South Fork Salmon River Update - June 20, 2023

Hi Everyone!

The South Fork Salmon River fishery opens in two days (Thursday, June 22), so here is some information to help you make plans for fishing the South Fork this year. 

Rules

First of all, the season will be open 7 days per week until harvest share is reached, wild fish impacts are reached, or August 10 – whichever comes first. Fishing hours are from 5:30a to 10:00p, and the fishery boundaries will be the same as they were in 2022, from 100 yards below the South Fork Salmon hatchery weir to the posted boundary at Jakie Creek bridge, approximately 23 miles downstream. Daily limit is four hatchery salmon, only one of which may be an adult (over 24 inches) – once you harvest an adult, you must cease fishing for the day. You can find the full season rules HERE.

Harvest Share update

As I mentioned last week, South Fork Salmon River bound Chinook are still coming over Bonneville Dam, so the harvest share is still being fine-tuned. As of today, we estimate 3,029 South Fork bound Chinook have crossed over Bonneville Dam, and 1,952 of those have crossed over Lower Granite Dam. The table below shows the current estimated harvest share (670 adults) based on passage over Bonneville Dam. Again, this is still changing daily and I will provide another update next week. 

Run Timing

Since we are coming up on opening weekend, I’m going to give you an idea of how many fish might be available in the fishery this weekend. It typically takes about two weeks for adult Chinook Salmon to travel from Lower Granite Dam to the lowest PIT tag antenna on the South Fork Salmon (SFG). Our estimate suggests that there were approximately 974 hatchery adults that passed over Lower Granite Dam between May 27 and June 10. I think it is very possible that the majority of those fish are within the fishery boundaries for opening weekend. So far, we have documented eleven hatchery adult PIT tags and fourteen wild adult PIT tags at the SFG PIT tag antenna in the past week. Those tags expand to roughly 550 hatchery adults (50 fish per tag) and 77 wild adults (5.5 fish per tag). This year those fish have been travelling from the SFG antenna to the KRS (Krassel) antenna in roughly two to three days. As of today, we have documented seven hatchery adult PIT tags, and seven wild adult PIT tags at the Krassel (KRS) antenna – all in the past three days. Those, again, expand to roughly 350 hatchery adults and 39 wild adults within the fishery boundaries. I think its safe to say if you head out to fish the South Fork Salmon this weekend, you have a decent chance of catching a salmon. 

As of today, the South Fork weir has not trapped any fish yet. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few fish start rolling into the trap this week. 

I’ll provide another update on these numbers next Tuesday, but in the meantime if you’d like to keep an eye on PIT tag detections for yourself, here is the link to a short video tutorial I made last year to give you some instructions on how to do so: LINK HERE

General Fishery Outlook

In general, I think fishing will be decent this weekend but I don’t think it will be red hot yet. I would anticipate that fishing will be on fire by the following weekend (July 1st and 2nd). However, many of you know that once the fish really show up in numbers on the South Fork Salmon, if anglers show up in big numbers too the catch rates can be really good and the season can shut down very quickly. That may be especially true this year, with a relatively low harvest share. There is no guarantee that the fishery will last until July 4th this year. In fact, I think it is a reasonable assumption that the fishery will be relatively short this year. If you want to have an opportunity to fish the South Fork before harvest share is reached, I hope you’re planning to get out there in the next week and a half. 

Fishing with the Tribes

We’ve received a lot of concern about the non-tribal fishery boundaries being reduced in 2022 and 2023, with the lower boundary moving up to Jakie Creek Bridge, so I wanted to take another moment to speak to this. 

When the South Fork Salmon River re-opened to angling for Chinook Salmon in 1997 (after a 30 year closure) the non-tribal fishing boundaries were from the weir down to Goat Creek (7 miles). It ran this way until 2007, when the Forest Service asked us to expand the fishing boundaries to spread out anglers and reduce impacts occurring in such a small area, particularly post-fire. From 2008 to 2021, we operated the fishery on the entire 32 miles of the South Fork from the weir down to the confluence with the East Fork South Fork Salmon. As a result, the area below Goat Creek that was previously only open to tribal anglers started seeing a lot more non-tribal fishing effort. Instead of competing with non-tribal anglers for fishing holes and camping spots, tribal anglers shifted when they fished in order to avoid conflict with non-tribal anglers. In general, the bulk of their effort didn’t even start on the South Fork until the non-tribal fishery closed so they didn’t have to compete for fishing locations and camping spots. This resulted in tribal anglers having trouble reaching their harvest share. Tribal anglers get the same harvest share that non-tribal anglers get each year (ex. approximately 700 fish each for 2023). When tribal anglers waited for the non-tribal fishery to end before most of them came to spend time on the South Fork, the bulk of the fish had already moved through the fishery and it was tough to catch their share. Additionally, the fish they were harvesting later in the season had poorer flesh quality (the earlier arriving fish are definitely in better shape).

In coordination with the Nez Perce Tribe, in 2022 we agreed to a trial period of two years in order to determine whether reducing our fishery boundaries by 9 miles (up to Jakie Creek Bridge) to provide some exclusive fishing area could help the tribes better achieve their fishery objectives without compromising the objectives of our fisheries. We are moving forward with those fishery boundaries again this year (year two of the trial period) and will re-evaluate after this season is over. In 2022, non-tribal anglers still achieved our harvest share for the sport fishery, regardless of not fishing those lower 9 miles.

I think its important for all of us to keep in mind that we all want the same thing – an opportunity to get out on the river with our friends and family to fish and hopefully take home some fresh salmon. I realize that reducing the fishing boundaries for non-tribal anglers is not ideal, especially for those non-tribal anglers that like fishing the lower 9 miles. In fact, an ideal situation would be that Chinook runs are strong enough that everyone could fish everywhere and there were plenty of fish to go around, and folks didn’t feel the need to compete with other angling groups. We’ll get a lot more accomplished for Salmon runs if we work together instead of against each other during these times in which runs are not as strong as we'd all like them to be. Keep in mind that the vast majority of hatchery Chinook production that occurs in the Clearwater Basin comes from Nez Perce Tribal Hatcheries. Additionally, we wouldn’t have Coho Salmon in Idaho if it wasn’t for tribal production. The tribes do a lot of great things for Salmon in Idaho, and they’re just as invested in strengthening returns as the rest of us are.

If you’re out on the South Fork Salmon this year and you run into some tribal anglers, try to appreciate that they are out there for the same reasons you are. They’re trying to spend time with their families and take home some fresh Salmon. Say Hi, start up a conversation, learn about what this fishery means to them and how their fishing methods differ from ours. Share your experiences with them and what the fishery means to you. I have never been disappointed from my interactions with tribal anglers, and I think you could have the same experience if you stay open-minded and friendly toward one another. If we can’t learn to fish together in a positive manner, we can’t fish together. We can learn to appreciate one another for our differences and our common goals, and if we do we’ll be a lot better off for it. 

Hope to see you all on the South Fork!