Upper Salmon River Chinook Update: 7/20/2022

Hi all, it's been a busy week in the upper Salmon. I've been out in the field and came home to a new wildfire near Salmon. I hope all are safe and well. Below is the weekly upper Salmon River Chinook update courtesy of Brent Beller:

Angler effort upstream of the East Fork almost doubled compared to the previous week, and once again anglers reported harvesting Chinook salmon in all location codes open to Chinook angling in the upper Salmon River, with the exception of the furthest downstream section (North Fork Salmon River to the Lemhi River). With river flows continuing to drop, we did see improved catch rates at Deadman hole. Catch rates slowed down in other areas due to a combination of warmer water temperatures and fewer fish moving through the system. Jacks also made a strong appearance in the fishery this week, and we estimated that 140 hatchery jacks were harvested. Below is the breakdown of angler effort and catch by river section in the upper Salmon River fishery.

After last week's big push of fish through the upper Salmon, which resulted in good catch rates and lots of fish being trapped at both hatcheries, catch rates have dropped. This is to be expected, as fish are removed from the system (either by being trapped at one of the hatcheries or harvested in the fishery), that means there will be less available to be caught.  Jacks continue to show up in good numbers and will continue to add to the fishery.

Recycling:

Sawtooth Hatchery staff recycled 159 hatchery jacks back into the fishery on 7/15. These fish were stocked back into the river downstream of Thompson Creek to give anglers another shot at catching them. With fish still moving into the hatchery, we are anticipating that additional jacks and adults will be recycled later this week. Similarly, Pahsimeroi Hatchery staff will be recycling both adults and jacks back into the fishery later this week.

Sawtooth Hatchery

The harvest share for the Sawtooth portion of the fishery remains at around 700 fish. This number consists of adults returning to Sawtooth hatchery and the Yankee Fork Salmon River. As you can see from the table above, the majority of the harvest last week again came from location codes 18 and 19 (which would be Yankee Fork and Sawtooth stocks). For the entire season, we have harvested 396 adult hatchery Chinook from the upper portion of the fishery, so we’re now over half way through the harvest share. With catch rates dropping over the last week, it is difficult to estimate when we may hit our harvest share and need to issue a closure, but we are leaving this portion of the fishery open at least into early next week.

Through 7/19, Sawtooth hatchery has trapped 1,252 hatchery adult Chinook, with the majority of them being trapped over the past 10 days.

Pahsimeroi Hatchery

Harvest share for the Pahsimeroi hatchery remains at over 600 fish, and with the low amount of harvest we've seen so far in the fishery (57 adults harvested), it is likely that this section of the fishery will remain open into August. 

The Pahsimeroi hatchery has trapped 888 hatchery adult Chinook through 7/18, so both hatcheries have seen large pushes of the fish come in during the previous week. For the most up to date hatchery trapping numbers, check IDFG’s Hatchery Returns webpage.

And again, please keep an eye on the Chinook Salmon Seasons and Rules webpage for details on the current seasons and rules information, as things can change quickly.

Keep an eye on the weather over the coming week, as it's supposed to be hot for the near future, so it will likely be an early morning bite. And as I mentioned above, there's a new wildfire burning northwest of Salmon, so for those of you fishing the areas between North Fork and Salmon, watch out for increased firefighter traffic and smoky conditions.  More information on the fire can be found here:  https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8249/