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Wild Fall Chinook Regulations to Remain in Place Another Week by Eric Barker Moscow-Pullman Daily News, September 27, 2025

After a warm spring and summer that raised water temperatures, it appears
runs are starting to move on the Snake and Clearwater rivers and waters cool

The fall chinook fishery in the lower Snake River and its tributaries in Idaho, Washington and Oregon will continue to focus on hatchery fish only for at least another week.

The three states altered fall chinook fishing rules to forbid the harvest of fall chinook with intact adipose fins starting Sept. 9. At the time, fisheries managers said they would monitor the run and survival of Endangered-Species-Act-protected wild fall chinook to determine how long the restriction would remain in place.

Most hatchery salmon and steelhead have their adipose fins clipped as juveniles. The action makes it easy for anglers to discern wild fish from those that originated in hatcheries.

Earlier this week, Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said in an angler newsletter that the latest forecast indicates 4,000 to 5,200 wild fall chinook are expected to pass Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River by season's end.

A sliding scale approved by the federal government calls for sport fisheries to be limited to fall chinook with clipped adipose fins when wild fish numbers fall below 5,040.

Because it is unclear if the run will reach that number, fisheries managers have opted to keep the current regulations forbidding the harvest of wild fall chinook in place at least through Friday.

"This will give us time to better estimate how many wild fish will make it past Lower Granite Dam and whether we can reopen harvest of adipose-intact fish," DuPont said in his newsletter.

The fall chinook fishery has operated without restrictions on wild fish harvest for the past several years. It appeared the 2025 season would follow that pattern. But water temperatures in the low- to mid-70s in both the Snake and Clearwater rivers caused the fall chinook run to stall.

DuPont said water temperatures are dropping and it appears the run is starting to move. However, the delay is expected to lead to lower survival between Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and Lower Granite Dam.

Steelhead report

The dim prospects for B-run steelhead has brightened some, according to Dupont. Regional Fisheries managers were expecting a poor return of the fish that tend to spend two years in the ocean before returning largely to the Clearwater River. That still looks to be the case but DuPont said the run won't be as bad as he and other fisheries managers once expected.

The latest forecast calls for about 17,000 hatchery steelhead and much fewer ESA-protected wild steelhead to return to the Clearwater basin.

"Although I would still consider this to be a down year, this return size should be sufficient to run our steelhead fishery in the Clearwater River basin without additional restrictions," DuPont said in his newsletter.

The newsletter is available here.

Related Pages:
Wild Fall Chinook Regulations to Remain in Place Another Week by Eric Barker, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, 5/15/25
Spring Chinook Fishery on Snake River to Close May 16 by Staff Daily Fly, 5/13/25
Salmon Counts at Bonneville Allow Reopening of Sportfishing by Bill Monroe, The Oregonian, 5/7/25
Anglers Get a Brief Crack at Chinook by Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune, 5/2/25
As Chinook Run Surges, So Does Uncertainty by Eric Barker, Lewiston Tribune, 5/19/23