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

Interesting stuff, but........................



we cannot believe a word of it as it is published by the dreaded................................scientists, either from a University or worse perhaps............a Government Agency.


Geno

I tried to point out how dangerous it was and I got hit with "Mind your business whitey"

You mean the government of Alaska pumping a bazillion hatchery pinks into the system effects other salmonids?

Who’da Thunk it?!?!

I was working in Astoria OR. at the mouth of the Columbia River a few years ago. The salmon run was down that spring no fishing for them in the river allowed, but as you crossed Youngs Bridge gill nets were out behind a boat.
I asked and locals knew who was in the boat.

The state owns very few hatcheries actually.....Most of the hatcheries are private non profit, as per the alaskan constitution.

They don't produce a bazillion either.

The entire Columbia system is in the toilet for steelhead and to a lesser degree salmon. If those are not ones sole reason for living, then there are still other resident species and rivers to fish. It's especially sad for Clearwater steelhead as they are the largest of fish south of the Smithers Canadian reaches. They stray up some of our streams and one knows within seconds of hookup that he's into an Idaho fish. Over the last 35+ years I have lived to do 2 to 3 weeks of fall floating/flyfishing for steelhead on the Deschutes (lower down in north central Oregon). For the best of times 28 or 9 fish beached in a week and that many or more lost during the fights. I know that river, and in many runs can warn one that in this or the next cast he will hook up. In 2016/17/18 trips went down to 2 or 3 tugs and 1 or 2 fish landed. Last fall, dam counts were even lower, and sadly I did not even put the boat on the river. Even have a newly built 16 ft Spey rod that's not had the skunk knocked off yet.

I think I might have experienced the best of times. Idaho, and rivers east into Wyoming and Montana can still offer one great trouting experiences. Presently, I'd not do Clearwater property if salmon and steelhead were the central focus. Still a ton of hunting opportunities in the region, so not a bad place to be. Let us pray, however, for a substantial and rapid fish recovery. I'm not getting any younger.

I also, have some distant friends (charter boats) in Sitka, Ak. Historically they've landed day trip limits in 1/2 of the session. Last couple of years, they've been doing a full days work. No one's able to establish the definitive causes.

I'm in no way an expert on this, all I know is that i grew up, and still live in Central Idaho, and that as a kid, Redfish Lake was ...well...Redfish Lake because you could near literally walk across the backs of the Kokanee.

No more.

Hell, some will laugh, but there were several spots on the Salmon back then where we'd go get drunk and shoot salmon with .22s...

I miss those days...

Those B run steelhead were a blast to catch in the Clearwater

All of what you guys say is contributing to the depletion of returns on the west coast. But as a formerly avid offshore salmon fisherman I gotta say, admittedly with no education, something bad is going on in coastal waters. Historically, just off the coast the nutrient rich waters literally teemed with bait..chum..krill whatever. Any given morning, at first light on the sea you would see hundreds of seagulls and fish ducks gorging on the huge bait balls and rafts of krill. The salmon gorging beneath driving the bait near the surface, attracting the predatory birds. That has been in steady decline for 20 years or more. As a result salmon take has declined disastrously with it. Commercial trolling season quotas are filled in a couple days, when it is allowed at all. Charter boats are all but gone. Bottom fishing limits have been reduced to ridiculous levels. Lingcod seems to be the only survivor. Sport fleet is 1/10th of what it was. No bait...no salmon. Something is going on out there...it can't be the Japan and Humboldt current from the Jap Nuke plant meltdown...it was happening long before that. The biologists are fiddling while Rome burns.

It's bigger than just fish when I was a kid and a young man pheasants were everywhere in SW Idaho, We drove about 50 miles though farm country a couple of weeks ago and I finally saw one hen.
I talk to 40 year olds that don't know what a Leopard frog is when they seemed everywhere as a kid on the farm.
Bullfrogs were around by what seemed in the millions and now I don't think I have heard one in a couple of years. People tell me they are around but if so numbers are minuscule to what they were.

True that! We used to shoot pheasants on my wife's Grandpa's place off West Chinden. I've killed a dozen bears up near Bogus, killed 3 mulies over 160 out by Eagle.

Many today that don't remember should look up "Idaho Bunny Bash". My Dad taught us to shoot handgun and offhand rifle on those jacks near Mud Lake. I've lots of brass trophies from IPSC and 3 Gun from that experience. We'd literally kill HUNDREDS over a weekend without making a dent.

Ever heard of the blob? The salmon harvest has been on the increase for years. The commercial trolling season has not been filled in days. Drink the koolaid.

We used to fish the Clearwater near the mouth of Potlatch Creek for steelhead when they were running, and for smallmouth and rainbows when they weren't. The smallmouths were fun but inedible; to me anyway. I worked with a guy in Juliaetta who was the best steelhead fisherman I've known.
Pre-Dworshak, we used to hike in to a stretch of the Little North Fork of the Clearwater and catch juvenile steelhead; along with cutthroats and Dollies. Great times but long gone. It pains me to go back into that country now. On the other hand, deer and elk numbers seem way better, in many areas, than they were fifty years ago. GD

Best weekend fishing trip I ever had was on the Little North Fork of the Clearwater. Wasn't easy to get to, but damn! Now under maybe 60 feet of water behind the Dworshak Dam back up in the canyon where we fished. IIRC, the next upriver access was about 60 miles away.

We were working trail crew USFS in the St Joe, out of Calder Ranger District, and had a 4 day weekend (10 on, 4 off), and took a bus man's holiday.

Remember the Disney film, titled I think, Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar, with the cat on the big log decks? That was filmed at Bole's Cabins IIRC, which is where we started up into the back country. 3 of us in a VW beetle..... A tale in itself. . The film came out a couple years after we were there at Bole's. Or at least that's when I saw it and recognized the location.

At the end of the old logging road we followed, we then hiked down maybe 2K feet elevation down to the river. We were waaay back in.....

Dynamite Cutthroat fishing. The dang little steelhead smolt were a problem, taking our flies ( fished behind bubble bobbers, some times just wet - the fish didn't give a sh*itt) often before the Cuts could get to them. I don't recall any cast that did not catch a fish of some sort.

I hooked one smolt on my bumblebee fly, and had a big Cut make a pass at it on retrieval. So I cast it back out, behind this big boulder, smolt included, and after a good fight, landed a 22 inch Cut - the best of the trip of the three of us.

A couple years later I took a writing class at UAF, and used this trip as my subject, having first read through several articles in F&S, and Outdoor Life for style insight. The full-of-herself TA teaching the class (not the regular professor whom I wanted to take the class from) accused me of plagiarism or having someone else write the piece- I dunno which. I guess I was too good.... Well I dopped that bitch from my class schedule on leaving her office- I could tell we were not gonna get along! She had good tits, tho.

My assignment piece was titled "Green Water Cannibal". 50 years back, and I remember....

The next year I took the same class from a real writer...

You can thank the pivot sprinkler for the pheasant problem. The ditch rows and rocky brush piles in fields are gone so there's no cover. In the winter, all you see is bare ground now. With sprinklers, farmers can farm all the high spots and marginal areas that couldn't be reached by flood irrigation.

After the huge explosion and crash in jack rabbits in the early 70's, they've never come back. At the same time, they were creating the Birds of Prey program. Now the deserts are full of large hawks and I think they're keeping the rabbits in check.

Who is your broker????

There is a broker in Kamiah Idaho that has probably caught more fish and shot more Elk than most here..Ask him...He is the ultimate of Idaho realtors..

My answer,living right in the middle of the Salmon/South Fork of the Clearwater and the Middle fork...No..Just a bad year

Thanks for the responses guys. I didn't mean to impress that no steelhead fishing was going to break a deal, it won't. Looks like beautiful country with much to do there.

I really do appreciate all the insight fellas.

Probably didn't make his shooting any less accurate.....

You didn't mention your realtors company?????

A Kamiah grocer store bought out our local store where my son works and probably over 50% still live in Kamiah/Kooskie/Harpster and along the river with one manager commuting from Orofino daily..They all love to fish and hunt and most have lived here through generations..True locals/not transplants..

Beware of some realtors and there tales for a commission!..

Doesn't help that the predator (skunks, fox, coyotes, hawks, etc) populations is very high and that the F&G quit raising and stocking birds. I can't remember the last time I even saw a pheasant. Sad.