LEWISTON, ID – The spring Chinook Salmon season starts this Saturday (April 26, 2025), so I figured it was time to start providing my weekly spring Chinook Salmon fishery updates. These updates will cover the Rapid River Run fishery that occurs in the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers, the Hells Canyon fishery which occurs from Hells Canyon Dam downstream about 50 miles to Dug Bar boat ramp, and the Clearwater River basin fishery.
My plans are to provide weekly updates on these spring Chinook Salmon fisheries from now until they close. These updates will provide information on what the run looks like, what our harvest shares are, how many fish have been harvested, where people are catching fish, and any changes in the seasons or limits that might have or will occur. I will try to get these updates out by at least Wednesday each week.
2025 SEASONS AND LIMITS
For those of you who are unsure of what the seasons and limits are for this year, you can click on this link (2025 chinook season and rules) to get all the details on what river reaches will be open, when the fisheries occur, and what the limits are. Because changes in the fishery can occur quickly, before going out, please be sure to check this website, contact IDFG staff, or follow the blogs I put out to get an up-to-date status on the different fisheries.
Several of you asked, when providing my first update, if I could explain what type of public support there was for starting the seasons the way we did. I think this is a great idea, so I have added the section below (2025 Public Input and Season Setting) that covers why the Fish and Game Commission adopted the seasons and limits they did to start the fisheries this year. If this is not of interest to you and you just want to learn what this year’s return is looking like, just skip down to the section called “2025 Forecast”.
2025 PUBLIC INPUT AND SEASON SETTING
First, I want to thank all of you who provided comments on how you would like this year’s spring Chinook Salmon fisheries managed. Without your involvement, we wouldn’t be able to manage these fisheries in a manner that is satisfying to most anglers.
One thing people should be aware of is that over the years we have worked with the public to develop tables that describe the types of seasons and limits they would like to see implemented based on the size of the run. We often refer to these tables as “harvest matrixes”. I have included the harvest matrix for each of the three spring Chinook Salmon fisheries below. You will notice that these tables all have the same column headers, and the first column header is called “Adult Harvest Share”. The more harvest there is available, the more days of the week you can fish, the higher the limits will be, and the more areas will be open to fishing. The goal is to provide lots of fishing opportunities when the runs are large, but as the harvest shares decline, regulations would become more restrictive to help extend the length of the season and help IDFG better distribute harvest fairly. These tables have been tweaked over the years, typically at the request of the public, to provide more of the types of opportunity the public desires. People should be aware that in our public input process (public meetings and internet survey) we ask people if they are supportive of the guidelines provided in these harvest matrixes, and typically we go with “majority rules”.
Rapid River Run Fishery
The harvest matrix below is for the Rapid River run fishery, and the reason there is a row shaded in grey is because this year we forecasted the harvest share would be about 1,250 adult fish and this harvest share falls within this row. This year we asked the public (at public meetings and through the internet) if they wanted to start the season using the guidelines described in the shaded area of the table. About 56% of the public who provided their opinion approved of following the guidelines in the grey shaded row in the table below whereas 44% said they did not approve. This is one of the lower approval ratings we have seen for this matrix. Most people who didn’t approve wanted to have a 7-day/week fishery. Many of these anglers were frustrated with how quickly we shut down the lower Salmon River last year and suggested that if we aren’t going to keep this river reach open very long, at least give them a 7-day/week fishery. Others argued that 4-day/week fisheries are not fair for those who work weekends.
The lower Salmon River is one of the more challenging river reaches to manage as there are multiple goals we try to meet when operating this fishery. We try to provide around 55% of the Rapid River harvest share in this reach of river, stay within our wild fish impacts, and not overharvest upstream stocks of fish. We have found that when the overall harvest share is small, it is very difficult to achieve all these goals if we don’t shut down the fishery for a few days to give us time to assess harvest and make a sound decision on how to proceed. In years when we provided 7-day/week fisheries and the run was small, we have missed our goals by quite a bit at times which has frustrated certain groups of anglers. That is one of the reasons why most anglers have preferred 4-day/week fisheries in the past when the return is small.
In this case, we went with “majority rules”, and IDFG staff recommend to the commission to follow the season and limits specified in the row for harvest shares between 751-2,000 adult fish (4-day/week fishery and 1 adult daily limit). The commission adopted this recommendation. The four days that will be open are Thursday through Sunday. As a reminder, one of our goals we will try to achieve is to provide about 55% of the harvest share in the lower Salmon River and 45% in the Little Salmon River. If the run comes in significantly different than forecasted, our goals will be to follow the guidelines displayed in the harvest matrix above.
Hells Canyon Fishery
The harvest matrix below is for the Hells Canyon fishery, and this year we forecasted the harvest share for this fishery would be about 450 adults. The shaded row in the table below captures this harvest share, and the seasons and limits associated with it. About 95% of the public who provided their opinion thought these seasons and limits were appropriate to start the season with. The commission adopted these seasons and limits based on this strong support.
Clearwater River Basin Fishery
For the Clearwater River Basin fishery, we forecasted the harvest share for this fishery would be about 1,100 adults. The shaded row in the harvest matrix below captures this harvest share and the seasons and limits associated with it. About 72% of the people who provided their opinion thought these seasons and limits were appropriate to start the season with. The commission adopted these seasons and limits based on this strong support. If the return comes in significantly different than forecasted, our goal would be to follow the guidelines specified in harvest matrix.
One of the more challenging goals when managing the spring Chinook Salmon fishery in the Clearwater River basin is to distribute harvest in a fair and equitable manner so that all communities benefit from this fishery. Last year the public showed strong support (82%) for distributing harvest across the basin as displayed in the table below. We will try to follow the guidelines in this table again this year.
We discussed a lot more at our public meetings than I covered above in this article. If anybody wants more details on what we discuss and people’s opinions on any of these issues, please contact me and I will gladly share more information with you.
2025 FORECAST
The adult forecast for hatchery spring and summer Chinook Salmon that will be migrating past Lower Granite Dam this year (last dam before entering Idaho) is 31,634 fish. This estimate is based on the number of jacks that returned last year. To give you a feel for how this forecast compares to previous returns, I have included a figure below that shows the number of adult spring and summer Chinook Salmon that have passed over the last Snake River dam before entering Idaho since 1962 (the year Ice Harbor Dam was completed). The blue bars represent the adult hatchery returns and grey bars represent natural returns. The general take-home message for the hatchery return is we are forecasting a return that will be less than the last three years, and less than the 10-year average (~42,600). The forecasted return for natural fish is 7,824 which is 81% of the 10-average (~9,700). This is not a good forecast, and if it is accurate, we will have to manage our sport fisheries carefully in the Salmon River to ensure we don’t exceed our allowed “wild fish impacts”.
WHAT IS THE RETURN LOOKING LIKE NOW (4/23/2024)
So, let’s talk about what the return looks like now. To best understand what the run looks like right now, we need to look at fish counts and Bonneville Dam. I created the figure below that compares this year’s return (red line) to last year’s return (solid black line) and the 10-year average (dotted black line). As you can see, we are still early in the return so a lot can change from now. This year’s return appears a little late but very similar to what we saw last year. If you compare the total number of adult Chinook Salmon counted to date (5,857) at Bonneville Dam to the previous 10 years, this year would rank as the fourth best. Granted many of the returns over the last 10 years were poor, so that may not be saying too much.
The obvious next question is how many of the fish passing over Bonneville Dam are destined for our fisheries in Idaho. To get at that question, we need to look at detections of PIT tagged fish at Bonneville Dam. The table below summarizes the PIT tag data from adult hatchery Chinook Salmon that have been collected to date (through 4/22/2025). Because this is the first time I am presenting this table this year, I will go over it in more detail to make sure we all are on the same page. The information in the first column “Release Group” represents where the PIT tagged fish were released as smolts and which hatchery released them. Most adults will return to the location they were released as smolts. The second column indicates how many fish from each of these release groups we estimate have passed over Bonneville Dam to date. Because we PIT tag a known proportion of fish at the hatchery, we can expand each PIT tag detection using this proportion to estimate the actual return. The third column shows how many fish we project will ultimately pass over Bonneville Dam. This data is the tricky part because we don’t know how many fish are yet to come. To project how many fish are yet to come, we look at run timing curves (similar to what is shown in the figure above). In this case, I assumed this return has an average run timing (3-8% complete depending on release location). If the run is earlier than estimated, fewer fish will make it to Bonneville than projected, and if the run is later, more will come back than projected. Finally, the last column shows what we are estimating our harvest share will be for the three fisheries that are opening this weekend. The harvest share is calculated by estimating how many of the fish that pass over Bonneville Dam will make it to Idaho (typically around 70% make it to Idaho). We then subtract out how many of these fish are needed for broodstock, and then we divide these remaining fish in half (half are designated to the Tribes and half are designated to sport fisheries) to come up with our harvest share.
OK, now that you know what is presented in the table above, let’s talk about what this data means. Remember, we have three spring Chinook Salmon fisheries that are opening this weekend: Clearwater River return, Rapid River return, and Hells Canyon. The bold lines in the table above provides the totals for each fishery and the harvest shares in these rows are what we will use when managing these fisheries. This table shows that the Clearwater River return harvest share is projected to be 6,209 adult fish, 1,774 for the Rapid River return, and 912 for Hells Canyon. These numbers are important because when we achieve the adult harvest share in a fishery, it must be closed. Right now, the estimated Clearwater harvest share is above what we forecasted when we set our seasons and limits this winter, and the Rapid River and Hells Canyon returns are similar to what we forecasted. At this point, I wouldn’t get too excited or depressed about the harvest shares presented above as we are early in the run, and they can change significantly.
I do need to make you aware that each year we collect genetic data from spring Chinook Salmon trapped at Lower Granite Dam to help us better understand how well the PIT-tagged fish are representing the actual return size. On average, PIT-tagged fish represent about 70% of the actual return. For example, if the real return was 1,000 fish, PIT-tagged fish on average would indicate the return was 700 fish. This underrepresentation is actually good as it helps ensure we make our broodstock needs because not all unharvested fish will make it to the hatchery trap due to straying and natural mortality. However, what we have learned from analyzing the genetic data is that occasionally PIT-tagged fish represent a much lower percent of the return – we have seen it as low as 45% in the past. On years when the PIT-tagged fish represent much lower than 70% of the return, we can increase harvest shares and still be confident we will make our broodstock needs. Typically, we will have enough genetic data collected by late May or early June to run the analysis, and the results should be ready about a week later. You may recall that we have increased the harvest share for the Rapid River return fishery in the past using this genetic data. I’ll remind you when we get closer to analyzing this data, so it doesn’t catch you off guard.
FISHERIES
If you are wondering whether it will be worth going salmon fishing this week, I can tell you that as of 4/22/25 only 38 adult Chinook Salmon have been counted at Lower Granite Dam, the last dam these fish pass over before entering Idaho. As such, it is very unlikely that you will catch a salmon if you head out fishing this weekend. However, we have documented somebody catching a fish in the past when fewer than 100 fish had passed over Lower Granite Dam.
As we start documenting harvest in our creel surveys, I will include tables in my updates that will show where and how many fish we estimate have been caught. Not only will these tables show where the fishing is good, but it also will give you a feel for how long a river reach will remain open before it achieves its harvest goal.
Finally, I want to mention that how fast a Chinook Salmon takes to swim from Bonneville Dam to Idaho is dependent on flows and water temperature. Right now flows are near average, and it looks like it is taking three or more weeks for fish to make this migration. This is a bit on the slow side, and I suspect their migration rates will speed up as water temperatures warm. For those who like to fish the lower Salmon River, it takes about 7-14 days for a Chinook Salmon to migrate from Lower Granite Dam to the beginning of the fishery (Rice Creek Bridge) during average flows. However, if flows start exceeding 50,000 cfs in the lower Salmon River, significant delays can occur as the fish try to navigate the Slide Rapid. Right now, flows in the lower Salmon are at about 31,000 cfs.
That is all I have for you. It is time to get your fishing gear ready as the fish will be here soon!
Joe DuPont is a fisheries manager for Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) in the Clearwater Region. He and IDFG provide weekly updates on spring chinook salmon fisheries, including harvest shares for different river sections.