Upper Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Report (10-09-2025)

Hi everyone, this is the first of the weekly Upper Salmon River steelhead fishing reports for the fall 2025 season. IDFG interviewed steelhead anglers along the Upper Salmon River last Thursday through last Sunday, with no anglers reporting catching a steelhead. Angler effort was low during the first weekend of October (see table below), but we did observe anglers in all location codes downstream of Salmon, ID with most of the angler effort located between the Middle Fork and North Fork in location code 15. 

Since this report is coming out later in the week, we can mention that we interviewed a couple of anglers on Wednesday, October 8, who had caught steelhead below North Fork. This data is not shown in the table below since that was only for interviews through October 5, but it will be included in next week’s report.

As mentioned in the Upper Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Update from September 26, this fall’s steelhead run for the Upper Salmon River was early at Bonneville Dam but has been slow to make it over Lower Granite Dam due to above average water temperatures in the lower Columbia River. Below is an updated figure showing the estimated passage of Sawtooth-bound steelhead at Lower Granite Dam through October 5th. Since our last update, an additional 3,500 steelhead have crossed Lower Granite that are destined for either the Pahsimeroi or Sawtooth hatcheries. The conversion rates between Bonneville and Lower Granite dams for steelhead headed to those hatcheries are still below average, but these rates have climbed since our last update and are currently around 55%.  We are expecting these rates to continue to climb for the next couple of weeks as steelhead continue to make it over Lower Granite Dam.

River conditions were good over the weekend in all areas downstream of Salmon, ID. The river had clear visibility and water temperatures were in the low to mid-50s. As of today, the Salmon River is flowing at 1,150 cfs through the town of Salmon, ID which is 94% of average for today’s date. 

That’s all we have to share for this week’s update. If you have questions or would like additional information, please call the Salmon Regional Office at (208) 756-2271.