Hi I will be headed up for my annual trip in a few weeks to the So Fork of the Clearwater. I was just wondering what your thoughts are this year on the water and fish? What is your favorite technique to fish. I have only fly fished and really don't know enough about other methods other then most catch more then I. I was also wondering about the little Salmon. I drive past it and know they fish it but how dose it fish compared to the So Fork. I thank you in advance for any thought and opinions where as I am not in the area and makes it kind of hard to have any insight.
I am thinking high water this year am I wrong? And fewer fish?
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I just got back from the So. Fork and had a good time. It was actually my first time fishing the river and it produced some great fish for my family and I. From what I have seen most people tend to fish under a float or with a peg bead set up under an indicator. Water is the key and we hit it while it was still fairly low in the Harpster area. If the water is higher which it will be after this rain they are said to get I'd try and time it for when the water is on the decline since it will be clearing. We used a couple of methods. We started with yarn and a small bit of shrimp in a couple runs near Harpster and the fish like that in the faster runs that we fished. I'm not a slow hole kind of guy and we fished a lot of holes that don't give the fish much time to decide whether or not to take the bait. We fished exclusively in tailouts. More casts and more chances of fooling a fish into a strike in faster water. We also put the drift rods down and fished beads under an indicator and did well using that method. Again with the fly rods we fished faster holes than the majority of people in those stretches. The fish were big, and fought well. I don't know how this run has been compared to others or the best week to catch the peak of the run but it was a great experience.
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Sound like you hit it just right Steelly30 you caught fish that is what counts. Thanks for the info
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Fishing is probably over for a couple weeks on the South Fork with Flows forcast over 4000 cfs for the next 5 days.
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Agreed. It skyrocketed last night with rain in the forecast daily. Might be late March until you get a break. Now hopefully the Salmon can stay in shape...
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Go figure Hopefully the water will drop. I am not sure what 4000 cfs is or the impact. But it don't sound good. I will be going up the 22nd. I am getting pumped.
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