Thursday's catch of 15 salmon in Idaho's Stanley basin pushed the seasonal total, 263, to an all-time record for the 17-year-old Idaho Sockeye Salmon Captive Broodstock Program.

The returning spawners have been trapped, either at the Salmon River's Sawtooth Hatchery or in nearby Redfish Lake Creek by Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials.

The surprising bounty has included three daily trapping totals that matched or surpassed what was the second highest total of the program's past. A whopping 257 sockeye returned to the basin in 2000 (243 were trapped and 14 were observed below the hatchery but not handled), but the second highest return had been only 27. This year there have been daily totals as high as 31, 30 and 27.

"It's slowed down a little bit," Eagle Hatchery manager Dan Baker said of the flow of sockeye into IDFG traps. Fish could be delaying after thunder storms and accompanying rain "turned the Salmon River to mud."

"We think we've still got another 10 strong days" of returns ahead, Baker said.

Last year only 57 sockeye were counted at Lower Granite, and only four of them made it back to the hatchery. Only three reached their destination in 2006.

The first sockeye arrived at Sawtooth this year on July 25.

A strong return was anticipated. Through Wednesday 213,583 sockeye had been counted passing over the lower Columbia's Bonneville Dam, the first hydro project the fish encounter on their spawning journey. The vast majority of those fish continue up the Columbia, and then turn off into the Okanogan or Wenatchee rivers in central Washington.

But 870 have been counted at the lower Snake River's Lower Granite, by for the highest count on a record dating back to 1975 when the dam was built. Lower Granite is the eighth and final dam the Snake River sockeye pass on their 900-mile journey up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers. That final leg from Lower Granite to the Stanley basin is about 400 river miles.

The fish trapped so far include 99 unmarked sockeye, which means they were either naturally produced by adult spawners released into Redfish Lake, were hatched from "eyed" or fertilized eggs planted by biologists in nearby Pettit and Alturas lakes or produced by "residual" sockeye in the lakes. Residual sockeye are fish that spend their entire life cycle in freshwater but whose offspring can opt for a migration to the ocean.

Genetic analysis will be used to better pinpoint the sockeyes' beginnings.

"There are more unmarked (returns) this year than we've typically seen," Baker said. That's encouraging because it could mean there was reasonable spawning success from 240 adult fish released into Redfish Lake in 2004. All but three were hatched and raised in a hatchery.

The captive broodstock program was started in 1991, shortly after the Snake River sockeye's listing as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Only 16 wild fish have returned to the basin since then. The last, dubbed Lonesome Larry by the media, returned in 1998.

The program was kindled by eggs from those 16 wild fish as well as the capture of several hundred Redfish Lake wild out-migrants, and several residual sockeye salmon adults. The fish were used to develop captive broodstocks at the IDFG Eagle Fish Hatchery and at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service facilities in Washington.

Adaptively managed, the program generates hatchery-produced eggs, juveniles, and adults for supplementation to Sawtooth Valley waters.

The program releases both smolts and pre-smolts that are marked with tags and/or clipped fins. The pre-smolts are released into the lake in the fall to overwinter. The smolts are released in the spring either from Sawtooth Hatchery or in Redfish Lake Creek ready to begin their journey to the ocean.

Of the 164 marked fish to return this year only 11 were marked with just a fin-clip, a sign they are from the pre-smolt releases. The remainder of the marked returns, 153 spawners, are likely from smolt releases that had been outfitted with clips and tags.

The trapped adults are hauled to Eagle Hatchery and held until they are ready to spawn. Some, about 50, will be released into Redfish Lake Sept. 2.

The balance will either be spawned in the hatchery to refuel the captive broodstock program or released later, around Sept. 10, into Redfish Lake, Baker said.