Spring Chinook Salmon Fishing Update: Rapid River Run, Hells Canyon, and Clearwater River Fisheries

It is time for my weekly spring Chinook Salmon update (May 6, 2025). 

RUN UPDATE

LEWISTON, ID – Since my last update on 4/29/2025, fish counts at Bonneville Dam have continued to increase (see figure below). The 7,700 adult fish that were counted three days ago exceeded any count we saw last year. High catch rates in the tangle net test fishery near the mouth of Columbia River have continued which suggest that we haven’t seen the end of good counts at Bonneville.

The figure below shows cumulative daily counts of adult Chinook at Bonneville Dam over the past 10 years. Counts this year (red line) are currently better than seven of the previous 10 years and will likely end up somewhere between what occurred last year (dashed black line) and 2016 (dotted green line). The Columbia Basin’s Technical Advisory Committee recently met and projected the spring run will come close to what was forecasted (122,500 adult fish).

I have updated the table below that summarizes PIT tag detections at Bonneville Dam so it now captures data through 5/5/25. This table shows that the Clearwater River return’s harvest share is projected to be 4,035 adult fish (darker peach row) which is down slightly from what was reported in my last update (4,354 fish). The Rapid River return (darker blue row) is projected to have a harvest share of 1,316 which is also down slightly from my last update (1,506 fish). Finally, the Hells Canyon fishery (green row) is projected to have a harvest share of 764 fish which also is down slightly from my last update (831 fish).

The Clearwater River basin’s projected harvest share (4,035 adult fish) is significantly higher than what we forecasted (1,144 fish) when seasons were set which is great news. All indications are that the harvest share will remain well above 2,000 fish which would mean if we follow the guidelines anglers helped develop that are captured in the Clearwater basin’s “harvest matrix” we should change this fishery to 7 days/week (except the North Fork would remain at 4 days/week). Right now, the commission is scheduled to meet on May 22, so it is unclear if we can schedule another meeting sooner than this to address this issue. We will keep you posted as we learn more. Another thing I want to point out about the Clearwater River’s return is currently 38% of the run is projected to return to the North Fork Clearwater River (where Dworshak and Clearwater hatcheries occur). The problem with this is the current harvest distribution goals we try to follow (see table below) were developed with the understanding that in most years around 50% of the return would return to the North Fork. The concerns are that if we follow these goals on a year like this, we could overharvest the return to the North Fork which is the most important return for collecting broodstock. As such, I want to make anglers aware that unless the North Fork return picks up significantly, we will not intentionally harvest over the goals for the Middle Clearwater and North Fork Clearwater river sections like we have in recent years. Depending on how the run progresses, it may even be necessary to cut harvest a little short in these river sections.

Unfortunately, the Rapid River return is projected to come in at around forecast (1,316 adult fish) which is not good. As such, don’t expect changes in its season structure and don’t expect the fishery to last long once the fish get there unless the return suddenly picks up.

FISHERIES

Fishing effort remained light last week and the only place we observed a fish being caught was below Hells Canyon Dam (top photo). However, expect that to change this week when the fishery reopens as counts over Lower Granite Dam will likely exceed 1,000 fish/day later this week. When this occurs, you can expect good fishing in the lower Clearwater River. Also, expect good fishing to occur below Hells Canyon dam a few days later.

Flows in the lower Salmon River are at about 34,000 right now. At these flows, fish could make it from Lower Granite Dam to the lower Salmon River fishery in 7-10. However, flows are forecasted to exceed 50,000 cfs by May 12 which will likely slow their migration.

Get ready!