Since I last posted to the blog the Salmon River has gone from one extreme to the other. Both in weather and in water flow the river has 'seen it all' in the last month or so. The flows have been relatively high with flows approaching 2000cfs as recent as two to three days ago and is now dropped to a current flow at Pineville of 460cfs at a 285cfs release. We may see this bump up some in the next few days as the tempuratures are going to climb into the mid 30s for most of this week, with temps hitting mid 40s tomorrow with some rain forecast. This will be a nice break as recently the temperatures have struggled to climb into the low 20s for the last 3 or 4 days.
The steelhead fishing has been very good so far this winter. Dispite some brutal temperatures and a few days fishing in heavy lake snows, this winter has been a good one for catching steelhead.
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Three stone fly patterns that are working well. The top pattern is
the dbl bead thorax. The lower is a rubber leg stone that gets
attention too.
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A majority of our fish are taken on the fly rod fishing indies. Seems most of the time we have been dealing with flows in the 600cfs - 900 cfs range so we've been bulk shotting to get the flies down fast. I have been setting up a dropper fly, usually running a Copper John, caddis pupae or an egg pattern in 12-14 on the bottom followed by a golden stone in size 10. The particular stone fly pattern I am using is a double gold bead thorax and probably 45% of our hook-ups are coming on the stone fly dropper with the balance of hook-ups on the bottom nymph.
We have been doing some spin fishing as well and this is always productive. I've been using nymphs, trout beads and salmon eggs, with the salmon eggs producing the better of the three. Three to 4 eggs in a sac working the best and anise scent helps a bit too. The 10mm trout beads are working better the the 8mm and a few guys seem to be doing good on 12mm beads. With the beads we are drifting the under a float but the eggs and nymph we are working on the bottom and this seems to be the way the steelies want these.
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| A good selection of nymphs. |
We still have a few good months left to fish steelhead and traditionally mid February is when things start to heat up. Spawning activity is beginning and soon will be in full swing. If you are interested in fishing a few days on the river I'd give you the thumbs-up to go ahead and make your plans. If you would like to work a guided float trip into your arrangements give me a shout and I'll see what I can do to accomodate you. Looking forward to an excellent spring, hope to see you here.
Tight lines.
