Good Morning Everyone:
I have an update on the main Salmon River fishery from Time Zone Bridge to Short’s Creek. At the end of fishing hours this Sunday July 2nd this river section will close. There are no changes to the fishery within the interval that started this morning; but, this section will close at the end of fishing hours on Sunday. At that point, we will summarize creel information and see if there is enough harvest share left on the Rapid River stock to keep fishing in the Little Salmon River.
We have managed to keep the main Salmon River open these past few weeks, but there are now a couple reasons we will be closing this section around Riggins. As I mentioned in previous Chinook updates we have continued to monitor the wild Chinook returns at Lower Granite Dam. These returns have remained low and we now need to close the main Salmon River to reduce any catch and release impacts on these wild stocks. In addition, the hatchery returns to the South Fork Salmon and Pahsimeroi rivers are likely insufficient to meet brood stock needs and since those fish will be entering into the Riggins area we cannot support any harvest on those stocks as they move through.
As I mentioned above, we will decide early next week if the Little Salmon River will remain open. Chinook harvested in the Little Salmon River are almost entirely from Rapid River hatchery. So, this decision will be based on how much harvest share remains on the Rapid River stock once we look at harvest over the next four days. Look for an update on the status of that fishery early next week.
Fishing conditions and catch rates should be good in the Riggins area through this weekend. Hopefully you have a chance to get out and take advantage of the fishery. Talk to you next week with an update on the Riggins area and the fisheries in Hell’s Canyon and the Locsha River. - Brett Bowersox, Fisheries, Clearwater Region