Just wondering if anyone has been brave enough to go to Salmon chasing steelhead lately? More specifically up by shoup. I know it's early, but i've got the steelhead bug....bad. I've heard about the avalanches and the ice flowing down the river, just wondering if anyone has given it a try and if they've done very well.
[signature]
its not early its starting to get that time of year from now until april if i was still in south east idaho thats where you would find me from now until then.
[signature]
Is the Deadwater still iced up?
[signature]
If someone hears when Dead Water breaks free, please share.
Thanks...
[signature]
Dead water was iced up last weekend, I know that needs to break up before the fish really start moving.
[signature]
I drove from Challis to Salmon Saturday and today. Saturday I saw a guy in a toon parked in a bend of the river above Elk Bend. I waved. I came back by 5 hours later, and he was still there, feet still dangling in that cold water. There were a few people fishing from Ellis to Salmon. Today there were a few more. Pretty soon it will be early morning traffic jam time at Ellis again, and I will have to keep a sharp eye for people walking into the highway in the dark without even looking, or people popping up over the bank onto the road, rod tip first. I'd hate to run over a nice rod tip.
[signature]
im sure its still iced up but those fish bellow shoup are holding in holes you can get on them and stay on a hole all day down there. they get stuck there waiting for dead water to blow out.
[signature]
My brother in law and i took a trip friday through saturday. Deadwater is still major iced up. we couldnot see the river from Deadwater up for maybe twelve miles. We fished ebineezer, the grandpa, x rock and a few other holes. my brother in law hooked up twice but we spent most of the day fighting the shelf ice, slush, and ice bergs floating down the river. on every cast you would only have at the most 8 to ten seconds before the ice or slush would hit blow you out. there were several places where the river was conpletely frozen over in the canyon. enough to were there were tracks of deer or sheep crossing the river. dutch oven was realy icy.
we then went to salmon and fished around the lemhi. we fished for a few hours and saw 2 fish caught but both were foul hooked. not very much ice floating above deadwater. if i was to go this next week as in 3 days i would most likely fish around salmon...... well maybe i would go down the canyon...just love it down there. happy fishing
[signature]
Austin -
If you are thinking of going fairly soon I'm sure Danny and I wouldn't mind throwing in on some gas/food for the trip. I'm itching to fish for some big steelhead as well!
Josh
[signature]
I'll be going this weekend most definitely. The river has looked pretty good around salmon this week. Should be about the same below Dead Water. I have heard of fish being caught around Ellis last weekend and this week. Not sure which way i am going to go. May hit the canyon Saturday and then over to Ellis Sunday. Not sure if the wife will approve yet, but I will definitely be going one day this weekend. I'll let you all know when I have more news.
[signature]
Caught somewhere near Ellis two weeks ago...
Don't tell anyone![cool]
[signature]
Good looking hen right there. bet she is gonna eat nice looks to be a fairly fresh fish.
[signature]
Thought you would find this picture interesting- my fish was nice and lovely, but my hubby's fish is a dark male!
I'm afraid that I let her go, because honestly, my freezer is chock full of kokanee from Mackay- Ice fishing has been good. I'm thinking that the next steelhead is going to have to come home for a grill night, though!
[signature]
nice fish also. really not that dark though im sure the picture doesnt do any justice for his colors. i love that stretch of the salmon this time of year.
[signature]
these are not recent but from last earlier spring late winter run both caught around Ebeneezer <---? not sure on the spelling.. these where the bigger ones caught by my wife and friend matt...
[signature]
[quote chrome_junky]Good looking hen right there. bet she is gonna eat nice looks to be a fairly fresh fish.[/quote]
There's nothing "fresh" this time of year........ They're all summer run steelhead. Hens just look better because they don't color up the same as the bucks.
[signature]
Fished around Ellis yesterday and didn't do so well. 3 suckers and nothing more. The wind picked up and chased us off the river. We went out again today and stayed closer to home and hit a few holes between Salmon and Carmen and landed 5. 3 natives and 2 keepers. Biggest was 32 inches and about 12 lbs. Not a bad day fishing today. With the warmer weather today the river did start to cloud up pretty good. It is still fishable though.
[signature]
Took a trip up the canyon past shoup on Sat. Deadwater is still very much frozen over, lots of other places are starting to break up though, I think deadwater will start to break up in about 2 weeks depending on the weather. Ended up fishing by rams head, saw about 5 or 6 fish caught. We couldn't touch a fish though, which doesn't go over well for me, I guess a humbling once in a while is ok. The fish are in the river, but not really moving. I'm gonna wait a few more weeks before my next trip....maybe.
By the way, the leftovers from the avalanches are pretty awesome! About 25 feet tall in some places. Kinda worried about when it starts to melt and slump over the road.
[signature]