Hi everyone, this is the Upper Salmon River steelhead fishing report for March 18, 2025. The data discussed in this report was collected between Monday, March 10th and Sunday, March 16th.
The spring steelhead run on the Upper Salmon River continued to push upriver last week, and we started to observe more steelhead getting caught in areas upstream of Challis, ID. As the upper areas were just beginning to pick up, the fishing remained good downstream of North Fork in location code 15, which is where we recorded the highest amounts of angler effort and catch.
Catch rates varied by location code, but similar to last week, we observed catch rates improve in almost all monitored areas. Bank anglers interviewed downstream of the Middle Fork in location code 14 averaged 12 hours per steelhead caught, and anglers interviewed downstream of North Fork in location code 15 averaged 5 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of the Lemhi River in location code 16 averaged 37 hours per steelhead caught, and anglers interviewed downstream of the Pahsimeroi River in location code 17 averaged 20 hours per steelhead caught. Anglers interviewed downstream of the East Fork in location code 18 averaged 7 hours per steelhead caught, and anglers interviewed upstream of the East Fork in location code 19 averaged 4 hours per steelhead caught.
River conditions remained good throughout the week with cloudy to clear visibility in all areas over the weekend. Cold overnight lows continue to keep the runoff in check which has allowed the river to avoid any large flow fluctuations. On Sunday, the river was clear in all areas, and mid-day water temperatures ranged from the upper 30s above Challis, ID to the mid-40s downstream of North Fork (figure below).
As mentioned in last week’s report, we have seen a large increase in the number of PIT-tagged steelhead being detected at the PIT tag array upstream of Salmon, ID near Elevenmile. Below is the updated figure for detections at that array. Directions for querying this array, or any of the arrays on the PTAGIS website, were included in last week’s report.
The last thing we wanted to include for this week is an update on returns to the Pahsimeroi and Sawtooth hatcheries. Anglers can check for updated hatchery return numbers on the IDFG Steelhead Hatchery Returns webpage. As of Wednesday, March 12th, the Pahsimeroi Hatchery had trapped 134 adipose-clipped steelhead. The weir was installed at the Sawtooth Hatchery last week, and it is expected that steelhead will start to show up in the trap soon. Trapping numbers for the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery will not show up on the IDFG website until after personnel check the trap in preparation for their first spawning day, which is tentatively scheduled for next week.
-IDFG-
