It's not confirmed, but the planets could align this year and anglers get an additional batch of steelhead in the Boise River. Stocking is scheduled to start Thursday.

F&G usually plants about 300 steelhead during the first week of November and continues weekly stocking through Thanksgiving until there are about 1,000 fish in the river.

But this year, Idaho is seeing a large return of hatchery steelhead, and F&G is starting its stocking a week early.

"We're discussing a load every week through Thanksgiving, that's what our desire would be," said Sam Sharr, Fish and Game's anadromous fish coordinator.

Stocking earlier and more steelhead would help meet demand for the wildly popular fishery. It would give anglers a chance to fish for them before the hard freeze that typically hits in mid November, which chills the river and makes the fish harder to catch.

More steelhead would obviously give anglers more chances to catch a big fish, and send a few more people home with a steelhead up to 10 lbs.

There are no hard numbers available, but based on the amount of people who line the banks at popular fishing spots along the river, it appears more anglers are turning out each year for the chance to catch a steelhead on the Boise River.

It's good to see F&G trying to increase its stocking to meet the growing interest in local steelhead fishing.