Upper Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Report (02-24-2026)

Hi everyone, this is the Upper Salmon River steelhead fishing report for February 24, 2026. The data discussed in this report were primarily collected between Wednesday, February 18 and Sunday, February 22. 

Steelhead continued to be caught at good rates throughout the Upper Salmon River last week, although catch rates appeared to slow over the weekend due to a cold front that moved through the area later in the week. On Sunday, anglers were spread out from below the Middle Fork Salmon River to above the East Fork Salmon River. Because it is still early in the year, we have not yet started interviewing anglers upstream of the East Fork, but weather permitting, we will begin monitoring that area this week. Boat angler effort was lower than two weekends ago, with most boat anglers observed near Salmon or between Challis and Ellis. 

Bank angler effort remained very light downstream of the Middle Fork last week in location code 14, and only three interviews were obtained, with no reported catch. Anglers interviewed between the Middle Fork and North Fork in location code 15 averaged 12 hours per steelhead caught, and anglers interviewed between North Fork and the Lemhi River in location code 16 averaged 9 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed between the Lemhi and Pahsimeroi rivers in location code 17 averaged 7 hours per steelhead caught, and anglers interviewed between the Pahsimeroi and East Fork Salmon rivers in location code 18 averaged 8 hours per steelhead caught. Two interviews were obtained near Challis from anglers who fished Sunday morning upstream of the East Fork in location code 19, which resulted in an average catch rate of 10 hours per steelhead. 

River conditions were good throughout the week. On Sunday, the river had clear to slightly cloudy visibility in all areas, and water temperatures were in the mid-30s. Colder overnight lows on Thursday and Friday resulted in slush ice in the mornings upstream of the Pahsimeroi River that limited angler effort.

Each spring, we include a graph in the weekly fishing reports showing the number of PIT-tagged steelhead detected at the PIT tag array upstream of Salmon, ID near Elevenmile. This array is designated as “USE” on the PTAGIS website. Below is the updated graph for this year’s return. Although we expect many more fish to pass over this array in the upcoming weeks, numerous steelhead have already been detected. This helps illustrate how early and spread out this year’s run has been. We plan to include this graph in each weekly fishing report for the remainder of the spring to help keep anglers updated on the run’s progress. If you would like to read more about PIT tags and how they are used, please click this link. If you would like to query these PIT tag arrays on your own using the PTAGIS website, follow the steps below. Anglers with additional questions are encouraged to call the IDFG Salmon Regional office at 208-756-2271. 

1. Go to PTAGIS.org and select “Observations” in the dropdown menu under “Data”.
2. Under “Select Site”, scroll down and find “USE-Upper Salmon River at rkm 437” to select the Elevenmile site.
3. Choose your desired time period and click “Submit”.
4. The search results will display all the PIT tag detections within your selected time frame.
5. If needed, filter the results by species by selecting a species name under “Tags per Species”.
6. Not all detections will be from adult fish - To distinguish between juvenile and adult fish, click on a specific tag code to check the “Complete Tag History”. This will show the species, tagging date, tagging location, and detection history for each tag.

Lastly, we wanted to let anglers know that the IDFG boat ramps at Bobcat Gulch and North Fork will be cleared of ice and ready for use by this weekend. Anglers are still advised to check the condition of any boat ramps they plan to use before launching.