 40,000 juveniles released into the Salmon River below the Sawtooth hatchery in May 1998 About 20,000 juveniles were released that same year at Redfish Lake Creek.
Biologist hope that the seven-fish return is a sign of things to come.
They were released as yearlings or smolts and returned a year earlier than the normal life cycle or migration pattern. Such early returnees are known as jacks or jills. Biologists are hopeful that more of the 1998 class will return to Redfish Lake late next summer after spending two years in the ocean, according to an IDFG press release. The captive breeding program was begun in 1991, just before the species' ESA listing. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes had petitioned the species for listing in 1990.