Idaho officials open salmon season in northern Idaho

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has reopened spring chinook fishing on parts of the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River in northern Idaho.

The agency opened fishing on Thursday for hatchery spring chinook from the confluence of the Lochsa and Selway rivers to the boundary of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation at about mile marker 79 on U.S. Highway 12.

The Lewiston Tribune reports that the agency had closed all chinook fishing on the Clearwater and its tributaries in May because of low numbers of fish.

But regional fisheries biologist Joe DuPont says the new season targets about 1,200 chinook that do not return to hatcheries.