The Steelhead Angler

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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

Salmon, Steelhead, and Trout Gear

I found some more exciting news about the expected Chinook salmon run for us here in Idaho. The following came off the Columbian News Website:

“[Thursday, April 17, 2008
By ALLEN THOMAS, Columbian staff writer

The hottest spring chinook salmon angling in the lower Columbia River in decades comes to a close Monday to avoid exceeding the sport-fishing allocation.

"It appears there's a whole wall of salmon charging up the river,'' said Carmen MacDonald, an Oregon sport-fishing activist who predicted the run will be even larger than the forecast of 269,300.]” You can find the complete article “HERE“

(http://columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/04/04172008_Chinook-sport-fishing-season-to-end-soon.cfm)

If this all holds true and the run makes it to Idaho we should be have one of the best runs since the record breaking run in 2001. For those of you that were able to experience this run you know what this means for us here in Idaho. Those who did not have a chance to fish this run or have not fished for salmon here in Idaho now is your chance to experience some of the most exciting fishing in our fine state.

One thing that we all should keep in mind as the season approaches is we need to be courteous. Especially for those of us that fish the Little Salmon River South of Riggins Idaho; the fact is that large numbers of fish means large numbers of fishermen. I have never been a big fan of fishing in a crowd but my passion for hooking one of these great fish has made me change the way I look at this. I have made some great friend over the years and the only time we see each other is during the salmon run.

For those of you that do not know we have lost access to the river crossing just south of Riggins so we no longer have access to the east side of the river just another sing of the times. As we continue to loss access to familiar fishing grounds we are going to be forced to become even more compacted in the areas we do have access to.

A few simple Common Courtesies; can and will make the difference in how we all enjoy this salmon season.
1. One should never just barge into a hole with out at least say hello asking how fishing has been and if they mind if you try your luck!

2. Don’t be in a hurry to start fishing watch how others are fishing the spot and decide on how you can fish this spot without tangling with others.

3. Remember to pick up your trash. Yes yarn trimmings and fishing line is trash.

4. If you see some one have trouble give them a hand and a few pointers their not out to ruin your day they are probably just not familiar with this type of fishing.

5. Don’t stress over the guy just up stream that seems to be catching all the fish.

6. And most importantly relax and enjoy yourself we all no that we want to catch fish and have a good time and being courteous we allow us all to enjoy this season.

Lets all have a great time on the river this year and maybe we will even met some where along the bank and exchange a few fish stories.

By: RR Smith
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