Really? That's no fun to hear although I enjoy some good wilbur fishing....

Keith

Just fish peck up to the hatchery....... Boots galore! If you and your buddies fish for 3-4 days you'll have pounds of eggs for springers!

Buddy fishes it a lot, he says they kill em on sandshrimp. No fresh sandshrimp over there so they eat that stuff up when 90% of the other guys are draggin eggs.

It all depends on if you have a boat or not. If you do, side drift in upper Cleartwater. If not... well, you're on your own. Go to the South Fork I guess -- last place I'd go unless I had a fifth of whisky and and ounce of dope.

The local economy depends on tourist fishing, so don't listen to what other people have to say. Slashed tires? Never heard of it. Washingtonians we don't mind... all we mind are the Montanans. Some say they have poor river etiquette.

Like someone said already, you should fish the river early. August - October and you can really see what the Clearwater is all about.

My only advice is plugs early, eggs late.

I would agree with McMahon! Washingtonians are fine! I've never seen nor heard of slashed tires at the ramp and sidedrifting has been going strong here for years as a deadly technique. Montana guys are the ones that are looked down upon...... If you come sidedrifting eggs should yield great results in the aforementioned spots. Sandshrimp/coonshrimp are mainly used during the coldest part of the year behind baitdivers. As spring gets closer these fish generally key in on eggs and yarnies. I'd say the guide boats this past weekend with 6 guys on board were averaging a fish every other pass!

Sounds good... Thanks for the info gang. We're half way there now passing tri-cities. Looking forward to wetting a line.

Keith

McMahon.

I didnt think there was decent fishing until October, when you say Aug. and Sept. are you talkin the mouth or all the way to Kamiah ? River is pretty skinny early.

there catching the same fish from last october.

We start getting catchable numbers of fish in the lewiston area by late July. In Aug, Sept, Oct you can have some banner days between lewiston and Orofino. Earlier in the summer fish close to lewiston, as the season progresses the fish can be found further and further up the system but thats not to say you wont find fish low in the system as well. Typically the A-runs show up first and then the B-runs show up a little later. These are summer run fish so the later you choose to fish the more bootical the fish are going to be.

Ahhhhhhhh.... you remembered me! Now I feel all warm inside...

Thanks!

Damn... now I'm gonna cry.... **sniff**

"Tool Man Trent"....... out!

No dont go! you make me laugh

I thought being remembered gave me a warm feeling inside..... but I was wrong. I just pissed myself.....

never mind go...

Let's see some pic's of those bucks.

Mf

Well, made it back all in one piece.... Certainly a long road trip but a worthy one.. Departed at 8:15pm and crawled into bed in Lewiston, ID at 3:15am... We were up at 6:15 that next morning to fish the first day..

I won't go into too much detail as it's not my stomping grounds...

We caught our share of fish biggest at 14 pounds or so. Some reasonably bright for what I expected, some we didn't really want to touch...

Definitely a place I'll make an annual trip to as it was plenty of fun with the buddies and the scenery is unreal!

Keith

Where's the pic's?

Mf

Fish start trickling in in late June and early July (hence summer steelhead). Most of these early fish are wild it seems. There are hatchery fish early on in the mix, but they start coming in en masse in September, and by the time harvest opens up on the 15th of October the river is usually full of them.

The water in July isn't as low as you might think it is since Dworshack regulates the river level throughout the year.

Oh I think we've seen enough of those "steelhead" for a while. But you could Keith, if you wanted to, post the pic of that monster chrome buck you caught a couple years back. I really like that one....

Glad you had a good trip....

Ike

That's one I can post...


Been a while since I've seen that pic... I was a porker back then!

You know, the more I look at that picture, I second guess his weight.... I don't know if I believe the formula of LxG2\775 = 28.42lbs. He taped at 42.75" x 22.7" girth... Pic don't do that dude justice...



Keith

Pic no worky for me. ??

Ike