Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Clearwater River in Idaho fish problems?

Looking at some property on the Middle Fork of the Clearwater. Chatting with the broker today and asked about the fishing. He told me that at the moment fishing was shut down on a few of these rivers due to the tough life the Steelhead and others are having negotiating the Columbia, and populations are in near crisis mode.

This is a beautiful piece of ground that very well could wind up our retirement home. But I gotta be able to fish the river.

What do you guys in the area know about this?

Is there anything to what I was told?

Yes, there is something to what you were told.

The Army Corps of Engineers actively traps and transports juvenile salmonids around the 4 dams on the Lower Snake river and the remaining dams on the Columbia. This transporting starts about 100 miles from where you are considering buying property. They do this to help alleviate some of the survival issues the fish now have in the river. But it's not helping every species. Also, some fish are allowed to travel downriver naturally, assuming there is anything natural about a system that now flows through 8 dams/reservoirs at a much slower rate than in spring flows of the past.

I haven't been up in that area since retiring 3 years ago, so it may just be the fishing is shut down to protect "wild" stocks of steelhead. I put "wild" in quotes because there was (is still?) an active hatchery program there, which fish are supposed to be marked to allow harvest of those, but like everything else in life, nothing is 100%, so some hatchery fish show no signs of having been clipped, make the journey to the ocean and back, and appear to be "wild" fish.

Perhaps if you're interested enough, you might call ID G&F and inquire of the biologists there what the situation is. There are other places to fish nearby, decent deer hunting if the people I knew who lived in the area are to be believed, quail, pheasant and chukar hunting nearby. The Clearwater valley is considered a banana belt by some. Lewsiton/Clarkston just downriver have decent medical facilities and a Costco even! (which isn't packed too badly except on Saturday when the farmers/ranchers come in for supplies! ).

If you see a post by wageslave shoot him a PM as he lives in that area, Lonny also. They may be willing to answer your questions.

Are you looking at Field Grade's place I wonder............that would be "interesting" to say the least. I do miss him around here.

Good luck with it all and PM if you want to know a little more about the fish if the ID biologists can't answer to your satisfaction.

Geno

Steelhead and salmon are having problems, not a small part of which is being eaten by sea lions at the mouth of the Columbia. They blame the dams but a good share of the fish aren't even reaching the dams before they're eaten. You can thank the idiots in congress for that one. It kind of parallels the wild horse situation.
However, the Clearwater has other fish. Check them out.

Yes, as rock chuck says, the Clearwater is a world class smallmouth fishery, Dworshak reservoir too. And Dworshak has kokanee too.

Geno

Columbia basin steelhead and salmon stocks have been returning in dismal numbers the past few years. There are numerous reasons for this...seal/sea lion depredation is more than significant (all the way up to Bonneville Dam), commercial gill netting on the lower Columbia, ocean conditions, and the huge commercial harvest of Columbia basin salmonids of the coast of B.C. and Alaska. The four lower Snake river dams are a HUGE problem as well.
The last couple of years the returns of "wild" steelhead into the Clearwater system have been terrible (IIRC less than 1000 returned in 2019) so the fishing on the Clearwater was greatly restricted or closed. The Middle fork would be in the area that was closed. This was done in an effort to protect those few that did return.
All that being said the numbers of fish returning will likely rebound and season restrictions lessened over the next couple of years---maybe.
It's not the first time runs have crashed and seasons greatly restricted or closed.

The Clearwater country is still a sportsman's paradise. Lots of fishing (multiple species) is still available near the area you're considering and some of the best deer, elk, and turkey hunting to be had is in your backyard.

Oh wow, thanks for the responses guys.

The fella I talked to did say predation was a big problem, and that the slower water made for warmer water, this too was taking it's toll.

The place we're looking at is in the Kooskia area. No idea if it was Field Grade's place. Where was that?

If you got tired of the Clearwater and Dworshak, you could go north to Pend Oreille and catch some walleye.There're sturgeon in the Snake above Lewiston, too, but they're catch and release.

Charlie’s place was down by Lenore.

Salmon/steelhead are in trouble on the whole west coast to some degree or another. Pretty sad

Kooskia is a cool place, love that Clearwater country

I don't know about the Clearwater but we do trips out of Salmon every fall. My wife caught a native big un last fall and the guide was really excited. Only hatchery fish can be kept. Our guide said that numbers were way down, he has been guiding for many years. Idaho would be a good place to live even if you have to travel to fish.


mike r

Muleshoe I wouldn’t have the fishing or the salmon or steelhead fishing be a dealbreaker because there’s some epic fishing within 10 hours of you. I have a guy over here for three days right now steelhead fishing that loves living over there.

The dams take a great deal of heat for declining salmon and steelhead populations. But salmon numbers did not really start crashing until the Marine Mammals Act was passed.

All we really need to help salmon numbers is to let fisherman carry centerfire rifles and reduce the ridiculously high sea lion populations. They are akin to keeping packs of wolves in a beef feedlot.

I used to fish the Clearwater and snake quite a bit for steelhead and the returns are way down the past few years.

Its a shame as I remember in October I could hook a dozen steelhead a day.

Unfortunately, common sense is not all that common.

The realtor was kinda right in that many sections were shut down during the fall due to dismal returns. The steelhead season actually reopened on the lower Clearwater Jan 1. But you are allowed only one hatchery fish per day and none over 28" and no keeping of wild fish. You haven't been allowed to keep wild fish for many years.

On any given year, other rivers in the region might have better returns and a season. But that could mean a couple hour drive one way.

All the ocean-going fish seem to be slowly, but steadily slipping away. I kinda wonder if in another 20 years they will be mostly gone? The people who know what they are doing still manage to catch fish though. A dummy like me doesn't have the skill or the patience to catch them with these low numbers. Keep in mind, that even when returns were much better, 12 hours per fish was considered pretty hot fishing.

The natives are allowed to shoot them in AK, unfortunately the ones I have worked with have overall been horrible marksmen. Even tried helping them but they "knew how to shoot". Figured out one guy was shooting 270 ammo out of his 30-06. I stayed away after that.

Catch rate (hours per fish) is based on man hours of all fishermen devided by the number of fish caught. 10-12 hours per fish can be some damn good fishing.
I've had many 15-30 fish days on the Clearwater, Snake, and Salmon when the catch rate was in the 12 hours per fish range. It's all in knowing the water and how to fish it.
90% of the fish will be caught by 10% of the fishermen...or so they say.

All about the dams and sea lions is indeed true. But another BIG factor is commercial fishing. Allot of fish are caught by many countries in international waters. I have seen steelhead numbers ebb and flow all of my life. Hope they come back again.

Here is a fact to chew on. The biomass of salmon in the north pacific is now at the highest level since 1925. I think the effects of this is a greater impact on salmon stocks in the NW rivers than any other factor.

https://fisheries.org/2018/04/new-r...salmon-abundance-in-north-pacific-ocean/

Bottom line, with commercial hatcheries catering to fresh roe market in pacific rim countries, the pasture ain't big or productive enough for all the fish. Hence we are seeing fewer returning salmon and steelhead and the few fish that return are much smaller than historic fish.

Better that than the other way around.....