Spring Chinook Salmon Fishing Update 6/12/2023: Rapid River Run, Hells Canyon, and Clearwater River Fisheries

Hi everybody.

It is time for my weekly spring Chinook Salmon update (6/12/2023). For those of you who like to fish the Rapid River Run fishery, we will be closing the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers this week. Please read on to learn the details.

RUN UPDATE

I have updated the table below that shows what our harvest shares are for our spring Chinook Salmon fisheries. This table is summarized to capture PIT tag data through 6/11/23. It also includes adjustment using genetic data collected at Lower Granite Dam which boosted the harvest share for the Rapid River run fishery. Using this data, the Clearwater River return’s harvest share is about 3,200 adult fish (darker peach row), the Rapid River return (darker blue row) is about 1,850 fish, and Hells Canyon’s (green row) is 325 fish. 

FISHERIES

Clearwater River Basin Fishery

Last week, we estimated that 608 adult Chinook Salmon were harvested in the Clearwater River basin (see Table below). As expected, catch rates dropped off in the pass-through fisheries and picked up in the terminal areas as fish continue to stack up near release areas. Fishing was really good in the North Fork Clearwater (4 hrs/fish), and this is where the vast majority of fish were harvested (326) despite it only being open four days a week. If you add up the harvest in the North Fork (including catch-and-release mortality), we are now at 440 fish which is about 14% of the harvest share. Our goal is to cut this fishery off when it reaches 25% of the overall harvest share. That means we have about 360 fish to go. As such, this reach will remain open for another four days. However, don’t be surprised if this is the last four days (June 15-18) of fishing that we provide in the North Fork. We will try to let you know by Tuesday (June 20) next week what decisions are made. All other river sections are far short of reaching their harvest goals and will remain open for at least another week.

I do want to point out that we observed a few fish harvested in the South Fork Clearwater last week (12 fish). There should be a lot of fish in the South Fork Clearwater River right now; however, with the way flows are dropping, these fish will migrate up the river fast. As such, if you like to fish the South Fork, don’t wait long or they will push on through. 

Rapid River Run Fishery

The mass of fish that were stuck behind the Slide Rapid hit Riggins last week and provided some of the best fishing we have seen for some time (5 hrs/fish). When fishing is that good, a lot of fish can be harvested in a short amount of time (see Table below). We estimated that over 1,200 fish were caught last week in this fishery with 880 of them being harvested in the lower Salmon River around Riggins (section 3). When you add last week’s harvest with what occurred previously, it totals 1,522 fish. That leaves about 328 in our harvest share which we believe will be caught by the end of Wednesday. As a result, we will be closing the entire Rapid River fishery down at the end of fishing hours on June 14, 2023 (this Wednesday). Specifically, Chinook Salmon fishing on the lower Salmon River from the Hammer Creek boat ramp upstream to the Vinegar Creek boat ramp and the Little Salmon River from the mouth upstream to the Highway 95 Bridge near Smokey Boulder Road will close at the end of fishing hours on June 14, 2023.  Don't forget, downstream of Hammer Creek Boat Ramp is already closed. It closed yesterday (June 11).

Hells Canyon Fishery

We estimated that 109 adult Chinook Salmon were harvested (catch rate of 10 hrs/fish) below Hells Canyon Dam last week which brings the season total to 230 fish. That leaves us with about 100 fish in our harvest share. Because trapping at Hells Canyon dam started today (June 12), catch rates will likely drop. This will allow us to keep the fishery open for at least another week. 

That is all I have for you this week.

Have a great week.