Gents,
I'm wondering what the fishing is like along lower Panther Creek and up and down the Salmon River from the mouth of Panther Creek. I'm pondering adding a couple or three days to a trip to nearby parts of ID and MT in mid-July 2011 and it looks like a nice loop drive from Challis over Morgan Summit, down Panther Creek, and east up the Salmon to North Fork. I'm interested in what the water is like and what the wading access is like, and of course how the fishing is. I assume cuts and rainbows at that time of year. What about brookies?
Any inputs appreciated.
W Fox 43
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I've been up that way a few times. Fished panther creek before and caught a few (brookies and rainbows or cutts, I cant remember), nothin special though, but the water was really high when I was there. I dont know if you can get a vehicle up there right now, especially up through the mountains and down to shoup, even if you can the stream may be frozen. In my opinion, if you're anywhere near the salmon river right now (and for the next 4 months) and want to do some fishing, go steelheading and save the fun creek fishing for summer. As for the salmon river, I wouldn't know, the only time I'm on that river is for steelhead and salmon, but my friend did catch a 3 pound rainbow (not a steelhead!) when we were steelhead fishing last year [
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SF Austin,
Thanks for the reply. You might have missed the season I'm asking about: I'm pondering a trip to that part of Idaho in the last two weeks of July 2011. I'd be accessing either from Salmon via North Fork past Shoup then across the bridge and up Panther Cr Road (FS 055?) from there, or possibly up Morgan Creek from Challis, then over its divide summit and down Panther Creek all the way from its headwaters at that divide.
So it's a summertime question, and I'm interested in wading access and the possibility of some cutts, rainbows, and brookies as the wife and I and another couple explore the Panther Creek basin and some of its tributaries, and possibly the Salmon River itself between US 93 and the mouth of Panther Creek. We'd fish the river all the way downstream to Corn Creek (end of the road) if access was good and July fishing can be good on the river itself.
WFox43
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Mainly Brookies and Rainbows, there will also be Salmon in Panther Creek in July but you can't target them. Beautiful drive with pleanty of access. Trust me, make the trip.[
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+1 awsome trip with our without the fishing. its one to make.
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I fished it way back in the '90s in the summer quite a few times. Beautiful area but the fish were small. It was wadeable but so far this year we are getting above average snowfall in the mountains. If this keeps up, I would think it may be running high even in July. I love the area and need to get back up there. My in-laws lived in Salmon and since they passed away, I haven't been back up there.
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Oops! My bad on not catching the season!! Yeah, July is a fun time to be up there, it's really beautiful and a fun fishing trip too. It's true that the salmon will be in and around panther creek, which might be fun to watch but dont even think about trying to catch one in there (big ticket). As far as the Salmon river is concerned, read the regs on what's open and whats not becuase the chinooks are going to be in the river then and they have a pretty tight grip on the sections they allow people to fish. Have fun up in panther creek, it's beautiful spot in Idaho.
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