Upper Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Report (04-15-2025)

Hi everyone, this is the Upper Salmon River steelhead fishing report for April 15, 2025. The data discussed in this report was collected between Monday, April 7 and Sunday, April 13, 2025.

Steelhead angler effort remained high last week upstream of the East Fork Salmon River in location code 19, while continuing to decline in all other areas. Catch rates in location code 19 also remained excellent, with interviewed anglers averaging 4 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of the Pahsimeroi River in location code 17 averaged 11 hours per steelhead caught, but most of the catch occurred earlier in the week before poor river conditions started to set in on Thursday. Anglers interviewed between the Pahsimeroi River and the East Fork Salmon River, in location code 18, averaged 32 hours per steelhead caught, and no anglers reported catching a steelhead downstream of the Lemhi River in location codes 15 and 16. 

River conditions were good across all areas at the start of last week, but warmer temperatures midweek resulted in increased flow and poor visibility in all areas downstream of the East Fork by the weekend. On Sunday, clear river conditions were only observed upstream of Valley Creek near the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery, while river conditions below Valley Creek were cloudy but still fishable. Water temperatures ranged from 40° F near Stanley to 50° F downstream of North Fork.

The number of detections at the PIT tag array upstream of Salmon, ID near Elevenmile continued to drop last week. The figure below is updated through April 13, 2025. Directions for querying this data were included in the March 11 steelhead fishing report which can be found by clicking here.

As of Thursday, April 10, the Pahsimeroi Hatchery has trapped 2,955 adipose-clipped steelhead, and the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery has trapped 3,285 adipose-clipped steelhead. For up-to-date return numbers to either of these hatcheries, anglers are encouraged to check the IDFG Steelhead Hatchery Returns webpage.