Little Salmon / South Fork Salmon Update: June 11, 2024

Hey Everyone!

Here’s an update on the Rapid River Run and the South Fork Salmon River fisheries for this week. 

Rapid River Run

It was a fun weekend on the Little Salmon and in section 3 on the Lower Salmon! We estimated a total of 241 adults harvested in section 3 on the Lower Salmon, and 190 adults harvested from the Little Salmon River. I thought we would see more harvest last weekend, but catch rates were likely hindered a little bit by the high flows we experienced last week. 

Flows were dropping on the Little Salmon each day during the last fishing interval, and fishing got better each day. It was a very busy interval, with an estimated 3,209 hours of angling effort, which is about twice what it was during the prior interval. Average catch rate throughout the interval was about 11 hours per fish caught. 

The harvest share for the Rapid River Run is currently set at 2,325 clipped adults. So far, the Lower Salmon and Little Salmon, combined, have harvested an estimated 1,212 adults, which leaves 1,113 remaining in the harvest share. We’ll attempt to manage the harvest share so that 55% goes to the Lower Salmon and 45% of the total goes to the Little Salmon, which means we’ll likely have just one more fishing interval (this Thursday through Sunday) in section 3 of the Lower Salmon. I think it is likely that we'll have at least one more interval on the Little Salmon, but we’ll just have to see how many fish get harvested. Stay tuned for next week's update. 

As of yesterday (June 10th) there have been 782 adults caught in the Rapid River fish trap. Lately, they’ve been getting about 50 per day or so. Now that flows are dropping I think that will increase pretty quickly. They’re coming through, so get out there and get your line in the water!

South Fork Salmon River

Unfortunately there are not enough fish returning to the South Fork Salmon River for us to be able to provide harvest opportunity this year. The South Fork is my favorite place to fish, so I’m just as disappointed as the rest of you. I wish I had more information as to why the run didn’t materialize as we had hoped, but I don’t. I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know what I learn. 

The Commission is meeting tomorrow to set seasons for the Lochsa River and the Upper Salmon River, so stay tuned for an announcement after those seasons are set. 

I hope to see a bunch of you on the river in Riggins this weekend. Good luck out there!