Hi everyone,
During the third week of the Upper Salmon River Chinook Salmon fishery (6/30 to 7/6/25) we estimated that anglers harvested 151 hatchery adult salmon and 33 hatchery jack salmon. Anglers also released an additional 47 salmon (14 hatchery adult salmon, 2 unclipped jack salmon, and 31 unclipped adult salmon). Not surprisingly given the holiday weekend and previous weeks’ catch, angler effort increased this past week. We estimated that anglers fished for 3,081 hours between Monday and Sunday, for an average catch rate of 13 hours per salmon caught and a harvest rate of 17 hours per salmon kept. For the season total to date, we estimate 282 adult salmon and 58 jack salmon have been harvested
As mentioned last week, I want to touch on the updated numbers we are providing each week. As some of you may notice, our previous weeks’ harvest estimates have decreased. This is due to additional e-tagging data that was collected last week. Our harvest estimation model relies on the on-the-water creel interviews that many of you have encountered, combined with the e-tagging data as it’s uploaded. As more data is added throughout the season, our harvest estimate model incorporates all the latest data and updates accordingly.
RUN and HARVEST SHARE UPDATE
We observed one additional PIT tagged Sawtooth Chinook crossing Lower Granite Dam on 7/6, which helped bump our harvest share up a little further, putting it now at 514 adult Chinook. This means that as of last Sunday, there was still nearly half of the sport fishery harvest share remaining.
RIVER CONDITIONS
Flows in the upper Salmon River continue to be well below average, and as of today is flowing at 965 cfs at the gauge below the Yankee Fork which is about 60% of the long-term average.
HATCHERY TRAPPING & RECYCLING
The Sawtooth Fish Hatchery has trapped 1,256 hatchery adult Chinook Salmon as of July 8th. Updated hatchery trapping numbers can be found on the IDFG Hatchery Returns webpage so make sure to bookmark that page if you want to stay up-to-date with the trapping totals.
Sawtooth Hatchery staff will recycle approximately 100 hatchery adult salmon and 150 hatchery jacks back into the river later this week. We would expect the recycled fish to start making their way through the fishery area by the following day.
RULES
The 2025 Upper Salmon River Chinook salmon fishery is open from the posted boundary approximately 50 yards upstream of the Yankee Fork Salmon River upstream to the posted boundary approximately 100 yards downstream of the weir and trap at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery. Fishing hours are from 5:30am to 10:00 pm MDT. The daily limit is four (4) hatchery Chinook salmon per day, only two (2) of which may be adults (over 24 inches). For the full season rules, please click here.
