Little Salmon / South Fork Salmon Update: June 25, 2025

Hey everyone!

The Little Salmon River fishery has reached harvest share and a closure order has been issued. However, Chinook fishing is heating up on the South Fork Salmon. This fishery isn’t going to last long, so get out there before its too late!

Previous Interval South Fork Salmon Recap

The opener for the South Fork Salmon fishery was a success! The fishery opened on Thursday, June 19 and is running 7 days per week with a 1 adult per day limit. We are running the angler check station on the South Fork Road near Warm Lake again this year to conduct angler interviews and estimate harvest. As of Sunday, June 22 we checked 80 harvested adults and 2 harvested jacks at the check station, out of 220 total interviews. There weren’t a ton of anglers out there, so we interviewed almost everyone. The expanded harvest estimate for the Thursday to Sunday interval is 84 adults harvested so far this season on the South Fork (Table 1). We estimated 892 hours of angling effort was expended over the 4 day interval, and average catch rate was about 9 hours per adult caught and 11 hours per adult harvested. That’s some pretty good fishing for the opening 4 days!

Harvest Share and Season Structure

Unfortunately, predicted harvest share for the South Fork Salmon continues to decline. The number on our prediction spreadsheet we use said 730 adults this morning, but that’s assuming another 200 adults come over Bonneville Dam and also assumes average conversion rates to Lower Granite. However, based on the number of fish over Bonneville Dam so far and the conversion rates we’ve seen this year (which has been slightly lower than average), we estimate the South Fork Salmon harvest share this season may only be around 550 adults - I’ll know more early next week. The harvest matrix for the South Fork Salmon (Table 2) shows that a harvest share below 750 adults puts us into recommending a 4-day per week season (Thursday through Sunday). However, since the Commission just set the season at 7 days per week last week based on the original prediction of harvest share, and we still don’t know what our final harvest share will be, we’re reluctant to change things up at this point in the fishery. If in-season changes to season structure could result in increased opportunity for anglers we would pursue it. In this case, I’m not sure we would make it through the 4th of July weekend without exceeding our harvest share either way. Additionally, I know a lot of you have made plans to fish during the week next week (Monday through Wednesday), so changing the season structure now and taking that opportunity away from you does not seem like the right move. This is a tough decision, and we labor over decisions like this tremendously, but right now the best data we have informs our decision to not reduce days per week for the fishery. We recognize this may mean an abrupt end to the season prior to the 4th of July holiday that many people love, but we feel this approach will maximize opportunity while the fish are here and the fishing is good. 

SFSR Prediction

The Krassel PIT array has picked up quite a few clipped adult PIT detections over the past week. The current estimate is around 1,100 clipped adults are above the Krassel array, most of which crossed the array over the past 7 days. These fish are now within the fishery area and I expect fishing to be good this weekend. There are another 250 unclipped adults between Krassel and the South Fork Guard Station – headed to the fishery. When the fish are in and there are a lot of anglers on the river, it is not uncommon to see daily harvest of adults in the 50 to 100 fish range. The harvest share can go quickly in that scenario. We’ll be keeping a close eye on how much harvest is occurring during the fishery this week, and trying to determine how much farther the fishery can run after this weekend. As I’ve said, I don’t anticipate this fishery making through 4th of July weekend this year. So if you want to fish for Chinook on the South Fork Salmon, get out there this weekend!

Little Salmon River Fishery Recap

The Rapid River harvest share for the non-tribal fishery has been met, and as such the Director’s Office has signed a closure order for the Little Salmon River fishery effective immediately. 

Catch rates on the Little Salmon River were great over the past 4-day fishing interval. We saw slightly lower effort than during the previous interval, but more harvest overall. We estimated 162 adults were harvested, which brings our season total up to 532. When added to the 1,088 adults that were estimated harvested during the Lower Salmon River fishery, our total estimated season harvest for the Rapid River Run is 1,620 (Table 3). The most recent harvest share estimate is 1,622 adults, which means we’ve met our harvest share. 

Overall, the 2025 season on the Little Salmon River was a success. The last 3 intervals experienced excellent catch rates, and in total we documented 20 days of fish being caught on the Little Salmon River this year. The hatchery has met broodstock needs, so some of you may be asking why we are not leaving the fishery open longer. Although broodstock has been met, the Nez Perce Tribe has not yet achieved their harvest share. We cannot operate our fisheries in a way that would impact the Tribe’s ability to achieve their harvest share, so that is why we are closing the fishery. By the time the Tribe reaches their harvest share, it is likely the flow on the Little Salmon River will be low enough that fishing conditions will be relatively poor and few fish will be left in the fishery area. We saw this last year on the Little Salmon River – late in the season the catch rates plummeted. So rather than wait until their harvest share is reached and reopen, we’ve decided to close the fishery for this year.

I hope everyone fishing the Little Salmon this year had an excellent season and was able to put some fresh fish in their freezer. For those of you who haven’t yet had your fill, there is still plenty of opportunity across the state to harvest salmon. The Clearwater River fishery is still going, the Lochsa River and Upper Salmon River fisheries are picking up, and the South Fork Salmon will fish really well over the next week. Get out there and have fun!