Upper Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Report March 24, 2026

If you’ve been chasing silver in the Upper Salmon lately, you know the river has been a bit of a moody host. Between record-breaking warmth turning the water into a cloudy soup and fish consolidating like they’re headed to a high-stakes reunion at the hatcheries, the week of March 18–22 was a classic “tale of two rivers.” While anglers below Elk Bend found themselves in a high-effort, low-reward waiting game, those upstream of the East Fork hit the sweet spot, proving that in steelhead fishing, timing—and a little bit of elevation—is everything.

---

March 24, 2026 Catch Rate Summary

Location	Catch Rate (Hours/Fish)
Upstream of East Fork (Code 19)	9 hours
Pahsimeroi River (Code 17)	20 hours
North Fork (Code 15)	28 hours
Downstream of East Fork (Code 18)	191 hours

Hi everyone, this is the Upper Salmon River steelhead fishing report for March 24, 2026. The data discussed in this report were primarily collected between Wednesday, March 18 and Sunday, March 22. 

Steelhead angler effort continued to consolidate towards the Pahsimeroi and Sawtooth fish hatcheries last week. Angler effort was noticeably lower in all areas below Elk Bend, while it increased again upstream of the East Fork Salmon River. Angler effort near the Pahsimeroi River started off the week strong but then declined considerably towards the end of the week due to poor river conditions.

The best catch rates and highest angler effort levels continued to be found upstream of the East Fork in location code 19 last week. Anglers interviewed in location code 19 averaged 9 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of the East Fork in location code 18 only reported releasing two steelhead which resulted in an average of 191 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of the Pahsimeroi River in location code 17 averaged 20 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of North Fork in location code 15 averaged 28 hours per steelhead caught. Few interviews were obtained from anglers fishing between North Fork and the Lemhi River in location code 16 or downstream of the Middle Fork in location code 14, and no anglers reported catching a steelhead in either area.

River conditions were poor for most of the week in all areas below the East Fork. Record high temperatures during the middle of the week resulted in increased flows and poor visibility. Conditions upstream of the East Fork were better than downstream, but flows and visibility were impacted in that area as well. The forecast is calling for slightly cooler temperatures this week, which should help improve river conditions, but flows will likely remain elevated. On Sunday, water temperatures ranged from the upper 30s near Stanley, ID to the upper 40s downstream of Salmon, ID.

An additional 77 PIT tags were detected last week at the array located upstream of Salmon, ID near Elevenmile. The new detections bring the total detections for the run year up to 346 tags. The figure below shows all the detections for this run year through March 23. 

The last thing we would like to include in this week’s report is an update on steelhead returns to the hatcheries. As of Friday, March 20, the Pahsimeroi Hatchery had trapped 859 adipose-clipped steelhead, and as of Thursday, March 19, the Sawtooth Hatchery had trapped 1,080 adipose-clipped steelhead. Anglers can view updated hatchery trapping numbers on the IDFG website using this link.  

^{Photo credit: Gateway Graphic Design and Photography}