Idaho's Steelhead Update 8/28/2024

Hi everybody. With Idaho's fall steelhead season about to kick into full gear, I figured now would be a good time to put out a fall steelhead update. In this update, I will be discussing Idaho's early and late steelhead returns and what you could expect during the upcoming harvest opener.

Idaho's Early Summer Steelhead Run (fish destined for the upper Salmon, Little Salmon and Snake rivers)

Right now, most Idaho bound steelhead that have passed over Bonneville Dam are early run summer steelhead that are destined for the upper Salmon, Little Salmon, and Snake rivers. These fish pass over Bonneville Dam on average about a month earlier than fish destined for the Clearwater River basin. Evidence suggests that about 75% of this run has passed over Bonneville Dam (as of August 28) which gives us a good understanding for what you can expect during this year's fishery.

To help portray how this year's return compares to previous years, I have put together the figure below. This figure was developed using PIT tag detections collected at Bonneville Dam over the past 13 years. In this figure, the solid red line shows the number of fish that have passed over Bonneville Dam to date (through August 27), and the dotted red line shows the number of fish we project will cross the dam (assuming 75% of the run is complete). This data shows that over 21,000 hatchery steelhead destined for the upper Salmon, Little Salmon, and Snake rivers have passed over Bonneville Dam as of 8/27/2024 with the run projected to reach around 30,000 fish. If this occurs, the run would be similar to what occurred in 2016 which is better than the previous seven years.