Spring Chinook Salmon Fishing Update 4/29/2025: Rapid River Run, Hells Canyon, and Clearwater River Fisheries

Hi everybody.

It is time for my weekly spring Chinook Salmon update (April 29, 2025). So, let’s get right to it.

RUN UPDATE

Since my last update on 4/23/2025, fish counts at Bonneville Dam picked up considerably (see figure below). We need these counts to continue to climb to achieve or exceed our preseason forecasts. The tangle net test fishery near the mouth of Columbia River has shown a steady increase in catch rates for the past three weeks which indicates counts at Bonneville Dam should continue to climb. When you compare this year’s counts (red line) to the 10-year average (dotted black line), it may seem like this run is doing OK. However, as I indicated last week, there have been some poor salmon returns in the last 10 years. We want better than the 10-year average. 

One of my favorite ways to evaluate the Chinook Salmon return at Bonneville Dam is to look at the counts accumulated daily. The figure below does just that. Basically, what cumulative counts show is the total number of fish that have been counted up to a given date. The figure below ends on May 31, and that is because after May 31 the fish destined for Idaho’s spring Chinook Salmon fisheries will have almost all passed over Bonneville Dam. After May 31, almost all the fish passing over Bonneville Dam will be summer run fish. If you look at the figure below, you can see counts this year (red line) are better than eight of the previous 10 years. It wouldn’t surprise me if this year’s spring return will end up somewhere between what occurred last year last year (dashed black line) and 2016 (dotted green line).

All right, let’s look at what the PIT tag detections at Bonneville Dam tell us about how many of these fish are destined for Idaho and what we are projecting for harvest shares for each of our spring Chinook Salmon fisheries. I have updated the table below I shared with you in my last update, so it now captures the most recent data (through 4/28/25). This table shows that the Clearwater River return’s harvest share is projected to be 4,354 adult fish (darker peach row) which is down from what I reported in my last update (6,209 fish). The Rapid River return (darker blue row) is projected to have a harvest share of 1,506 which is down slightly from my last update (1,774 fish). Finally, the Hells Canyon fishery (green row) is projected to have a harvest share of 831 fish which is also down slightly from my last update (912 fish). It is important to realize that these projected harvest shares assume that the return has an average run timing (about 25% complete). However, if the actual return is later than average, then the harvest share will go up, and if the return is earlier than average, our harvest share will drop.

I do what to bring to your attention that if the harvest shares listed above are fairly accurate, we may want to adjust the seasons for the Clearwater River return fishery. If you read my first update (Chinook update 4/23/2025), you may recall that I presented “harvest matrixes” for each of the fisheries that describes the seasons and limits anglers want us to apply based on the harvest share. The harvest matrix for the Clearwater River return fishery indicates that if the harvest share is greater than 2,000 adult fish, anglers would prefer a 7-day/week fishery. Right now, we are projecting the Clearwater River Return fishery will have a harvest share of 4,354 fish. The projected harvest share did drop considerably from the previous week, so we will want it to stabilize before we recommend any changes to the season.

FISHERIES

Last weekend the spring Chinook Salmon fishery opened. We observed only a few anglers fishing in the lower Clearwater, and none of the people we interviewed reported catching a fish. This is not surprising seeing only 51 adult Chinook Salmon passed over Lower Granite Dam over the weekend. When the fishery reopens this Thursday, daily counts at Lower Granite Dam could start to exceed 100 fish/day. Those counts are not great, but they are high enough that the first fish of the year may be caught this week.

Good luck fishing!