Just when I thought the Little Salmon River was going to come in we started to receive some rain and the river has blown out again. I did make a trip down to the river Tuesday and hooked into a fish but I fished al day and it was the only hit that I got.

The river is as high as I’ve seen it in years and the one fish I did hooked got out in the current and if you have ever fished for Chinook salmon you know what happened next.

Yep it was like trying to stop a D-8 cat from running down a frozen cliff you hold on and hope for a miracle. Even with 40lb test line I was unable to even slow it down let alone turn him. In about thirty seconds he had striped off most of my line and was headed back to the Ocean. It was exciting but the battle if you want to call holding on for everything you got a battle, did not last long and I had to admit defeat before I even got started.

With the river running as high and fast as it is fishing is really tough you use three ounces of weight to even touch the bottom and your line drifts through the hole in about ten seconds. Most of your day will be spent casting that is when you are not tying up a new rig because when you do hit bottom with that much weight it usually finds a way to crawl under some rock and you end up leaving your rig to the river gods. Yet even with conditions the way they are I can’t wait to get back on the river after all it is Chinook salmon season.

If you do not like spending your day casting and tying rigs you may want to hold off for a week or two before you head down. There is however always plunking if you don’t want to fight the current river condition. I have had some pretty good luck with this technique of fishing over the years.

For those of you that are not familiar with plunking it is setting up with a heavy weight as a drop sinker and using a spin and glow with eggs or a similar lure casting it out in a deep pool and then you just sit and wait for the fish to find it. When condition are like the are this is a very good technique plus while your waiting for a fish you have time to relax and tell some fishing stories with you buddies.

Well I’ll keep watching the river and let you know as things develop but for right now fishing is tough.

RR Smith

Steelhead, Salmon and Trout Fishing Gear

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The good the bad and the uglyWell the good news for chinook salmon anglers here in Idaho is the resent cold spell is beginning to have a positive effect on the river flows as most rivers here in Idaho are starting to drop back to almost fishable levels.

The Little Salmon River which was running at 5,600 cfs as dropped back to 3,200 cfs and although the Main Salmon has not done as well has dropped from 92,000 cfs to 65,000 which is still way above the normal flow of around 40,000 cfs for this time of year. The Clearwater is dropping but it is even slower in coming down then the Main Salmon.

The bad thing about this is that the cooler temperatures which help to drop the rivers has also dropped the river temperatures which is slowing the migration of the salmon and this is through out the entire river system from Bonneville Dam too the hatcheries. I’m hoping that when the temps stabilize or start to rise back up we will see a surge in their migration.

Now for the ugly part while the rivers have started to drop they are still very brown in color and this makes things even more difficult for the angler as salmon seem to strike out of a natural instinct and not because the are feeding, if they are not able to see your hook then you do not trigger their instinct to strike.

There are some tricks you can use to help in these conditions like using scents, or a lure set up that will make some type of noise or vibration. They help but when the salmon go into a holding pattern there is no sure fire way of hooking into one except for being persistent and keeping something out in the river and hope that one will swim into your offering.

Don’t despair things will pick up and when they do we should have some pretty fair fishing at least it will be better then we have had in the last couple of years.

Steelhead Gear.Com   http://www.steelhead-gear.com/

Just thought I do a quick update on the salmon fishing conditions for some of the rivers here in Idaho. Salmon fishing along the lower sections of the Clearwater were fair last week before the heat-wave hit and blew the river out. Fishermen were have some pretty good success from the Railroad bridge to the bridge at highway 95 which is a very popular spot for salmon anglers.The upper sections up to the Orofino Bridge were starting to produce some fish as well but anglers were having to but in some time to hook into one. The North Fork was producing as well and it is probably the only section that remains fishable as the high muddy conditions are found through out the rest of the state with the rivers at or just below flood stage.

The Salmon River from Hammer Creek to the Time Zone Bridge had fish in it but was not being fish hard as the number of salmon in the river system remained low making catching one of these great fish difficult. Fishermen were having some success from the Time Zone Bridge to Shorts Bar as the salmon normally stack up in this section waiting to move up to the Little Salmon.

The Little Salmon was high and muddy even before the heat from last week blew the river out and fishing was extremely difficult there. I do know of one Salmon caught on this section though and it weighed in at an amazing 28lbs that is huge for this section of the river although not totally unheard of.

Right now the salmon fishing is going to depend totally on the weather we need to have the rivers drop and clear some before salmon fishing will be any good if the cooler weather holds without dropping an abundant amount of rain they should start to become fishable by mid to late next week.

If you really can’t wait to get on the river and try your luck this weekend I would suggest that you make the trip up to the North Fork of the Clearwater and fish that section for right now the river is extremely high but fishable. Good luck and let’s hope the weather holds.

For a complete update on fishing conditions visit Idaho Chinook Salmon Fishing Report      http://www.steelhead-gear.com/Idaho-Salmon

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