Spring Chinook Salmon Fishing Update 5/27/2025: Rapid River Run, Hells Canyon, and Clearwater River Fisheries

Hi everybody. 

It is time for another weekly update for the Clearwater Region’s spring Chinook Salmon fisheries (May 27, 2025).  Be aware that the director signed a change to fishery in the lower Salmon River.  Details on this change are provided in the Rapid River Return fishery section.

RUN UPDATE

Idaho’s spring Chinook Salmon returns over Bonneville Dam are about over (~98% complete) which means we can say that this year’s return (red line in figure below) has come in over what was forecasted and will exceed returns in seven of the previous 10 years. 

To understand how many of these fish are returning to Idaho’s fisheries, we need to look at PIT tag detections which are summarized in the table below (through 5/26/2025). This table shows that the Clearwater River return’s harvest share is projected to be 4,857 adult fish (darker peach row) which is up slightly from what was reported in my last update (4,772 fish). The Rapid River return (blue row) is projected to have a harvest share of 1,212 fish which is up considerably from my last update (792 fish). Finally, the Hells Canyon fishery (green row) is projected to have a harvest share of 614 fish which is about the same as I provided in my last update (608 fish).

The reason the harvest share for the Rapid River return increased is because we were able to evaluate the genetic data we have been collecting from Chinook Salmon trapped at Lower Granite Dam. This data shows that PIT tagged fish only represented 51% of the actual Rapid River return which is considerably lower than we typically see. For this reason, we increased our projected return estimate to what is shown in the table above (6,623 adult fish) which in turn increased our projected harvest share (1,212 adult fish).

FISHERIES

Clearwater River Basin

Total harvest last week in the Clearwater River basin was about the same (406 adult fish) as the previous week; however, where fish were harvested was quite different (see table below). Surprisingly, harvest dropped in the lower Clearwater (river codes 3A-B) even though effort went up. Many rumors were buzzing about for why catch rates were so low in the lower Clearwater. The truth is that when flows are low, Chinook Salmon will migrate further from shore in deeper water making them difficult to catch in pass through fisheries, especially in bigger rivers like the Clearwater River. Last week flows in the lower Clearwater River were in the low 20,000 cfs range which is considerably below average. Flows are projected to increase to above 30,000 cfs by tomorrow (5/28/25) due to the warm weather and increased high elevation snow melt, which should push migrating fish closer to shore. 

The area with the best catch rate (9 hrs/fish) last week was the North Fork Clearwater (river code 5). We did not document any fish being harvested in the Middle Fork Clearwater (river code 6) or South Fork Clearwater (river code 7) last week. However, when I checked our e-tag database today, I can tell you that fish arrived yesterday (5/26/25) to the Middle Fork Clearwater River as anglers were uploading a fair number of e-tag fish. None of the river reaches are close to achieving their harvest distribution goals, so all areas will remain open for at least another week. 

Rapid River Return

Significant numbers of fish were caught last week in the Rapid River return fishery. We estimate that 339 adult fish were harvested with catch being observed in all river codes (see table below). Catch rates were good in the lower Salmon River averaging 9 hrs/fish, whereas it was still on the slow side in the Little Salmon River (14-50 hrs/fish).

With the increased adult harvest share (1,212) for the Rapid River run fishery, our harvest goal for the lower Salmon River is now 667 fish which means we have 340 fish remaining (see blue area in table above). Based on projected flows in the Salmon River (40-45,000 cfs) and the timing of the run, we expect fishing to improve in all river reaches this week. That means if we don’t make changes to reduce harvest, we will likely exceed our harvest distribution goal for the lower Salmon River (55% of harvest share). As such, the director signed an order to close harvest of adult Chinook Salmon in river code 10 (Rice Creek Bridge to upper Twin Bridge) that begins immediately. However, you will still be able to fish river code 10 for jacks (4 jack limit). The limits will not change for any of the other river codes. Don’t forget, the Rapid River run fishery is only open Thursday – Sunday. If we get close to our harvest goal for the lower Salmon at the end of the week, expect more closures to follow. If there is a small amount of adult harvest remaining at the end of the week and we aren’t concerned with wild fish impacts, we may be able to maintain jack-only fisheries in the lower Salmon River.

Hells Canyon

We estimated that 121 adults and 14 jacks were harvested last week below Hells Canyon Dam (see table below). Catch rates were 14 hrs/fish which is the best of the year. There are no plans to trap fish at Hells Canyon Dam this week, so fishing should remain good.

Good luck fishing!