Salmon River steelheading hot as interest wanes

FISHING — The holidays are taking a bite out of the fishing pressure on the Snake and Salmon rivers, but the fishing in the Salmon near Riggins has been very good for anglers with a pass to leave home.

“A lot of bigger native steelhead have moved into the river system, many over 32-inches,” Amy Sinclair of Exodus Wilderness Adventures reported Wednesday afternoon.  “Recent rains have not affected the river which is in good shape with great visibility; water flow at 5110 CFS. Water temperature last week hovered between 37-38 degrees. However a cold snap over the weekend dropped the river temperature to 36 degrees which slowed the fish down and have them holding in the deeper pools. Deep diving, slow action plugs, bait divers and drifting bait seem to be the best methods to entice the fish.”

So how good has the fishing action been?  Check out this report from Sinclair:

Salmon River (Riggins) creel report for Nov. 13-20

42 anglers fished with Exodus hooking into 100 steelhead or 2.4 fish per person and landed 71 or 1.7 fish per person.

Birthday boy Jeff Lind from Athol, Idaho, limited out by 12:30 pm with drift boat guide Jeff Wieber on Nov. 19.

Terry Pike from Columbus, Ohio, landed the  MONSTER 36-inch  native steelhead (pictured above) that gave him quite a fight from the drift boat guided by Norm Klobetanz.