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Idaho Fish and Game

The Lemhi River near Salmon, Idaho

F&G biologists, field technicians travel deep into the mountains to study salmon populations

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To get there, you have to turn off the pavement and go up a little gravel road. No, I mean way up, past where the gravel turns to dirt, past where the road signs and the mailboxes stop. To get to where the fish are, you have to go OUT.

Every summer the Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologist and field technicians take to the wild lands in search of fish. Most of them are target game species like salmon and trout. Many of these are threatened or endangered. All are slimy and scaled and beloved to both fish managers and the people who fish for them throughout the state of Idaho.

Salmon streams may be found high or low, forested or agricultural, thin and fast, or slow, deep and wide. These are just a few.

Steelhead Streams in Idaho
Central Idaho salmon streams.

Rapid River is fed by snowmelt from the Seven Devils Mountains high above both the Salmon and Snake Rivers. This little stream plummets from rocky slopes, through pine forests, digs down the grassy canyon walls, slips by the Rapid River fish hatchery, and finally flows into the Little Salmon River. 

Rapid River looking upstream from the rotery screw trap.
Rapid River quickly narrows as it moves upstream into the Seven Devils Mountain Range
Rapid River headed up into the Seven Devils
Rapid River climps from sagebrush to pine as you travel towards the headwaters in the Seven Devils range.

If river water had a terroir like a good glass of wine, the Potlatch River would taste of pine, cedar, and the rolling hills of the Palouse. This stream meanders through some of the most gently beautiful landscapes in Idaho.

The Potlatch River at the confluence with the East For Potlatch
Confluence of the East Fork Potlatch and mainstem Potlatch River.
Palouse around the Potlatch River
Where the rolling hills of the Palouse meet the forests of the Clearwater Mountains.

Lolo Creek finishes as a lovely, somewhat placid, stream when it joins the Clearwater River, but high up in the Clearwater Mountains it starts its run as a swift moving creek in a deep ravine whose tiny little trickles all converge to form a surprising trout stream.

Lolo Creek in a deep revine high up in the Clearwater Mountains
Lolo Creek in a deep ravine high up in the Clearwater Mountains.

Fish Creek may not be high in elevation, but tucked away in a fold of the Clearwater Mountains, this flashy little tributary of the Lochsa River is absolutely inundated with snow during spring steelhead runs. Here the field season crew must chip through ice and snow to install the picket weir and screw trap each spring, but they’ve been doing it for over 20 years now.

Fish Creek in the spring when water is high.
Fish Creek in the spring when water is high.

The North Fork of the Salmon River is a lovely little stream that greets you as you climb over Lolo Pass from Montana. Thick with shrubs, willow, and cottonwood, it meanders through pastureland before merging with the mainstem Salmon River at an unassuming rocky beach.

 

The North Fork Salmon River as it meanders through pastureland.
The North Fork Salmon River as it meanders through pastureland.
The North Fork Salmon River flows through pastureland
The Salmon River Mountains stand guard over the North Fork of the Salmon River.

Hidden up a narrow canyon, Hayden Creek joins several tributaries from the sagebrush steppes of the Lemhi Mountain Range with the Lemhi River below. 

Hayden Creek in the sagebrush step.
Hayden Creek tumbles out of the Lemhi range to join the Lemhi River
The Lemhi range
The Lemhi Mountain range provides runoff water for Hayden Creek.

It would be easy to miss the Pahsimeroi River because it’s not on the way to anywhere. Nestled between the Lemhi and Lost River mountain ranges, this wide, gentle, stream grows the biggest steelhead smolts in Idaho.

The Pahsimeroi River winding through the valley.
The Pahsimeroi River winds through a narrow valley snuggled between the Lemhi and Lost River ranges.
The Lost River range borders the Pahsimeroi River valley to the west
The Lost River range borders Pahsimeroi River valley to the west.

The Yankee Fork of the Salmon River was drastically altered by dredge mining. The piles of rock and abandoned dredge are still present to this day, but after it all, resilient salmon remain.

The Yankee Fork of the Salmon River on a cold, rainy day.
The Yankee Fork of the Salmon River.
The abandoned dredge and rock piles along Yankee Fork
The dredge and rock piles along Yankee Fork of the Salmon River.

Way up towards its headwaters, the River of No Return is gentler than its nickname suggests. Fed by streams from several mountain lakes, here, the upper Salmon River presents a picture-perfect trout stream making Stanley, Idaho, a recreation destination for those who love the mountains. In addition to a weir and screw trap, IDFG also has the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery here, and nearby Redfish Lake is home to Idaho’s native sockeye salmon.

The rotery screw trap at the Sawtooth Hatchyer on the Upper Salmon River
The rotary screw trap at the Sawtooth Hatchery on the Upper Salmon River.

Just as its name suggests, Marsh Creek is, well, marshy. At an elevation of about 7,000 feet, this area sees snow from September to May.  This moisture protected the stream when much of the surrounding forested mountains burned in 2024. 

Part of the marsh that gives March Creek its name.
The wet landscape of March Creek protected it from the wildfires of 2024.
Marsh Creek in the Sawtooth Mountains
Marsh Creek's marsh in the Sawtooth Mountains

Way, way in the back country, much of the mountains around Bear Valley Creek also burned in 2024, but the screw trap is back in place, and as the snows finally melt in May, green can be seen amongst the charred deadfall and young trees are reclaiming burned areas from previous fires.

Bear Valley Creek is more of a river when the scew trap is installed in the spring.
Bear Valley Creek is more of a river when flows are high in the spring. The screw trap is pulled to the bank to avoid fast moving debris in the system.
Young trees reclaim old burn scars while grass pushes up throgh the snow in new burn scars.
Young trees reclaim an older burn scar, while new grass pushes up through the snow in areas that burned in 2024.

Guided by the mission that Idaho’s wildlife must be "preserved, protected, perpetuated and managed", Idaho’s fish managers travel deep into the mountains, using a combination of screw traps and weirs, snorkeling, and spawning ground surveys to learn everything they can about our fish populations.  To do that, they must go where the fish are.