Got home from Orofino yesterday after 3 days of fishing but no catching. Nobody was really catching anything. We saw a couple of fish caught on the North Fork but not much else. I got my blood pumping one time at the pole yard when I saw my bobber go down and set the hook and felt a fish tug back. Thought for sure it was a steelie but as my luck usually goes it was a big sucker that inhaled my michael jackson jig! Still had a good time though getting out of town and hanging out with the wife.
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Thanks for the report. It happens to all of us....
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I started making the 3 &1/2 hour one way drive to the Orofino areas over 30 years. I think I caught less than 10 fish total the first 10 years.
I've come home blanked a ton of times and never failed to start planning the next return trip on the way home!
we'll just find an open seat for you in March!
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Thanks osprey. I will definitely keep in touch. I'm not sure when I will be able to head up there again but thanks for all the help you have offered. I'm glad I didn't take my boat this trip because the roads were horrible. Probably wouldn't have turned out real well. We barely made it over Lolo pass as it was. Maybe next time.
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For consolidation's sake, I'll piggyback and add my own Clearwater report to the thread.
My wife, my dad and I fished our little hearts out all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (and briefly on Thursday and Tuesday). Our grand total was hooked 3, landed 2. We fished bobbers with beads and jigs in the Logyard hole in Ahsahka. There was quite a few folks fishing Friday and Saturday. Friday we witnessed 4 fish hooked in the hole, another 4 fish hooked Saturday, 2 fish hooked Sunday, and another 2 fish hooked on Monday.
This was a solid contender for my worst trip to the Clearwater since I started fishing it in 1997, and needless to say that I am thoroughly disgusted. I am definately done fishing the Logyard hole in those kind of conditions. I don't know any other bank holes besides McGill and the old bridge at Peck, but I am going to have to find some.
Years ago I started noticing that the island below the NF/Mainstem confluence was growing upriver, and predicted that it would eventually connect to the point of Dworshak NFH. Well it looks like it is starting to come true. I could have wizzed more water than we had spilling over from the Mainstem and coming down that side of the island. In fact, we watched a jetboat half-heartedly try to shoot the gap between the island and the hatchery and high-center. They spent the rest of the day trying to get their boat out of that rock garden, and appeared to blow up their pumper in the process. Once they got out of it, they tried to use the kicker to putt up to the NF boat ramp and couldn't make it. They tied their boat up to the bank and had someone tow them out the next day. Definately felt bad for the poor guys - guess they had a worse trip than I did.
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Thanks GB. A negative report from you carries more weight than the average fisherman. I have not really heard a good report this year on B runs. The numbers look good overall at Lower Granite but they may be primarily A runs.
FR
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I have fishing friends who live up there, and friends who are guides on the river. At times the catching has been great and the only negative comments would be in relation to ratio of wild-to-hatchery fish. However, the low flows and clear waters have really taken it's toal on quite a bit of the run thus far making for alot of frustration and unpunched tags. The area could really use an extended period of significant rain to improve the situation and perhaps encourage fish still hanging in the pond to move upstream.
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Thanks Rocket. If my camp wasn't a short walk away from that hole, I certainly wouldn't be beating my head against the wall in there when I know better.
I did a little homework and it looks like the Clearwater should expect a run similar in size to last year - maybe with a very slightly higher percentage of A's than B's (compared to last year).
The good reports I have heard have been very few and very far between. I definately think Dean is on to something.
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I think you just have to hold your mouth right. My brother and I fished between Lewiston and Orofino the other and I got this pretty buck on the second cast:
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We thought it was going to be a killer night after getting one on the second cast, but it was pretty slow after that. I lost another one and that was all the bites we had. My buddy also happened to be fishing down in Lewiston and caught one that night too.
I still catch skunks on a lot of trips, but I figure you've got to smell the skunk to appreciate the good days right?
Tight lines!
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Dean is spot on with the low, clear water being a major factor with the fish not cooperating much. Couple that with boats running over the top of the fish and those giant colorful bobbers that everyone on the clearwater loves to use bombing the water and you have the makings for tough fishing. Under these conditions I prefer to stay away from anything that is big and bright that may easily spook an already weary steelhead. Try downsizing jigs to 1/16th ounce micro jigs or steelhead nymphs in dark colors paired with small non bright colored floats, dime sized clusters of eggs cured in a natural orange color, use 8lb maxima ultragreen for main line and a 6lb maxima ultragreen leader. If your using pencil lead weights and its new leave it outside in the elements so it can oxidze and get rid of that shiney sheen that could possibly scare a fish away. Fish very methodically covering the water in a grid pattern. If you can get away with it on the bank or possibly even out of a boat take a 9'6" spinning rod paired with light line such as 6-8lb maxima and tie on a #4 octupus hook with a nickle or dime sized glob of naturally cured eggs and fish it with no weight. Cast way up stream so by the time your in the "Zone" your bait has neared the bottom of the river and let it drift. This is an excellent low/clear water tactic.
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Are you having a good time or what . Your trip to Henry's and the North fork , and now the great Steelie . Keep it up I love your posts . Curt G.
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