The Steelhead Angler

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I was finally able to make a trip down to the Salmon River Saturday November 29, 2008 and had a great time. While I have missed the main push of steelhead that migrates up the Salmon River, I did manage to catch a couple of nice Steelies.

Steelhead fishing at Riggins is always a hit and miss type of deal you never know when the wind is going to blow. Saturday was a perfect day for fishing though, overcast with high clouds and not a single breeze. The river was crystal clear, I would have like to seen some color to it but this late in the year, and with no rain, it was what I was expecting.

With the clear conditions of the river, my fishing partner Randy and I both knew that it was going to be tough to get the steelhead that are leery to hit. Therefore, we both decided to try jig fishing for them. As it turned out we made a good choice and we both had fair success with this method.

I tied on a 1/8 ounce jig with a black body and orange head and since we have fished this spot for years, I knew I needed to be about six and a half feet deep so I adjusted the bobber stop for that depth. Randy who had just come back from fishing the Clearwater a couple of days before was setup and ready to fish so he was the first to get his line wet. He was using the same type of jig but with a white head.

As I turned to walk down to the river, I hear Randy say there he is, his second cast tied him into a nice buck steelhead that was thirty inches long and may have weighed nine or ten pounds. Since it is getting so, late into the season, head did not perform any of those famous aerial acts for us but it did give him a good tussle. Well maybe this clear water is not so bad after all ten minutes into the day and we have a steelhead on the bank.

We continued to fish for the rest of the day and while fishing is not what I would call hot it was productive we were getting a hit about every hour or so and ended the day with hooking into six fish. Yes Randy did out fish me this trip he hooked four to my two, I will make it up the next time we get a chance to go though.

While as the weather continues to cool off and less and less steelhead angler brave the conditions I find that steelheading will remain fair until we get the spring rush as the steelhead again start moving into their spawning grounds. If you want to be able to have the river mainly to your self these next three month are some of the best times to head out. The Steelhead will remain in the river and as long as there is no bottom ice, you will be able to hook into them every now and then.
Until next time!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

 

Just thought I would Share the Photos I took of the few times I was able to go fishing this year.

Hope you enjoy them.

 

Chinook salmon have arrived at Riggins Idaho and along with the salmon so have the salmon anglers. As the salmon are staging at the mouth of the Little Salmon River waiting for the water temperatures to rise before beginning their migration up the Little Salmon anglers are making the most of this opportunity lining the bank and hoping to entice a chinook to their line.

 

Although the river is crowded at many of the popular fishing wholes anglers are still doing very well and many are going home with their limit of salmon for the day! The Little Salmon is still running high and the water temperature is still cold enough that many of the salmon are holding in holes just below the mouth of the river. This annual phenomenon of the staging in the Main salmon offer anglers a rare and exciting chance to hook into these majestic fish in numbers that really are not common. They normally stage for a few days however this year with the weather conditions keeping the Little Salmon from warming it is making for great fishing opportunities.

 

 

While many anglers are joining in with the crowds there are a number of spots available for the angler who is willing to search them out if you are one of those anglers who prefer to have room to fish and time to enjoy the fight against the salmon. Look for seams of water anywhere below Riggins and give them a try it seems that they are stacked in many of the wholes all along the Main Salmon River now as we found out over the last couple of days.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

With a little searching and trial and error you will be able to find a whole which is holding good numbers of fish. I expect over the next several days as the temperature rises that they will start moving up the little salmon as well and it to will be offering some great fishing this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Good friend of me and fishing buddy Randy has a young pup which enjoyed pointing out the fish as we fought to bring them under control. It seemed as though he was enjoying the excitement just as much as we were he didn’t let a fish get by that he wasn’t right there and keeping an eye on what was going on and he got very up  set if we lost the fish before we got it into the net.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see Louie was right there making sure that we were taking care of business and not letting the salmon get away before   we had it in the net.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the Salmon we were able to get into the net they were averaging 10 to 12lbs and were 30 to 32 inches long however we did get a couple that were over 15lbs my camera batteries died before I was able to get pictures of them though. I know I know another fish story I’ll get some fresh batteries before I head back so I can get you some Pictures of the larger fish just to verify this story though.

 

 

 

 Grab your Gear and come on down to Riggins and join in the excitement this year is turning out to be a very good year as we hooked over forty salmon between the four of us fishing over to days and this is when the weather was cold and wet now that the weather has straightened up it should only improve.

 

 RR Smith

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