Steelhead Check Station Opens

Steelhead fishing has been good only on the Snake River so far this fall but a few fish are making their way up the Salmon River. Idaho Fish and Game biologists opened the check station below North Fork this weekend following reports that a few anglers were catching steelhead in that stretch of the Salmon. Steelhead fishing usually picks up by mid-October in the Upper Salmon River and is usually good for a few weeks, until the cold temperatures reduce the activity of the steelhead and their migration halts until the spring thaws begin. Good fishing for steelhead usually continues in the Clearwater, Snake, and Lower Salmon rivers into the winter because these are lower elevation streams and maintain a higher water temperature. In particular, Hells Canyon Dam and Dworshak Dam moderate river temperatures as they release warmer reservoir waters during the winter. The number of steelhead expected to cross Lower Granite Dam has increased from early in the season. Based on the number of steelhead that have already crossed Ice Harbor Dam at the mouth of the Snake River, anglers can expect more than 132,000 steelhead to cross Lower Granite Dam this fall, mainly into Idaho. That is an increase from the 110,000 steelhead biologists were predicting earlier. Steelhead are still crossing Ice Harbor Dam as a higher rate than average, which bodes well for the forecast to increase even more. Anglers can check statistics on steelhead fishing on the Fish and Game web site at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov in the fishing section.