so... salmon?

[nijimasu]

I've been out of the loop. Will we be catching or no catching?
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[Steelie30]

Not looking great. If you time it right, you might get to hit a few on the Lower Salmon or Riggins, but the harvest share is below 1000. That is not good. Plus, Oregon opened their season back up on the Columbia, so more of our fish are going to be harvested. The water is high and so survival might drop between the dams as well. Going to be a tough year. I'm hoping next year will be much better with those fish returning will be smolts from a good water year....
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[blacktop]

The jack count is very poor from that don't even expect a season next year it is running about 25% of the ten year average 5574 today over Bonneville compared to the ten year average of 22072 and 4000 behind last years. I would not look for a season on the upper Salmon unless something changes this year.
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[Steelie30]

Man, I hope we have a chance on the Upper Salmon. Even if it was catch and release! I have to put a lot of eggs in that basket, since the wife is due in about 2 weeks. No Riggins for me. The jack count is poor. A lot of times that is an indication of next year, but not always. It doesn't make sense after have such good water conditions during outgoing migration the past few years. Something has to change in their favor eventually. All a guy can do is stay optimistic and hope for the best!
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[Tazasorus]

Fished Orofino four days last week and never touched a fish. My buddy is on Orofino bridge and has seen two caught this morning. Still not a lot of fish there either
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[blacktop]

Most of the fish released as five to six inch salmon last year won't return until 2020. Ocean conditions when this years fish were released were really short of krill due to a warming condition called the blob that was present when they were juveniles. Those conditions have improved. Salmon are very slow growing as fry with these fish being released already two year old progeny of 2016 adults. It takes almost a year to get the fry to 2 inches in length. The wild fish detected by the pit tags were inserted when these fish were collected by the rolling bins in small streams and implanted when they were already a year old and they don't go out to the ocean until the following year.

There is a harvest share of around 2000 fish for the Clearwater and likely less than 900 for the entire Rapid River run. Check the news release on the Fish and Game website under Chinook for May 30th (yesterday) and it shows the Harvest share for the Clearwater back to 2000 and the Rapid River through from 96 to the present. Predicted fish for the south fork Clearwater, North Fork, Snake and Selway are laid out based on the latest pit tags over Bonneville. Worst run on Rapid River in 20 years with half the fish as last year.
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