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A-run Steelhead Trending Below Average Return by Eric Barker Moscow-Pullman Daily News, August 16, 2026

Oregon closes fishing on the Deschutes River;
early counts of fall chinook are trending above average

The fall chinook run is trending ahead of the 10-year pace at both Bonneville and Lower Granite dams, but the early showing of A-run steelhead is far from rosy.

Granted, as of Thursday the fall chinook run was only about one week old, according to official counting metrics at Bonneville. Those same metrics don't tally fish passing Lower Granite as fall chinook until Tuesday.

But since that's when fall chinook fishing opens on the Snake River upstream of the dam, it's probably safe to count those fish as falls. Fisheries managers are expecting a return of about 21,000 hatchery fall chinook to the Snake River but only about 5,000 wild fish. The below-average wild return has driven Idaho and Washington to limit fall chinook harvest to one fish per day.

Metal heads

As of Thursday, a little more than 28,500 steelhead had been counted at Bonneville Dam since July 1. The 10-year average is just over 50,000. Wild steelhead are trending at about half of the 10-year average. That prompted fisheries managers in Oregon to close steelhead fishing on the Deschutes River to protect wild fish there.

Steelhead counts are a little better at Lower Granite: 1,256 this year compared to an average of 1,931.

Still, it has fisheries managers on alert.

"We have the second lowest cumulative counts at Bonneville going back 20 years," said Chris Sullivan, anadromous fish coordinator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Boise. "That is certainly not encouraging."

Only 2021 was lower.

Steelhead returning this time of year are bound for the Snake, Salmon, Grande Ronde and Imnaha rivers. Sullivan noted B-run fish bound for the Clearwater River return later and there is still hope they can meet the preseason forecast of about 40,000.

"It's still too early to say anything about the Clearwater Basin return," he said. "Typically, we are just starting to show up at Bonneville this time of year and that run will build into the early part of September."

The A-run is typically dominated by steelhead that spend just one year in the ocean. But Sullivan said this year's run fits a trend seen in the last decade where the run is dominated in even years by older fish.

"Of the early returning fish we are seeing, about three-quarters of them have been two-ocean fish."

Silvers

The Nez Perce Tribe is forecasting a return of about 8,200 coho salmon to the Snake River and its tributaries. That is nearly identical to the 2025 forecast and a hair behind the actual return of about 9,000.

Related Pages:
A-run Steelhead Surpass Expectations by Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune, 8/21/25