Hey Everyone. Fishing is GREAT on the South Fork Salmon right now. We still have enough harvest share on the table to run through Sunday night (7/17) at the very least. Get out there and fish this week and through the weekend!
Fishery
Fishing effort and catch really picked up on the South Fork over the past week. It started out slow with only 5 adults harvested last Monday (7/4), but then the fish showed up and the anglers followed, so quite a few adults were harvested the rest of the week and into the weekend. Between Tuesday and Friday we saw an average of 40 adults harvested per day, and we estimated 136 adults were harvested over the weekend (Saturday and Sunday combined). Catch rate for the interval as a whole ended up being about 10 hours per fish caught (nearly half of the fish caught were unclipped adults). See the table below for a summary.
South Fork Salmon RiverPreliminary Harvest Estimates July 4 - July 10, 2022 |
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| Clipped Adults | Clipped Jacks | Total | Angler Hours | Hours Per Fish Kept | Unclipped Salmon Released | |
| July 4 to July 10 | 309 | 85 | 394 | 6806 | 17 | 291 |
| Season Totals | 335 | 85 | 420 | 8759 | 21 | 300 |
Harvest share for the South Fork Salmon fishery as of this morning is sitting at 995 adults, so we still have about 660 adults left to harvest this season. There are lots of fish in the system, so I don’t anticipate the season lasting a whole lot longer. That being said, the fishery remains open for the time-being so get out there and fish while you can.
Trapping
The South Fork Salmon hatchery trap has caught 450 adults so far this season. Trap numbers are definitely picking up right now as the run picks up steam.
PIT detections
Those of you who have been following PIT detections at the Krassel array have probably noticed that no detections have been reported in the last few days. The satellite transmitter went down on that array on Friday and has not been fixed yet. However, no need to follow that array anymore, as we are confident the fish have arrived and are dispersed throughout the fishery.
I hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy this amazing fishery this year. If you haven’t, get out there this week – it may be your last shot. This photo was taken by our creel staff this past weekend – of a young angler with a heck of a catch! Great job young man!
Have a great week everyone!