Steelhead angler effort dropped considerably during the past week on the Upper Salmon River. The decline was primarily due to much colder weather settling into the area on Friday, and by Saturday, slush ice was flowing through Salmon, ID. The majority of angler interviews for the week were obtained between Tuesday and Friday. Over the weekend, angler interviews were only obtained from downstream of Panther Creek.

Catch rates remained very good through Friday, and some steelhead were caught over the weekend by anglers downstream of Panther Creek. Only ten anglers were interviewed downstream of the Middle Fork in location code 14, and they averaged 34 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of North Fork in location code 15 averaged 13 hours per steelhead caught, and anglers interviewed downstream of the Lemhi River in location code 16 averaged 8 hours per steelhead caught. Angler effort remained very low upstream of the Lemhi River in location code 17, but anglers interviewed within this area had the best average catch rate for the week at 5 hours per steelhead caught.

River conditions were excellent early in the week, but by Saturday morning, slush ice began to impact fishing. The river’s flow continued its steady decline (figure below), and the river’s visibility was clear throughout the week. By Sunday, water temperatures were 32° F in all areas. Currently, the Salmon River is flowing at 1,520 cfs at the USGS gauge near Shoup, ID which is 82 percent of average for today’s date.

We would like to continue to remind anglers that the City of Salmon has started a construction project at Island Park in downtown Salmon, ID. This project required the city to temporarily close all of Island Park through the middle of December. For more details, please follow this link, and for questions, the public is asked to contact the City of Salmon at (208) 756-3214.

By Brent Beller – IDFG