Idaho's Steelhead Update 8/30/2023

Hi everybody. Idaho’s steelhead harvest season starts on September 1 or September 10, depending on where you fish, so I thought it was about time that I let people know what the runs are looking like and remind people of what the regulations are.

Idaho’s Early Summer Run (Upper Salmon, Little Salmon and Snake Rivers)

Right now, most Idaho bound steelhead that are passing over Bonneville Dam are early run summer steelhead. These are steelhead that are destined for the Snake, Little Salmon and upper Salmon rivers. These fish on average pass over Bonneville Dam about a month earlier than fish destined for the Clearwater River basin. Based on the average run timing for Idaho’s early run hatchery steelhead, 66% of the run should have passed over Bonneville Dam by now (as of August 28) which allows us to now project what this return will be like. 

To help portray how this year’s return compares to past years, I have put together the figure below. Once again, this data is only looking at Idaho’s early run hatchery steelhead which are destined for the upper Salmon, Little Salmon and Snake rivers. This data was developed using PIT tag detections collected at Bonneville Dam and compares the run timing and the runs size over the last 13 years. This year’s return is shown by the solid red line and the dotted red line shows what we are projecting if this year has an average run timing (66% complete by August 28). 

This year’s steelhead return started off slow. Idaho’s first PIT tagged hatchery steelhead didn’t show up at Bonneville Dam until July 2nd which is one of the latest first arrival dates we have seen. However, PIT tag detections have steadily picked up, and we now estimate that about 17,000 hatchery steelhead destined for the Snake and Salmon rivers have passed over Bonneville Dam. If we assume that this return has an average run timing (66% complete), we project that it end up at around 26,000 fish (see dotted red line above). I wouldn’t call this a good return, but it is better than what we forecasted (around 16,000). Right now, it looks like about two-thirds of the run is represented by fish that spent one year in the ocean (typically 21-25 inches in length), and about one-third spent two years in the ocean (typically 25-30 inches in length) which is about what we usually see. 

One of the things we like to evaluate is how many of the steelhead are destined for traps where we can collect them for broodstock. If we think not enough fish are returning to these places to be collected for broodstock, then we will need to make our regulations more restrictive. I put together the figure below that compares how many fish we project will make it to our traps in the Snake and Salmon rivers this run year (2023) to previous years (using PIT tags detected at Bonneville Dam). The blue portion of the bars show the number of steelhead that spent one year in the ocean and the yellow portion shows how many spent two years in the ocean. Those bars with text above them were the years when we applied more restrictive regulations to ensure that we would meet broodstock needs. Now that we have had more experience managing these fisheries with smaller returns, we recognize that we were probably overly restrictive during some of the years. Limit restrictions probably aren’t necessary when over 12,000 fish destined for our trap areas pass over Bonneville Dam. With about 20,000 fish projected to pass over Bonneville Dam this year, we are well within the safe zone. That means these fisheries will be able to occur with our normal regulations (3-fish daily limit). For more details on the steelhead regulations please refer to this link:  steelhead seasons and rules.

Idaho’s Late Summer Run (Clearwater River Basin Fish)

Hatchery steelhead returning to the Clearwater River basin this year have been a pleasant surprise. Many of you may have heard that we were forecasting a poor return this year, and some were wondering if enough would return to even provide a fishery. Well, that does not appear to be the case. I have put together the figure below to show you how the return over Bonneville Dam (based on PIT tags) is looking this year in comparison to previous years. The red line displays this year’s return, and the red dotted line is our projection assuming the run is early (15% complete as of August 28). If you look at where the red dotted line ends, it shows we are projecting over 34,000 Clearwater hatchery steelhead will pass over Bonneville Dam. That would be the third best return since 2011. 

Personally, I am somewhat skeptical of this projection because my preseason forecast, based on the number of PIT tagged 1-ocean fish that returned last year, suggested just over 8,000 2-ocean fish would return this year. The biggest difference I have seen between our preseason forecast and what actually returned was around 14,000 fish. If this return to Bonneville Dam ends up being 34,000 fish, that would be around 25,000 more fish than forecasted which is unprecedented. Regardless, it is safe to assume that enough steelhead will be returning to the Clearwater River basin to meet broodstock goals and provide ample fishing opportunity. Even if the return to Bonneville Dams ends up around 20,000 fish, that will still provide a good steelhead fishery with no reductions to daily limits being necessary.

Steelhead Fisheries

The harvest fishery opens on September 1 in the Snake River, Salmon River, Clearwater River below Memorial Bridge, and North Fork Clearwater River.  Then on September 10, the rest of the Clearwater River basin opens to harvest. I wouldn’t expect the harvest opener to be red hot this year.  Right now (June 15 through August 29), about 2,700 steelhead have passed over Lower Granite Dam which is about half as many as passed over last year at this time. The good news is that because the hatchery return to the Clearwater River is early, these fish will start showing up sooner than normal and provide some nice sized fish to catch. Right now, only about 100 Clearwater fish have passed over Lower Granite Dam (based on PIT tags), but by the time we reach late September, I suspect over 5,000 will have passed over the dam. 

As I indicated earlier, we are not making any changes to our steelhead regulations at this point. However, I encourage you to click on this link to brush up on what the steelhead regulations are: steelhead seasons and rules. We made some significant changes to the steelhead regulations last year that some of you may not be familiar with.

Good luck fishing!