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

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!