made me happy as can be to see this!!!!!! we have a chinook season this year. soon i will be watching the fish camera at the damn non stop. here is the link to the fish and game page stating the days and where.
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/releas...ewsID=5822
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good to see you junkey missed you posts from way up north
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i know i feel bad for my lack of detailed reports this last year. two reasons i havnt posted much 1. the new job and move have left me with little time to fish and moderate the boards (why i am great full there are other moderators.) let alone type up reports 2. my steelhead season has been pretty lack luster ive only landed 8 fish 4 were wild 4 were hatchery none were that big my biggest being about 13 lbs. although i did hook up with some bigger fish on a few occasions but no big b-runs for this guy this year. the best i can say is that i truly was humbled by the steelhead fishing up here. trying to explore the new rivers took up some time also. i am going to be better at typing up reports for you guys.[
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Really stoked to finally here about the salmon season. Went up there last year by riggins and smoked them way early May 7-9. lol 5 guys 52 fish[cool] Sounds like not really that many fish coming back but they never really know until they get here. The jack counts seem to be not a really reliable way to tell how many fish are coming back. Guys dont forget about the Fall salmon either. Suppose to be the best run since 1948. Expecting almost 400,000 to enter the snake this year so springers might not be that good but they should be a somewhat liberal season on the fall salmon.. Well i will be postin updates on the salmon all the way until i go. Steelhead fishing has been a real buster this year. only landed 8 in 4 trips think it might be over for me this year if the weather clears up.
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i did well in riggins in july. crazy the fish are in there that long.
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I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there are still a bunch of springers milling around in the big blue otherwise our Idaho season looks dismal..... Fall chinook is looking good but by the time they get to Idaho for the most part their table quality is poor. However they will gobble eggs every stinking pass on the snake!
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I've never fished for salmon in Idaho. I moved from Washington an use to catch them out of Puget Sound. All the salmon I've ever caught have been fresh from the salt water and chrome-bright.
I know their flesh starts to deteriorate when they move into the rivers. How are they as far as eating quality goes when they get up this far? A friend showed me some photos of the salmon he's caught, and they all looked two seconds away from spawned out carcasses.
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The springers may look dark but the meat is great. Even the fish from the SF on the last day were in good shape. Yummy
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i hope to make it up this year and catch some, didnt catch any last year so i seek revenge
oh way your addicted to that fish camera man, just kiddin lol[
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Latest Ive caught fish in idaho is July. They were ok. The fish im catching in May are by far the better quality fish. Really bright and red meat. Im headed up in a month I think. Yeah if the prediction compared to the actual return is the same as the last couple of years then we might not have a season. Thats why im headed up there as soon as I think there are fish there so that I might get ahold of a few of them before they close the season. Will be posting when I leave and head up there. Anyone is invited. Show you guys how to catch fish and drink beer, I dont do the non stop casting thing at least not for salmon much easier ways to catch em'. [
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If you get after them in early may through july they are bomb.com as far as table quality IMHO. Sure they aren't ocean bright but I think they burn off just the right amount of fat by the time they get to Idaho. I've never fished them around the upper salmon so I'm not sure what the meat quality is like up there but from the pics I've seen the fish look pretty snakey........ Heres a pic of an opening day springer from the clearwater from a few years ago! As you can see its as close to chrome bright as they get in Idaho. Don't worry the fish was out of the water less than 30 seconds as per boat rules for the old grip and grin.........
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What is the average size of the Chinook on the Salmon river?
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Similar to this one from the clearwater. I'd say they average 10-12 lbs with fish up to 30 lbs very possible.
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do you ever hit any jacks in the clearwater steelheadkid?
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Oh yea! I think it was two seasons ago both the Clearwater and Salmon were chock full of them!
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i think the jacks eat awesome. well they all eat awesome if you get them early enough. but im with you im hoping there are more fish in the big water cause its looking slim right now.
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Steelheadkid,
2008 and 2009 the clearwater was full of them jacks. In 2007 I hooked a fish up there that I fought for just over a hour and never could get him in. He peeled off 200 yds of 30lb test and I never had a chance. If you know where Thunderbird is you probably seen us parked there. Since 2009 decided to move and fish on the salmon since you can keep more fish plus people found out how we fished and kinda took over my clearwater spot.
Last year on the salmon put a lot of fish on the bank upper teens. Always have a lot of fish around 8-12lbs.
This is a pic of a nice fish caught on the clearwater in 2009.
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They taste nothing like what you are used to catching out of the Sound. They taste like they look. Nasty!
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If you catch them early there isnt much of a difference between catching them below bonn. dam and catching up here on the salmon river. Ive lived in alaska and caught fish up there out of the Kenia that didnt look any different than the ones out of idaho. Now when they get to the upper river yes they get snakey and lose a lot of color thats when you smoke the be jesus out of them and they will eat.
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Glad to see we have a season this year but it looks like its going to be a late run. As of today only 788 springers have crossed over Bonneville dam. From what i've been reading usually by this time of the year there's 3000+ I was planning a trip down to the columbia this weekend but i'm going to hold off till more fish come upriver. I'm hoping the clearwater will remain open long enough to see decent numbers of fish in the system.
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