About 1 million fingerling kokanee will be ready for spring stocking thanks to captive broodstock program

A million fingerling kokanee are headed to Idaho waters in 2026 thanks to Idaho Fish and Game’s new captive broodstock program aimed at supplementing eggs taken from "wild" fish. It's the first batch produced by Idaho Fish and Game's newest hatchery project aimed at providing stability to the annual number of kokanee fingerlings that can be stocked each spring. 

Most kokanee caught by anglers were born in hatcheries, but the eggs that produce them are typically taken from adults that were released as fingerlings and survived in the wild before being recaptured for spawning. The survival rate of those adults is driven by natural conditions, which can fluctuate annually. 

Fish and Game aims to stock around 7 million kokanee fingerlings each spring, but a bad year for adult survival can affect how many fingerlings are available in the future because there’s fewer to adults to spawn and produce the next generation. While Fish and Game can't change natural conditions, hatchery production can buffer some of the ups and downs. 

“Kokanee fishing is really popular and important to a lot of anglers, so we’re doing our best to meet their expectations,” said Joe Kozfkay, Fish and Game’s state fisheries manager. “We face a lot of uncontrollable natural variables that can make that challenging, but raising broodstock will improve our response to some of that natural variability.”