Steelhead fishing remains good on the mainstem Clearwater River below Orofino (Section 3) with catch rates still below 10 hrs/fish. Catch rates in the North Fork Clearwater River (Section 5) were excellent at 5 hrs/fish.
This past week most of the angling effort was from the Lenore boat ramp to Orofino. Most boat anglers were fishing around the pole yard and Magill hole on river section 03. There are some boat anglers that are fishing by the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery but ice prevents people from going any further by boat. Ice continues to make it difficult to fish in river section 04 upstream of Orofino. IDFG creel personnel did not document any anglers in this section. Portions of the river in this section remained ice covered and up to 5ft of snow and ice along some sections. Water temperatures have started to increase slightly with the milder air temperatures and rain. So hopefully the areas above Orofino will be fishable soon. by Jaime Robertson - Fisheries Technician 2