Steelhead fishing in the Clearwater Region was challenging this week with angler effort dropping some this week in comparison to the past several weeks. River conditions were less than ideal this week with cloudy conditions in much of the Clearwater and Snake and the rain didn’t not help either. Effort was down but not all of the anglers were deterred as anglers fished the Clearwater River from the Mouth to Orofino Bridge with the majority of effort located down river of Pink House access site.
The Salmon River had the greatest amount of effort throughout the section stretching from the little Salmon River to Vinegar Creek. The Salmon River had cloudy river conditions to contend with and as of Sunday conditions had achieved a point where there were only a hand full of anglers.
Despite the weather and river conditions anglers did get out on the water and attempted to harvest with the Clearwater having the greatest number of fish caught and released with 5 hours per fish caught on the mainstem and 4 hours per fish caught on the North Fork. Check Harvest Report for more details. - Ryan Allen, Fisheries Technician 2, Clearwater Region