Little Salmon / South Fork Salmon Update: June 4, 2024

Hey everyone. 

I’ve been getting a lot of calls and emails from folks asking about whether we’re catching fish on the Little Salmon River yet, as well as whether we can expect a fishery on the South Fork Salmon River this year. I’ll address both of those questions here. 

Little Salmon River

Fishing started to pick up on the Little Salmon River during this past fishing interval (Thursday through Sunday). We estimated a total of 1,818 angler hours fished over the 4-day interval, and a total of 86 hatchery adults and 5 jacks were harvested for an overall harvest rate of 20 hours per fish. 

Both, the Little Salmon River fishery and the Lower Salmon River fishery are conducted on the fish returning to Rapid River Fish Hatchery. Currently, the non-tribal harvest share estimate is 2,201 adults to be shared between the Little Salmon and Lower Salmon fisheries. 

Based on results from public scoping efforts this spring, we will be attempting to split the Rapid River harvest share so that approximately 55% is utilized in the Lower Salmon River (1,210 adults) and 45% is utilized in the Little Salmon River (991 adults). This is our target goal, and we will do our best to achieve it. 

As of the end of fishing hours on Sunday, June 2, we estimate that 689 hatchery adults have been harvested out of the Lower Salmon River so far, which leaves approximately 521 adults available for harvest in the Lower Salmon River to reach our target. 

A closure order was issued yesterday for sections 1 and 2 in the Lower Salmon River (see press release), so the only section that will remain open for this upcoming fishing interval is section 3 (Time Zone Bridge to Shorts Creek). The reason section 1 and 2 are closing is because we’ve found that as we get into June, the potential to encounter upriver fish becomes greater in these lower sections of the Salmon River. This year, a few of those upriver stocks are not projected to return very well, so we need to reduce the chances that those fish are harvested in the Lower Salmon River fishery. Due to the proximity of section 3 to the mouth of the Little Salmon River, the majority of fish caught in that section are Rapid River fish, so that section can stay open with minimal impact to upriver stocks. 

Central Idaho rivers saw a significant increase in flow yesterday, as heavy rains took down a large portion of our remaining snowpack. While those flows will certainly slow fish down a little bit, luckily the Little Salmon River is forecasted to drop back down to fishable conditions by the start of the next fishing interval on Thursday, June 6. 

As of yesterday, June 3, Rapid River Hatchery posted a total of 310 adults have returned to the weir. You can keep track of those returns on the IDFG website HERE. 

The take-home message is that fishing was good in the Riggins area last interval, and it will only get better. As you can see in the table above, we estimated 295 adults were harvested in section 3 on the Lower Salmon during the last fishing interval, and my guess is that number will be quite a bit higher this interval as more fish arrive in the Riggins area. I anticipate this upcoming interval seeing a lot more effort, catch, and harvest in section 3 of the Lower Salmon River, as well as on the Little Salmon River. I’ll report back next week to let you know the status of these fisheries after this next fishing interval. Hope to see you out there!

South Fork Salmon River

Now for the depressing news. So far the South Fork Salmon River return is not materializing as we had hoped. The pre-season forecast for the South Fork Salmon was 3,752 clipped adults over Bonneville Dam. So far this year, there are an estimated 594 clipped South Fork adults over Bonneville Dam.

Typically, by this calendar date (June 4), the South Fork run over Bonneville is at least 50% complete. If that holds true this year, we might expect around 1,200 clipped South Fork adults over Bonneville this year, which means there will barely be enough fish making it back to the South Fork to meet broodstock needs, and we will likely not have any harvestable share to provide a fishery this year. 

We are not completely throwing in the towel yet. The IDFG commission will be meeting next Wednesday, June 12, to set seasons for summer-run Chinook fisheries. We will be monitoring the development of the South Fork run over the next week, and hope to have some good news to share with you by this time next week. However, you should all be aware that unless we see a big push of South Fork fish over Bonneville, we will not be proposing a fishery in the South Fork Salmon this year. Stay tuned……