Spring Chinook Salmon Fishing Update 5/20/2025: Rapid River Run, Hells Canyon, and Clearwater River Fisheries

I want to point out in the table above that 9,232 adult fish are projected to pass over Bonneville Dam this year that were released at Clear Creek (stream feeding Kooskia Hatchery). This PIT tag projection is about 2,000 more adult fish than we have ever seen returning to this release site since I have been a fisheries manager (since 2008). We aren’t sure why fish released at Clear Creek did so well on their journey to the ocean and back, but it is good to see. Based on the large return of fish to Clear Creek and because in the past three years the fisheries in the Clearwater basin upstream of Orofino Bridge have not achieved their harvest distribution goals, the commission will be meeting this Thursday (May 22, 2025) to discuss increasing the daily limit to two adults in all river reaches upstream of Orofino Bridge. This limit change is being recommended to the commission so that anglers can harvest more of the fish returning to Clear Creek. As a reminder, a lower portion (around 32%) of the Clearwater River return is destined to the North Fork this year than we typically see. Harvest distribution goals were developed assuming that around 50% of the fish would return to the North Fork. Because the North Fork is our primary broodstock collection area for the Clearwater basin, we will not be increasing limits downstream of Orofino Bridge and it may be necessary to shut down fisheries around Dworshak Hatchery short of their harvest distribution goals.

 

FISHERIES

Clearwater River Basin

With harvest picking up in the Clearwater River basin, I decided it was time to start adding the table below that summarizes where and how many fish we estimate have been harvested on a weekly basis. Because this is the first time I have shared this table this year, I will point out how it is organized. First, notice the top yellow rectangle. This shows what we are projecting our harvest share will be for this fishery (currently 4,772 adult fish). This table is organized so that it shows how many fish we estimate have been harvested each week in each river location code. The river location codes shown in this table (white row just above the large yellow area) are the same river location codes you enter on your paper or e-tag salmon permit when you harvest a fish. If you are unsure where these locations codes are, details are provided at the bottom of the table. The large yellow area is where I will be entering how many fish we estimated have been harvested each week. For example, last week (May 13-18) we estimated that 369 adult fish were harvested in river location codes 3A-B (Camas Prairie Railroad Bridge to Cherrylane Bridge). If you look to the right of the yellow area, you will see we estimated a total of 397 fish were harvested last week and 4,344 fish remain in our harvest share. If you look just below the yellow area, you will see the total number of fish we estimate have been harvested in each river location code and what percentage of the harvest share this represents. The blue box at the bottom shows the harvest distribution goals for each river code. These numbers are important as this is what we will be looking at to determine when to shut down the different river codes.  For example, you will see that the goal for river code 3A-B is for 35% of the harvest share (or 1,670 fish) to be harvested in this section of river. Currently, we estimate that 401 fish have been harvested from this river code and 1,269 fish remain. Pay attention to this because when we get close to one of the goals, you can expect that river location code to close soon.