Run Update and Harvest Share
By now, you all know the drill. The table below shows the run estimates and harvest shares for the Clearwater River, Rapid River and Hells Canyon Chinook Salmon fisheries.
Clearwater River Fishery
The Clearwater River fishery is definitely slowing down as the only places we documented significant catch was at or near the different release locations (see table below). Catch rates started out good on Thursday (8-15 hrs/fish), but by the time we hit Sunday, anglers had a tough time catching fish no matter where they were fishing. I suspect we will see a similar trend this week, although catch rates will probably start a little slower.
After this 4-day interval (end of fishing hours on July 1), we will be closing down the North Fork Clearwater River to all Chinook Salmon fishing. Although we still have a ways to go before we meet our overall harvest share for the Clearwater Fishery, this closure needs to occur to insure we meet brood needs (much of the brood is collected at Dworshak Hatchery) while still providing the Nez Perce Tribe a reasonable opportunity to harvest salmon from this area as well.
As many of you know, the summer Chinook Salmon fishery opened in the Lochsa River this Saturday. We estimated that seven adult fish were caught (60 hrs/fish). However, because our harvest share is extremely low (only 33 fish), we are closing the Lochsa River to all salmon fishing at the end of fishing hours on Sunday (July 1).
Rapid River Fishery
It looks like the Rapid River run is about over. We estimated that only four fish were harvest in the Salmon River and catch dropped considerably in the Little Salmon River (see table below). Summer run Chinook destined for the South Fork Salmon River and upper Salmon River are now migrating through the lower Salmon River. As such, we are closing the remaining open section in the lower Salmon River (upper Twin Bridge to Shorts Creek) to all salmon fishing effective immediately. That means the only place that will be open to salmon fishing in the Rapid River fishery during this next 4-day interval (June 28 to July 1) will be in the Little Salmon River.
Hells Canyon Fishery
The Hells Canyon Fishery also appears to be about over as we didn’t observed any harvest last week. It appears that this run was not as large as we estimated as this fishery never took off.
That is all I have for you this week. I hope your week treats you well.