South Fork Salmon River Update - June 30, 2023

Hey Everyone.

As I suspected, effort has increased substantially going into the holiday weekend, and so have catch rates now that a lot of fish have arrived. We don’t have final estimates yet for the last few days of fishing because a lot of anglers are camping within the fishery boundaries and haven’t come out yet. For that reason, I don’t have finalized up-to-date harvest estimates to share with you from the past two days. (we’re still collecting that data). However, as of Tuesday, June 27th (the data that is final thus far) we estimated 176 hatchery adults were harvested since opening day. That breakdown is shown below.

I can tell you that effort is high down there right now and catch rates are getting better and better each day. From the interviews that we have conducted since the opening of the fishery, we’ve seen catch rates improve from around 40 hours per fish harvested during the first four days of the fishery, to now around 10 hours per fish harvested in most recent days. This doesn’t surprise me considering the number of hatchery PIT tags that have been getting detected at the Krassel antenna over the past few days. 

The graph below shows the cumulative increase in the number of hatchery adult PIT tags over the Krassel antenna since the start of the fishery (the solid black line), as well as how catch rates have improved throughout the fishery (dashed black line). There are currently almost 100 PIT tagged hatchery adults above the Krassel antenna, and the most recent catch rates from our interviews are about 10 hours per fish harvested. That’s about as good as it gets.

As most of you know, it is not uncommon for the South Fork to see a ton of effort over the fourth of July holiday weekend, and if the fish are there (which they are) we can reach harvest share and will need to close the fishery promptly in order to ensure harvest remains within management guidelines. This helps ensure the hatchery traps enough fish for broodstock to produce the next generation of offspring. 

For that reason, we have decided to reduce the sport fishery to two (2) days per week after the end of fishing hours on Tuesday, July 4th. Basically, this means the fishery will run through Tuesday, the 4th, then will be closed on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday next week – and if any harvest share remains after the 4th of July holiday weekend it will re-open two days per week on Saturdays and Sundays, starting July 8th. 

As I mentioned, catch rates are great, the fish are here, and a lot of people are on the river right now so I’m not super optimistic that we’ll have any harvest share left on the table after July 4th, but I will be sure to let you all know on Wednesday July 5th as soon as the numbers are all finalized. 

If you want to fish the South Fork Salmon for Chinook this year, this might be your last chance. If you’re on the river this weekend and early next week, I might see ya down there. Good luck, have fun, and be safe!