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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fishing on the Clearwater


Gregg Bingaman of Meridian, left, and Brent Gould of Nampa, right, display a pair of hatchery steelhead from the Clearwater River near Orofino, Idaho, in this October 2004 photo. 
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Roger Phillips The Idaho Statesman

OROFINO, Idaho – North Idaho’s Clearwater River has a deserved reputation for big steelhead, and people travel from all over Idaho, the Northwest, and even from the East Coast for the chance to catch some of the largest steelhead in the nation.

“Idaho’s Clearwater is home to the largest summer steelhead found south of the Canadian border,” author John Shewey wrote in “Fly Fishing for Steelhead.”

The state record, a whopping 33-pound, 2-ounce, 44-incher was caught in the Clearwater in 1973. That fish hasn’t been topped, as far as anyone knows. Since the mid 1980s, anglers have had to release wild steelhead to protect them from extinction, so a bigger fish could have been caught and released.

But the Clearwater still regularly produces wall-hanger steelhead. “Fourteen pounds is the average, and 20-pounders happen every day,” Brent Gould of Nampa said.

Gould and his fishing partner, Gregg Bingaman of Meridian, are die-hard steelheaders who spend about 30 days a year on Idaho’s rivers.

They don’t blink at making a five-hour drive up the U.S. 95 “goat trail” to the Clearwater, spending the night in Bingaman’s camper and fishing all day in freezing temperatures or driving rain. Their efforts have paid off. They regularly land 15-pound steelhead, and they once landed and released a wild 42-inch steelhead, which is two inches shorter than the state record fish.

“I’d say that fish was 25 pounds,” Bingaman said. “It’s hard to say, but it was big.” Like many anglers on the Clearwater, Gould and Bingaman try different tactics to entice steelhead. They might bounce bait, backtroll plugs, use bobbers and jigs or cast flies.

On one trip they might be zooming up and down the river between Lewiston and Orofino in Bingaman’s jetboat, and on another trip they might take a placid float between Kooskia and Orofino in Gould’s 16-foot aluminum drift boat.

“It’s a nice river; there’s lots to see,” Gould said. Bald eagles rest in the autumn-gold trees on the riverbanks, ducks fly up and down the river, and white-tailed deer prance across the tawny hillsides above the river.

Roads parallel the river banks along most of the river, and boat ramps are at convenient intervals. That’s another attraction to the Clearwater River – its convenience and versatility. There’s about 75 miles of river available to steelhead anglers.

“There’s good water all the way to Kooskia,” said Mike Cummins, owner of the Red Shed Fly Shop in Peck.

At its mouth near Lewiston, boaters congregate near Potlatch’s paper mill and troll plugs from power boats, or back troll with drift boats. Upstream at Orofino, bank anglers toss bobbers and jigs or bounce bait on the river bottom near the Clearwater National Fish Hatchery, or in the North Fork of the Clearwater below Dworshak Dam.

Upstream from the North Fork, the number of anglers thins and the river becomes smaller and busier, with more bends and riffles. All along the Clearwater, fly anglers cast purple perils, green butt skunks and popsicles to the elusive steelhead.

Cummins said fly anglers from all over the Northwest come to the Clearwater for its steelhead, and he has customers who’ve come from as far as Connecticut and Maine to fish steelhead.

“It’s a great river to fish a floating line, and that’s a pleasant way to fish,” he said. But the Clearwater also is a challenging place to catch steelhead. The “B” run steelhead aren’t as numerous as the steelhead runs in the Salmon River to the south, and the Clearwater is a bigger, broader river, which makes it tougher to fish.

“It’s a lot flatter than around Riggins, and it’s harder to read,” Gould said. “A hole might be a mile long on the Clearwater, whereas at Riggins, it might be 100 yards long.” The fish also can be more difficult to land because of their size and power.

Gould’s general rule for the Clearwater steelhead: Go bigger. Use bigger plugs, line at least 15-pound test, and large hooks. When you hook one, be prepared for a battle.

And if you land a prime Clearwater River steelhead, have the number of your favorite taxidermist handy, because the steelhead of a thousand casts could also be the biggest steelhead of your life.

Steelhead season on the Clearwater River from the Memorial Bridge of U.S. 12 at Lewiston upstream to Clear Creek runs Oct. 15 through April 30.

It also is known as the “harvest season” because hatchery fish can be kept during that period. Catch-and-release steelhead fishing is allowed from July 1 to Oct. 15.

Only hatchery steelhead can be kept. They can be identified by a clipped adipose fin between the tail and the dorsal fin. Any fish with an unclipped adipose fin must be immediately released unharmed. Anglers on the Clearwater River must use barbless hooks when fishing for steelhead, so get out your pliers and bend down those barbs.