Best Places to Catch Steelhead on Upper Salmon River

If you’re hunting for steelhead, it’s officially a “tale of two rivers” on the Upper Salmon right now. For the week of March 31, 2026, the secret to success is heading south: while the water downstream is looking a bit like chocolate milk with 47-hour wait times, the section upstream of the East Fork is absolutely on fire with 4-hour catch rates and clear skies. The fish are definitely moving—the Sawtooth and Pahsimeroi hatcheries are already hosting over 3,000 guests—but with PIT tag detections slowing down near Salmon, the bulk of the party has likely already shifted upriver. Pack your gear for the Stanley area, keep an eye on those rising flows, and leave the muddy waters to the folks who prefer napping to reeling.

Here’s the full report by Brent Beller with Idaho Fish and Game:

Hi everyone, this is the Upper Salmon River steelhead fishing report for March 31, 2026. The data discussed in this report were primarily collected between Wednesday, March 25 and Sunday, March 29. 

Steelhead angler effort was almost exclusively observed upstream of the East Fork in location code 19 last week. The only other area where we observed a modest amount of angler effort was near the Pahsimeroi River confluence. Angler effort below Salmon, ID was very low, and we did not collect any interviews from location codes 14, 15, or 16.

Catch rates remained excellent upstream of the East Fork, and anglers interviewed in that section averaged 4 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of the Pahsimeroi River confluence in location code 17 averaged 47 hours per steelhead caught, and we did not interview any anglers in other river sections who reported catching a steelhead.

River conditions remained poor for most of last week in all areas below the East Fork. Flows were elevated throughout the week. Over the weekend, the river was clear to slightly cloudy upstream of the East Fork and muddy downstream, and water temperatures ranged from the low 40s near Stanley to the upper 40s below North Fork.

PIT tag detections began to decline last week at the array located upstream of Salmon, ID near Elevenmile (USE). Another 35 tags were detected since March 24, which was about half the number detected the week before. The figure below shows all the detections for this run year through March 30.

As of Friday, March 27, the Pahsimeroi Hatchery had trapped 1,252 adipose-clipped steelhead, and as of Thursday, March 26, the Sawtooth Hatchery had trapped 1,963 adipose-clipped steelhead. Anglers can view updated hatchery trapping numbers on the IDFG website using this link.  

^{Photo via Angela Maxwell}