Here is a report from Greg Schoby with Idaho Fish & Game regarding the Upper Salmon River Chinook fishery:

Hi everyone,

Below is the first Upper Salmon River Chinook fishery update for the 2018 season.

The Upper Salmon River Chinook season will open this weekend (6/23/18), from the Hwy 93 ‘Junction’ bridge (just S of Challis, 0.3 miles S of the junction between Hwy 93 and Hwy75) upstream to the posted boundary ~100 yards below the Sawtooth Hatchery weir/trap.

Bag limits for Chinook in the Upper Salmon are four per day, of which only two may be adults, and 12 in possession of which six may be adults.

We got a lot of rain in the upper Salmon last weekend and in the early part of this week, causing the river to spike a bit, but it’s now dropping and assuming we don’t get a significant amount of rain over the next couple of days, the river should be in good shape for the opener.

The graph above is from the Salmon River gauge located just downstream of the Yankee Fork Salmon River.  This gauge will be the best way to track river conditions in the upper Salmon River, and can be found here:  https://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/uv/?site_no=13296500&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060,00010

We’re starting to see some PIT tagged Chinook (both hatchery and wild) cross the Salmon River PIT array located near the Elevenmile boat ramp (~11 miles S/upstream from the town of Salmon). This is the only instream array we have that is currently operational in the main Salmon River. Based on those detections, I predict that there will be some fish caught in the open section of the fishery this weekend.

Currently the non-tribal angler harvest share for the upper Salmon River Chinook season is between 250 and 300 adult Chinook. Given this harvest share, and the improving river conditions, I’d urge people to get out and fish early, as we could hit the harvest share quickly.

Thanks, and good luck out there!

-Greg