Sockeye returns to Idaho's Sawtooth Valley got off to a strong start, relatively, with three adult spawners finishing their journey July 23 through Aug. 1.

Then came an August dry spell. A fourth fish did not arrive until this past Sunday, Aug. 26. The most recent return was captured at the Redfish Lake Creek trap. The male sockeye is a 3-year-old that had been reared at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Oxbow Fish Hatchery and released as a smolt in the Sawtooth basin in 2006.

Time is running out on what was expected to be a good return. A total of 53 adult sockeye were counted passing over Lower Granite Dam between June 26 and July 25. On average about half of the sockeye passing Lower Granite make it the final 400 miles to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's Sawtooth Hatchery or the Redfish trap.

"We were hoping to get 20 or so back," said Sawtooth Hatchery manager Dan Baker. Getting more spawners back is still possible. In past years, the sockeye have been trapped as late as mid-September.

The returns thus far include two males and two females.

"These four fish will be brought into the captive broodstock program and spawned with captive fish," Baker said.

This year's returns, and those of the past nine years, are the product of Idaho sockeye salmon captive broodstock program. Only 16 wild-origin sockeye have returned to the basin since 1991. The last wild return, a single sockeye, completed his life cycle in 1998. Those were the fish that provided the genetic material to start, and continue, the program.

With the exception of eggs taken from each year's hatchery return, most of the hatchery production of fertilized eggs, pre-smolts and smolts come from spawners reared to adulthood in hatcheries.

The Redfish Lake sockeye salmon was listed as an endangered species in 1991, and recovery efforts involving state, federal and tribal entities have been under way since to preserve genetic resources and prevent extinction.

The sockeye returns from the program have been small in number. There were 26 that returned from the ocean in 2001, 22 in 2002, 27 in 2004, six in 2005 and only three last year. The first hatchery-origin fish returned in 1999. The one banner year was in 2000, when 257 sockeye made the 900-mile trip up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers.

The program employs a variety of release strategies, outplanting fertilized "eyed-eggs," pre-smolts and smolts and adult fish from the program, most reared in captivity. Some of the returning adults from the program have also been released to spawn naturally.