July 8, 2026 South Fork Salmon River Chinook Update

The Run Keeps Growing

Believe it or not, we're still detecting PIT-tagged South Fork fish crossing Bonneville Dam, and our harvest share continues to increase.

As of today:

• An estimated 2,881 adipose-clipped South Fork adults have crossed Bonneville Dam.
• 1,842 of those fish have already crossed Lower Granite Dam.
• Approximately 1,600 adults have entered the South Fork Salmon River drainage.
• 1,245 adults have already crossed the Krassel PIT-tag antenna and entered the primary fishing area.

This year's run continues to be remarkably spread out.

McCall Hatchery is more than halfway to its broodstock collection goal, yet we're still seeing new South Fork fish arriving at Bonneville Dam. That's not something we see every year.

After accounting for harvest in both the tribal and non-tribal fisheries, along with broodstock collected at the hatchery, we estimate there are currently around 300 adipose-clipped adults actively swimming within the fishery boundaries. Another 350 or so fish are close behind them in the lower South Fork Salmon River, and more fish are still making their way through the hydrosystem.

The bottom line is this: there are fish in the river now, more fish arriving every day, and enough harvest share remaining to justify expanding fishing opportunity.

Why Open the Fishery Seven Days per Week?

This is exactly the type of situation we anticipated during season setting earlier this year, when we made some adjustments to our South Fork harvest share matrix and asked the Commission the grant the Director the authority to adjust seasons within the bounds of that matrix as-needed.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approved the new harvest-share matrix below, which allows for the flexibility to run either a four-day fishery OR a seven-day fishery at our current projected harvest share.