The Idaho Fish and Game Commission will meet by telephone Wednesday to consider raising the steelhead bag limit on the Snake and Salmon rivers from three per day to five per day.

If the limits are raised, it is likely to come with a size limit. Current bag limits allow anglers on those two rivers to keep three hatchery steelhead per day. The new limits, if approved, would likely allow anglers to keep five per day but only two of the five could be longer than 32 inches.

The size limit is being considered to protect B-run steelhead that spend two years in the ocean and are not returning in high numbers like A-run steelhead that spend just one year in the ocean. Forecasts call for only 40,000 to 50,000 B-run steelhead to return at least as far as Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

Similar steelhead bag limit changes are being considered in Washington and Oregon. Washington could make a decision by the end of this week or early next week. The new limits might not take effect in Washington until early next month.

Through Sunday, 152,706 steelhead had been counted at Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River, 35 miles west of Lewiston. The 10-year average for this time of year is 64,789.

The run is on a pace to beat the previous record posted in the past 34 years. The high mark was set in 2001 when 256,810 steelhead were counted at the dam between June 1 and Dec. 31.  In 2001, 94,502 steelhead passed the dam between June. 1 and Sept. 27.

The run is starting to slow at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. Fewer than 2,ooo steelhead per day have been counted at Bonneville in the past seven days. But so far this year, 580,740 steelhead have passed the dam. That is behind the pace of the 2001 run when 606,785 had been counted at Bonneville between Jan. 1 and Sept. 27

According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, anglers fishing the Snake River caught 258 fall chinook and kept 162 for the survey period between Sept. 14 and Sept. 21.

In the section of river that starts at the Idaho/Washington state line and ends at the Interstate Bridge anglers caught and kept two adult chinook and 29 jacks and they released 97 consisting of 13 adipose clipped adults, 24 adipose clipped jacks, 39 wild adults and 21 wild jacks.

In the section of the fishery that starts at Couse Creek Boat Ramp and goes to the Washington/Oregon state line, anglers caught and kept 65 jacks and caught and released 65 wild jacks.

In the section that starts at Sheep Creek and extends to Hells Canyon Dam, anglers caught and kept three hatchery jacks and caught and released 6 hatchery jacks.

For the week anglers caught and kept 99 fall chinook and released 162.

So far this season anglers have caught and kept 50 adults and 131 jacks and released 23 hatchery adultls, 92 hatchery jacks, 133 wild adults and 174 wild jacks.

Through Sunday, the steelhead count at Lower Granite Dam, 35 miles west of Lewiston was 115,998. Granite surpassed the 100,000 mark on Friday when 6,661 steelhead were counted there. That was followed by more than 4,400 on Saturday and nearly 10,000 on Sunday.

Japanese angler Manabu Kurita may have tied the 77-year-old world record for the biggest large mouth bass ever caught.

Officials at the International Game Fish Association are evaluating the catch to determine if it will officialy tie the record. The fish caught from Japan’s Lake Biwa weighed 22 pounds, four ounces.

Below is a press release from the IGFA.

IGFA receives documentation, photos on pending world record largemouth bass caught in Japan

Weight matches current IGFA record held for 77 years by Georgia’s George Perry

DANIA BEACH, Fla. USA, (September 15, 2009) — Documentation for a much talked about 22 lb 4 oz largemouth bass, caught from Japan’s largest lake in July, has arrived into the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) headquarters for world record recognition.

Late Monday, the IGFA, the 70-year old non-profit fisheries conservation, education and record-keeping body, received the application for the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), caught July 2,  by Manabu Kurita, 32, of Aichi, Japan. IGFA rules for fish caught outside the U.S. allows anglers 90 days to submit their applications from the date of their catch.

IGFA conservation director Jason Schratwieser said the World All-Tackle application is currently under review after it was received through the Japan Game Fish Association (JGFA).

Schratwieser said the application stated the bass weighed 10.12 kg (22 lbs 4 ozs) and was pulled from Lake Biwa an ancient reservoir northeast of Kyoto.  Photos and video were also submitted with the written documentation.

Kurita’s fish would tie the current record held for over 77 years by George Perry caught on Georgia’s Montgomery Lake, June 2, 1932, near Jacksonville, Georgia.

In North America the largemouth bass, and especially the All-Tackle record, is considered by millions of anglers as the “holy grail” of freshwater fish because of its popularity and the longevity of Perry’s record.

Largemouth bass have also been introduced in many countries and in Japan fisheries officials consider it an invasive species. In addition, because bass are not native and are stocked in Japan, many speculated that the big bass was a sterile triploid.  However when biologists in Japan examined the ova of the big female they concluded that the fish was not triploid.

IGFA World Records Coordinator Becky Wright reported Kurita’s fish measured 27.20 inches in length and an almost equal girth of 26.77 inches. She said Kurita was using a blue gill as live bait trolling through a canal.

A decision by the IGFA of whether Kurita’s fish will tie Perry’s record may take up to a month.

“We have a formal relationship with our sister organization, the Japan Game Fish Association where they first collect and review record applications for fish caught in Japan,” said Schratwieser.  “It works out well because they not only translate applications but can also contact the angler if more documentation is needed.

“We still have a number of questions to ask them and Kurita regarding local laws and the area he caught it in while he was trolling through a canal on the lake,” said Schratwieser.

“We hope to make an announcement in three to four weeks.”

Fishing has been hot at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers and it appears steelhead are not the only species being caught.

According to the latest numbers from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, 237 fall chinook were caught in the confluence of the two rivers between Sept. 7 and Sunday (Sept. 13.) That brings the total for the season that opened Sept. 1 to 306.

The majority of hatchery fall chinook returning to the Snake River have not had their adipose fins clipped and that is reflected in Fish and Game’s numbers. Of the 237 fall chinook caught last week, 55 were kept and 182 released. However, the 182 released included 9 ad-clipped adults and 26 ad-clipped jacks.

For the season, 82 fall chinook have been kept and 224 released. Of those kept, 48 have been adults and 34 jacks.

Last week anglers averaged 11 hours of fishing for each fall chinook caught and 47 for each fall chinook caught and kept. For the season, anglers have averaged 14 hours of fishing for each fall chinook caught and 51 hours for each fall chinook caught and kept.

The Fish and Game angler surveys also show good catch rates for steelhead. Anglers averaged six hours of fishing for each steelhead caught and 13 hours for each steelhead kept in the Snake River between the Idaho/Washington state line and the mouth of the Salmon River. That is a big area but most of the fishing likely occured at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers.

Anglers fishing the Clearwater from its Mouth to Memorial Bridge averaged seven hours per steelhead caught and 32 hours per steelhead kept.

Here’s a picture taken by Larry Barrett on Saturday. He notes that most of the boats are fishing in the Snake River portion of the confluence that is open to both salmon and steelhead. The Clearwater portion is closed to salmon harvest.