July 8, 2026 South Fork Salmon River Chinook Update

South Fork Salmon River Fishery Expands to Seven Days per Week

The South Fork Salmon River Chinook fishery is expanding to seven days per week, effective today (July 8).

With roughly half of our harvest share still available and fishing conditions beginning to change, the IDFG Director has authorized an in-season adjustment that allows the fishery to remain open every day until our harvest share is reached, or August 10—whichever comes first.

Our goal is simple: provide anglers every opportunity to utilize the remaining harvest share while fishing conditions are still favorable, before river flows drop much further and water temperatures increase later this month.

Fishery Update

The third fishing interval on the South Fork Salmon River was one of my favorites of the season. The weather was beautiful, fishing pressure was surprisingly light, and there were plenty of fish moving through the system. Best of all, several anglers I talked with landed their first Chinook salmon ever over the Independence Day weekend.

Catch rates were similar to the previous interval, and we estimate anglers harvested 104 adipose-clipped adults over the four-day period.

That brings our estimated season harvest to 285 adipose-clipped adults. With approximately half of our anticipated harvest share still available, we're in a great position to expand the fishery and provide additional opportunity.

The Run Keeps Growing

Believe it or not, we're still detecting PIT-tagged South Fork fish crossing Bonneville Dam, and our harvest share continues to increase.

As of today:

• An estimated 2,881 adipose-clipped South Fork adults have crossed Bonneville Dam.
• 1,842 of those fish have already crossed Lower Granite Dam.
• Approximately 1,600 adults have entered the South Fork Salmon River drainage.
• 1,245 adults have already crossed the Krassel PIT-tag antenna and entered the primary fishing area.

This year's run continues to be remarkably spread out.

McCall Hatchery is more than halfway to its broodstock collection goal, yet we're still seeing new South Fork fish arriving at Bonneville Dam. That's not something we see every year.

After accounting for harvest in both the tribal and non-tribal fisheries, along with broodstock collected at the hatchery, we estimate there are currently around 300 adipose-clipped adults actively swimming within the fishery boundaries. Another 350 or so fish are close behind them in the lower South Fork Salmon River, and more fish are still making their way through the hydrosystem.

The bottom line is this: there are fish in the river now, more fish arriving every day, and enough harvest share remaining to justify expanding fishing opportunity.

Why Open the Fishery Seven Days per Week?

This is exactly the type of situation we anticipated during season setting earlier this year, when we made some adjustments to our South Fork harvest share matrix and asked the Commission the grant the Director the authority to adjust seasons within the bounds of that matrix as-needed.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved the new harvest-share matrix below, which allows for the flexibility to run either a four-day fishery OR a seven-day fishery at our current projected harvest share. 

With approximately half of our harvest share still available, river flows continuing to decline, and water temperatures steadily increasing, expanding the fishery to seven days per week gives anglers the best opportunity to fully utilize the available harvest while fishing conditions remain favorable.

It also creates opportunities for anglers who haven't been able to fish Thursday through Sunday to finally get out during the week and enjoy this fishery.

Looking Ahead

I'll be honest—I expected catch rates to be a little higher by this point in the season. My best guess is that this year's run is just really spread out geographically. 

Rather than seeing large schools of fish moving upriver together, I've mostly been watching small groups of two or three fish working their way through. The fish are there, but they're trickling in instead of arriving in waves.

If I were planning a trip this week, I'd be on the river before sunrise. Fishing has consistently been best from the start of fishing hours (5:30 a.m.) until around 10:00 a.m., while fish are actively moving upstream. Once the sun gets high on the water, things tend to slow down considerably.

This fishery has turned out much better than many of us expected just a few weeks ago. The run continues to build, plenty of harvest share remains, and anglers now have the flexibility to fish any day of the week.

If you've been waiting for an opportunity to fish the South Fork this year, now is the time.