Upper Salmon River Weekly Steelhead Summary (3-05-2017)
By angelamontana

Posted: March 7, 2017

Steelhead angler effort on the upper Salmon River increased this week, but due to river and road conditions, overall effort was still low. The Salmon River road downstream of North Fork is open, but anglers are advised to use caution when traveling or parking in this area. Additionally, the Deadwater ice jam has receded downstream of North Fork to the stretch just upstream of Deadwater, but the jam within Deadwater is still intact. With the current weather forecast, it is likely that Deadwater will open up sometime this week.

Steelhead anglers last week had varied success depending on where on the river they were fishing. Effort was low and no anglers reported catching a steelhead in location code 14, downstream of the Middle Fork. Anglers upstream of the Middle Fork in location code 15 averaged 92 hours per steelhead caught and 138 hours per steelhead kept. Upstream of North Fork in location code 16, anglers averaged 50 hours per steelhead caught, and no interviewed anglers reported harvesting a steelhead. Downstream of the Pahsimeroi River in location code 17, interviewed anglers averaged 27 hours per steelhead caught and 62 hours per steelhead kept. Angler effort upstream of the Pahsimeroi River in location code 18 was low. Anglers in this area averaged 11 hours per steelhead caught and 16 hours per steelhead kept.

Currently, the Salmon River is flowing at 1,360 cfs through the town of Salmon, ID which is 126% of average for today’s date. The river had muddy to cloudy visibility in all areas on Sunday, and water temperatures were in the mid-30s.

Brent Beller * Idaho Department of Fish and Game – Region 7

 

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