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Two record-setting fish caught on the Clearwater River

Matt Hosking holds up the Idaho state record coho salmon. (Courtesy of Idaho Fish and Game)
Matt Hosking holds up the Idaho state record coho salmon. (Courtesy of Idaho Fish and Game)
From staff reports

From staff reports

Anglers on the Clearwater River are having a good fall.

For two of them, it has been record-setting good.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced last month that records for coho salmon and catch-and-release steelhead were broken on the Clearwater this fall.

Matt Hosking of Lewiston caught the record coho salmon in the Clearwater on Oct. 13. When he landed the fish, he had an inkling that he might have the record, so he took it to a grocery store and had it weighed on a certified scale, according to a news release.

The 32.68-inch fish weighed in at 11.78 pounds – beating the past record by 0.48 ounces.

Just a week earlier, a fly angler swung up a monstrous steelhead in the same river. Kyriacos Panayiotou, of McCall, Idaho, landed the 41-inch steelhead on Oct. 6, according to a news release.

He measured it with a flexible tape and snapped a photo, and then released the fish.

The 41-incher was 1.75 inches longer than the previous state record catch-and-release steelhead, which was caught in 2021.

Joe DuPont, Clearwater fisheries manager for IDFG, said in the release that steelhead of that size are rare.

“In a typical year, the number of steelhead in the 40-inch range is less than 1% of the run,” DuPont said.

Spokane Fly Fishers will hold annual fly auction next week

Local fly anglers and fly tyers will gather next week for a fly auction put on by the Spokane Fly Fishers club.

The auction, which raises money to fund the club’s activities, will be held Wednesday at the St. Francis of Assissi Catholic Church at 1104 W. Heroy Ave. , according to a news release from the club.

The offerings will include flies donated by club members.

There will also be flies from professional LeRoy Hiatt, a renowned fly tyer and a co-host of the PBS series “Fly Tying: The Angler’s Art.”

Other special flies were donated by members of a local chapter of a veterans fly fishing group. Half of the proceeds from sales of those flies will go back to that group.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. so people can inspect the flies put up for bid. The auction begins at 7 .