Steelhead: Salmon River & Clearwater River Trip October 20-29, 2020
Date / Time: Tuesday, October 20th evening departure, fished 8 days some partial October 21-28. Home on Thursday, October 29th
Location: Salmon around Whitebird October 21-22, then Clearwater Kamiah for 1/2 day October 23, then Clearwater Around Orofino October 23-28
The Characters: KK, BK, Zach Watkins, Dano Bolton, John Sparger varying by day
Weather: All over the map through the week, will describe below from sunny and low 60s to high 20s and snowing.
Water Temp: Salmon beginning of trip was mid to high 40s. Clearwater low to mid 60s in open water, low 50s at beginning dropping off a cliff to high 30s while I was there see graphs below
Water Level: Salmon was around 4k
Water Clarity/Quality: Both rivers clear, Salmon had it’s classic green tint in deeper water while the Clearwater was gin clear
Moon Phase: First Quarter October 23rd
Best Flies: Various black and blue
Fishing:
Day 1 Tuesday afternoon: Set up the trailer at Shady Nook RV Park right on the river near the bridge, great spot. Met up with Zach and Brian and did a float from just above white bird to Hammer Creek. Some great water in there. Brian hooked one in a little pocket in the run below the bridge river left and lost it, the fish was only 10 feet out. Otherwise no fish other than a cutt I got.
Day 2 Wednesday: Floated same stretch in the am and pounded it with no results. Got off the water mid afternoon and drove up and fished around twin bridges river right below the bottom bridge. Killer water there too, no dice. Water temp was in the 40s both days. It did freeze overnight night before.
Day 3 Thursday: Woke up and broke down trailer. Headed to Clearwater with BK, ZW heading home. We went through Kamiah and fished a run Brian knew about in town behind the sanitation dept. It was around lunchtime, drizzly, overcast with storm on way later in the day, perfect conditions. Brian hooked one within 30 minutes, long cast, I fished through, but we found no others. Then it was time to go get set up before the storm. Set up the trailer and the storm started to slowly roll in. So, I am now updated this in May since it got blown off. I did want to put down what I remember though. After trailer setup, wet snow started to fall. We got geared back up and headed to motel run river right. Fished through with Johnny and BK, but didn’t find any. After that, considered calling it a day but BK made me realize we should fish. Headed to his airport run spot and he put me in the lower bucket he had done well in with Klaus year or two before. 15-20 minutes in, the telltale heavy pull happened and it was on! Layed into the fish and it ripped pretty good, doing some solid runs. Rain was pouring down and after a solid battle, 10-12lb hen maybe bigger was to hand. Hatchery fish, but solid and I was stoked to get my first steelhead in many years!
Day 4 Friday: Cold front moved in and temps had dropped but still light snow and clouds around. Fished with Johnny since BK had to work. Hit the airport run again and within 30 minutes hooked up again! Good battle from a smaller 6-8lb buck or so. Stoked to get #2 in 2 days especially after the difficult conditions that others found. We made a few laps through but didn’t find any more in there. After that, fished some other spots but as of this late writing months later I don’t recall. I know we didn’t catch any more fish.
Day 5 Saturday: