The Idaho Department of Fish and Game Commission recently approved new fishing rules, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2013.

Anglers in the Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe river drainages will now be required to release any trout with red/orange slashes under the jaw.

The new rule is to address the difficulty anglers were having properly identifying cutthroat trout.

Phil Cooper, Idaho Fish and Game conservation officer, said rainbow and cutthroat trout readily cross.

"It is often a challenge for an angler to tell if they have just landed a pure cutthroat, a cutthroat/rainbow hybrid, or a pure rainbow," he said.

Pure cutthroats have a distinct red slash under the throat, a hybrid has a faint slash.

"Anglers in the Coeur d'Alene Rivers and the St Joe River have long found it a challenge to determine just what they have caught," he said.

In Priest Lake the kokanee limit is being reduced from 15 to 6.

In Panhandle Region waters, the most significant changes are associated with Lake Pend Oreille, where the lake trout removal efforts and an improving kokanee population have made it possible to restore a limited kokanee fishery.

"For the first time since 1999, anglers will be allowed to keep a limit of six kokanee on the lake that once supported a commercial fishery for the small, landlocked salmon," the release said.

The change in the kokanee limit on Priest Lake is understandably confusing, Cooper said.

With the numbers of kokanee in Priest Lake increasing over the past several years, anglers might think the limit would stay the same or even increase.

"However, the increasing numbers of kokanee have attracted a significantly higher number of kokanee anglers," he said.

Where there were once four or five boats targeting kokanee, there are now 20-30 boats fishing for them.

IDFG fisheries managers and local anglers want to maintain the opportunity for kokanee fishing while reducing the potential for over harvest, Cooper said.

In addition to kokanee harvest, the new rules are designed to begin rebuilding the trophy rainbow trout population.

This includes a reduction in rainbow trout harvest from unlimited to a six-trout daily limit, with only one rainbow trout over 20 inches allowed.

Reducing rainbow trout harvest in Pend Oreille is the second step toward restoring the once famous trophy trout fishing on the lake.

The first step was increasing kokanee numbers.

Now that kokanee numbers are rebounding and the predator/prey balance improved, it is possible to move back toward providing the opportunity for anglers to catch larger rainbows, Cooper added.

Although the Clark Fork River and most Pend Oreille tributaries will remain open year-round, anglers will no longer be able to harvest rainbow from Dec. 1 until Memorial weekend.

The Pend Oreille lake trout harvest incentive program will continue through 2013; however, the program ends for rainbows on Jan. 1, when the new fishing rules take effect. Anglers looking to cash in on the incentive program for rainbow trout must turn in heads before the New Year.

The new rules will be effective through 2015.

"The extension from the former two-year cycle was done to minimize the confusion associated with frequently changing rules," a release said.

A complete set of the fishing rules is available on the IDFG website http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/fish/rules/, or in hard copy from Idaho fishing license vendors and IDFG regional offices.