03-20-2013, 04:24 PM
3/18-3/19 Northfork Salmon River
A couple friends and I spent 2 days fishing for Steelhead on the North Fork. We picked up a few fish in the narrows. On 3/18 we landed a 22" native hen, a 24" hatchery hen and a beast native hen that was 35" with a lot of girth. On 3/19 the hole was HOT for the 1st 2 hours. 6 guys in 2 hours landed about 14 fish. After the morning as the sun came out the bite shut down and we didn't touch another fish.
We did watch a guy make an amazing catch on a 30" hatchery buck. He hooked it and fought a good battle until it was 10' from the bank and then it did a death run straight into the heavy current down stream and under a big boulder. The boulder was on the edge of a pretty good rapid and so the fish ran down the rapid and the poor guy had to follow it down river. It was almost like that scene from "A river runs through it" except this guy was not getting in that river!!! We all just stood there on the bank and watched the battle unfold. It was awesome!! He fought that fish for close to 30 minutes before he landed it.
One of the guys just moved to Idaho a year ago and had never been steelhead fishing. After the 1st day he he said steelhead fishing was like hunting unicorns. We all laughed pretty good until the 2nd day he managed to land his first fish. As soon as he got it to the bank he said, "Well I just tagged my first unicorn."
All in all it was a great trip. As a tip, if you are gonna go and need a place to stay, the lodge at the North Fork store was incredible!!!!!! 3 guys split the room for $86 and that included dinner and breakfast for the 3 of us. The beds were memory foam mattresses the rooms were clean, the shower was hot! I couldn't have asked for a better stay.
Here is a pic of my biggest fish of the trip and my largest steelhead so far. A 29" hatchery hen is not a monster, but I tend to have bad luck steelhead fishing so I was pretty proud.
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A couple friends and I spent 2 days fishing for Steelhead on the North Fork. We picked up a few fish in the narrows. On 3/18 we landed a 22" native hen, a 24" hatchery hen and a beast native hen that was 35" with a lot of girth. On 3/19 the hole was HOT for the 1st 2 hours. 6 guys in 2 hours landed about 14 fish. After the morning as the sun came out the bite shut down and we didn't touch another fish.
We did watch a guy make an amazing catch on a 30" hatchery buck. He hooked it and fought a good battle until it was 10' from the bank and then it did a death run straight into the heavy current down stream and under a big boulder. The boulder was on the edge of a pretty good rapid and so the fish ran down the rapid and the poor guy had to follow it down river. It was almost like that scene from "A river runs through it" except this guy was not getting in that river!!! We all just stood there on the bank and watched the battle unfold. It was awesome!! He fought that fish for close to 30 minutes before he landed it.
One of the guys just moved to Idaho a year ago and had never been steelhead fishing. After the 1st day he he said steelhead fishing was like hunting unicorns. We all laughed pretty good until the 2nd day he managed to land his first fish. As soon as he got it to the bank he said, "Well I just tagged my first unicorn."
All in all it was a great trip. As a tip, if you are gonna go and need a place to stay, the lodge at the North Fork store was incredible!!!!!! 3 guys split the room for $86 and that included dinner and breakfast for the 3 of us. The beds were memory foam mattresses the rooms were clean, the shower was hot! I couldn't have asked for a better stay.
Here is a pic of my biggest fish of the trip and my largest steelhead so far. A 29" hatchery hen is not a monster, but I tend to have bad luck steelhead fishing so I was pretty proud.
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]. Sounds like you had a memorable trip. And I agree staying at North Fork is the way to go, much better than a tent.
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