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Upper Salmon River Chinook Update 7.10.24 by Angela Montana Montana Outdoor Radio Show, July 10, 2024

Hi everyone, during the last open period of the Upper Salmon River Chinook fishery (July 4 - July 7), we saw a slight increase in angler effort, with approximately 1,552 angler hours targeting Chinook Salmon during the third week of the season. Additionally, we estimated that anglers harvested 28 hatchery adults and 49 hatchery jacks. Anglers also released one hatchery adult, two hatchery jacks, five adipose intact adults, and three adipose intact jacks. The average catch rate was 18 hours per salmon caught, and the harvest rate was 20 hours per salmon kept. Even though it was a holiday weekend, we did not observe much of an increase in effort, with only 224 hours of effort more than the previous week.

RULES

Nothing has changed since last week's update regarding the fishery rules, but we are planning on continuing to include this paragraph in all upcoming reports to make it easier for anyone unaware of the rules to find the information.

The Upper Salmon River fishery is open 4 days a week (Thursday - Sunday), and it will reopen each Thursday until harvest share is reached, wild fish impacts are reached, or until August 10th, whichever comes first. The fishery is open from 100 yards upstream of the Valley Creek confluence 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, only two (2) of which may be adults (over 24 inches). For the full season rules, please click here.

RUN and HARVEST SHARE UPDATE

In last weeks' update, I mentioned that we would be shifting our focus from fish counts at Bonneville Dam to what we are seeing (or have seen) crossing Lower Granite Dam.

As of July 8th, 1,626 Sawtooth hatchery adult Chinook Salmon have crossed over Lower Granite Dam which is an increase of 81 from last week (table below). As mentioned in last week's report, we had a late push of PIT-tagged fish come over Bonneville Dam, and how they survived on their migration from Bonneville up to Lower Granite Dam would influence what our harvest share would end up being. Sawtooth Hatchery adult salmon had been above average, but unfortunately, survival of those late-arriving fish has been lower -- we did have one of the late arrivals cross Lower Granite on the 7/7 which helps, but the overall survival from Bonneville to Lower Granite came in at 73%. Using that most recent estimate, our harvest share is 296 hatchery adult salmon.

RIVER CONDITIONS

The Upper Salmon River is currently flowing at about 830 cfs (measured at the gauge below the Yankee Fork) which is 50% of average. These lower flows have resulted in excellent visibility through the fishery area for the past two weeks. Water temperatures over the weekend were getting into the mid-60's F, but these temperatures will likely climb this week with the hot weather that is forecasted.

HATCHERY TRAPPING

As of yesterday July 9th, 907 adipose-clipped adult salmon have returned to the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery. Hatchery trapping numbers will be updated throughout the summer 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. Additionally, Sawtooth hatchery staff released 150 adipose-clipped hatchery jack salmon back into the fishery area last Friday. These are fish that have been captured at the hatchery once already but will not be used for broodstock. Some of these fish were captured over the weekend during the open fishery. Sawtooth staff will again recycle jacks back into the fishery this Friday.

Related Pages:
Count the Fish Sockeye adult returns from 1977 to the present.