Fisheries biologists use the term “salmonids” to refer to members of the biological family that includes salmon and steelhead, trout, grayling, and whitefish. In Idaho, we have many different species of native and nonnative salmonids, but by far the group that gets the least attention from anglers is whitefish. You might be surprised to know Idaho actually has several native species of whitefish, but most anglers are likely to encounter the mountain whitefish. That’s because they are often caught incidentally when anglers are fishing rivers for trout. Although Idaho Fish and Game biologists regularly monitor trout to determine if populations are healthy, they rarely monitor mountain whitefish populations. Recently, that changed, with the Department conducting two different studies to look at how mountain whitefish are doing across Idaho.
Continue reading at idfg.idaho.gov.
