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

Hi everybody.

It is time for my weekly spring Chinook Salmon update (6/6/2023). For those of you who like to fish the lower Salmon River, please be aware that salmon fishing from Rice Creek Bridge to Hammer Creek boat ramp will close at the end of fishing hours this Sunday (June 11). Details on this closure are provided below.

RUN UPDATE

The run of Idaho-bound spring Chinook Salmon past Bonneville Dam is for all practical purposes complete. For the past week almost all the fish passing over Bonneville Dam have been summer run fish, so I don’t really have any new information to share with you on this front. As such, I am going to jump right to our estimated harvest shares based on PIT tagged spring Chinook Salmon that have passed over Bonneville Dam. This information is summarized in the table below and captures data through 6/5/23. This table shows that the Clearwater River return’s harvest share is projected to be 3,216 adult fish (darker peach row), the Rapid River return (darker blue row) is projected to be 1,509, and Hells Canyon’s (green row) is projected to be 291 fish. 

There are a couple things that could change these harvest shares. First, we are still evaluating how well these fish are surviving as they make their migration from Bonneville Dam to Lower Granite Dam. It looks like their survival will be below average this year which would cause these harvest shares to drop some. We will be taking a more in-depth look at this information later this week. We will also be evaluating how well PIT tagged fish represent the actual run size using genetic data collected at Lower Granite Dam. I provided more details on this process in a previous update if you are interested (Chinook update 5-2-2023). In some years, this data has increased harvest shares significantly, and in some years it has not. Next week, the harvest share data I present will include more accurate survival and PIT estimates.

Based on some comments I received last week, I wanted to share with you information how passage of Rapid River hatchery fish over Lower Granite Dam compares to fish destined for upper Salmon River fisheries (see Figure below). We use this data to help us evaluate what type of impact fisheries occurring in the lower Salmon River will have on upstream fisheries (South Fork Salmon River and upper Salmon River). As you can see in the figure below, upriver fish first started passing over Lower Granite Dam on May 19.  If we assumed these fish will migrate from lower Granite Dam to the beginning of the fishery in the lower Salmon River (Rice Creek Bridge) in 10 days, these fish would start showing up on May 29. Flows at the Slide Rapid dropped below 50,000 cfs (flows that are less of an impediment to fish passage) on May 27, meaning these upriver fish would be entering the lower Salmon River fishery with about 1,500 Rapid River hatchery fish that would have been stuck below this rapid.  Since May 27, counts of upriver fish increased slowly until June 1, and it is this surge of fish that we are most concerned about when they enter the lower Salmon River fishery.

To give you a feel for how fisheries in the lower Salmon River (Rice Creek Bridge to Hammer Creek Boat Ramp) could impact upstream fisheries, I have created the figure below. This figure used the data presented in the figure above to estimates what portion of the harvest in the lower Salmon River would be represented by Rapid River fish over time. I assumed fish would make the migration from Lower Granite Dam to Rice Creek Bridge in 8-12 days. This figure shows that through June 5, at least 80% of the fish harvested were destined to Rapid River Hatchery. Starting today (June 6), we estimate that proportion is going to start dropping below 80% and that has us concerned. Flows are supposed to pick up this weekend which will likely slow down fishing some and is why we decided to hold off until the end of fishing hours on June 11 (this Sunday) before closing salmon fishing downstream of Hammer Creek boat ramp. Based on this information, we definitely don't want to keep the fishery open in this reach past June 11 when more the 50% of the harvest would be from upriver fish.

TRIBAL NETTING

Tribal members have continued to explore the best locations and techniques to fish with gill nets and drift nets. Right now, almost all their effort is with gill nets which are scattered out from Five Mile Boat Ramp (about 10 miles upstream of Orofino) downstream to near the mouth of the Clearwater River. There have been three to four nets fished below the Camas Prairie Railroad Bridge over the last week. Not all of them are easy to see, so when boating in this area please stick to the shipping channel (middle of the river). For perspective, sport anglers in the lower Clearwater River have harvested about 560 Chinook Salmon whereas the Tribe has gillnetted about 70 fish.

FISHERIES

Clearwater River Basin Fishery

Last week we estimated that 513 adult Chinook Salmon were harvested in the Clearwater basin (see Table below). Fish were caught all the way up past Kooskia Hatchery although most of the fish were caught in the lower Clearwater (279 fish). Overall, catch rates averaged about 20 hrs/fish last week with the best catch rates occurring near Dworshak and Kooskia hatcheries. This week, I suspect that harvest will slow in section 1 as the majority of fish have now passed by and counts at Lower Granite Dam are starting to drop. On the other hand, fishing should only get better around Dworshak and Kooskia Hatcheries. This should also be a good week to fish the South Fork Clearwater. The water conditions look really good there right now. We are not approaching any of our harvest allocations goals (see blue section in table below), so all river sections in the Clearwater River basin will remain open for at least another week.

Rapid River Run Fishery

We estimated that almost 200 fish were harvested last week with fishing being caught from Rice Creek Bridge all the way upstream to the Little Salmon River (see Table below). The best catch rates were around Riggins and in the Little Salmon River at under 10 hrs/fish. Expect fishing to only improve this week although flows are supposed to pick up this weekend which may influence fishing. 

As I mentioned earlier, salmon fishing will close between Rice Creek Bridge and Hammer Creek boat ramp at the end of fishing hours on June 11 (this Sunday). Expect closures to occur sometime next week from Hammer Creek to Time Zone Bridge to reduce impacts on upstream fisheries.

Hells Canyon Fishery

We estimated that 93 adult Chinook Salmon were harvested below Hells Canyon Dam last week which brings the season total to 121 fish. Catch rates were 13 hrs/fish. This week should be the best week to fish below Hells Canyon Dam and then trapping will start on June 12 and draw fish out of the fishery.

That is all I have for you this week.

Have a great week.