(by Greg Schoby | Idaho Fish & Game)
I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting some news about the upper Salmon River Chinook run and the potential for fisheries we may be able to offer this summer. And like you, we are also watching dam counts and fish passage at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.
I’m not going to spend much time on the Pahsimeroi return this year, as we aren’t expecting to have a fishery on this stock, mainly due to the limited number of smolts released in 2023. Some of you may recall that we’ve had some disease issues at Pahsimeroi and unfortunately, the release group in 2023 was only about 20% of our normal release. In addition to the small release, none of the fish were PIT tagged to limit stress on the juveniles that survived the disease outbreak, so tracking this return will be difficult. We’ll get some information based on genetic sampling at Lower Granite Dam that will be conducted through early June, but that will be our only glimpse of the return until they start being trapped at the hatchery.
For the rest of this update, I’ll focus on the return of adult hatchery Chinook to Sawtooth hatchery. The pre-season forecast for 2025 looked similar to the return we saw in 2024 – a small surplus above and beyond the broodstock need which would allow for a fishery near Stanley. As of now (5/22), we’re just past 50% of the run at Bonneville Dam (based on historic timing), and it looks like the run is coming in below forecast. The pre-season forecast for the Sawtooth return to Bonneville Dam was about 3,000 fish. Based on the PIT tags we’ve seen so far and the average run timing, the current in-season estimate predicts about 1,600 adult Sawtooth Chinook will cross Bonneville. IF the run is later than average, we could still approach a 3,000 fish return to Bonneville, but we’ll need more PIT detections over the next couple of weeks to more accurately say what the final run looks like.
This year’s Sawtooth run looks very similar to last year (2024) when we were on the fence about the potential for a fishery until several late-arriving PIT tagged fish crossed Bonneville Dam. In 2024, we observed a late push of PIT tagged Sawtooth fish from the end of May through the first two weeks of June and were able to propose an upper Salmon River Chinook fishery to the Commission on June 12. So at this point, we’re still watching the return come over Bonneville before any seasons are proposed. What happens over the next two weeks will likely determine if we’ll be able to offer a fishery.
As most of you know, the number of wild fish returning will dictate the location of the lower boundary of any fishery we propose. Unfortunately wild fish returns are relatively low this year, so it’s likely that any fishery we have will be limited to the uppermost reach (likely Valley Cr to Sawtooth) like last year.
Stay tuned as I’ll post another update next week which should tell us a lot more about the Sawtooth run, and I’ll keep you posted on when the Commission will convene to hear about any potential summer Chinook salmon fishery proposals for the upper Salmon and other areas.
If you have questions, comments, or would like to be added to my email update list, please reach out to me at: greg.schoby@idfg.idaho.gov or at the Salmon Regional Office at (208) 756-2271.
