At this time, anadromous fish passage remains cut off to all former Snake River sockeye salmon habitat except that in the Stanley Basin. Habitat is so poor that Snake river Sockeye will never be removed from the Endangered species list if things stay as they are. Here is some history on them:
Historically, Snake River sockeye salmon were produced in the Stanley River Subbasin of Idaho’s Salmon River in Alturas, Pettit, Redfish, and Stanley Lakes and in Warm Lake on the south fork salmon. Sockeye salmon may have been present in one or two other Stanley Basin lakes. Elsewhere in the Snake River Basin, sockeye salmon were produced in Big Payette Lake on the North Fork Payette River and in Wallowa Lake on the Wallowa River. The largest single sockeye salmon spawning area was in the headwaters of the Payette River, where 75,000 were taken one year by a single fishing operation in Big Payette Lake. However, access to production areas in the Payette Basin was eliminated by construction of Black Canyon Dam in 1924. During the 1880s, returns to headwaters of the Grand Ronde River in Oregon (Wallowa Lake) were estimated to have been at least 24,000 and 30,000 sockeye salmon, but access to the Grande Ronde was eliminated by construction of a dam on the outlet to Wallowa Lake in 1929. Access to spawning areas in the upper Snake River Basin was eliminated in 1967 when fish were no longer trapped and transported around the Hells Canyon dam complex. All of these dams were constructed without fish passage facilities. There are no reliable estimates of the number of sockeye salmon spawning in Redfish Lake at the turn of the century. However, beginning in 1910, access to all lakes in the Stanley Basin was seriously reduced by the construction of Sunbeam Dam, 20 miles downstream from Redfish Lake Creek on the mainstem Salmon River. The original adult fishway, constructed of wood, was ineffective in passing fish over the dam. It was replaced with a concrete structure in 1920 but sockeye salmon access was impeded until the dam was partially removed in 1934.
Even after fish passage was restored at Sunbeam Dam, sockeye salmon were unable to use spawning areas in two of the lakes in the Stanley Basin. Welsh (1991) reported fish eradication projects in Pettit Lake (treated with toxaphene in 1960) and Stanley Lake (treated with Fish-Tox, a mixture of rotenone and toxaphene, in 1954). Agricultural water diversions cut off access to most of the lakes, during the 1950s and 1960s, Redfish Lake was probably the only lake in Idaho that was still used by sockeye salmon each year for spawning and rearing and, at the time of listing under the Endangered Species Act (November 20, 1991; FR 56 No. 224), sockeye salmon were produced naturally only in Redfish Lake. Escapement to the Snake River has declined dramatically in recent years. Adult counts at Ice Harbor Dam have fallen from 3,170 in 1965 to zero in 1990. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game counted adults at a weir in Redfish Lake Creek during 1954 through 1966. Adult counts dropped from 4,361 in 1955 to fewer than 500 after 1957. Fewer than 20 wild adult sockeye salmon returned to Redfish Lake in recent years (1991 through 1998.
On a side note, while the lower four Snake river dams definatly don't help this situation, The primary dammage to Sockeye in the snake river was done prior to their construction and these fish would be in trouble regardless.