Fishing Forum

Just wanted to say thanks for all the help! Landed my first chinook yesterday morning.

Fishing a few miles downstream from Orofino I was getting frustrated. I loved the hole I was in but had lost one spoon and one jig due to snags. Decided that the spoons I would wait to fish and tied on another jig. Started it 6 feet below my float but figured that was too deep. Dropped it back to 5 feet still thought I was bumping the bottom. Pulled out a straight purple jig and put it 4 feet below the float and money!

I think it was my 4th cast I had looked away from my float to try and figure out why my cell was ringing. Looked back up just in time to see the float dissapear. My heart jumped and I set the hook. Nothing, felt like a snag on the other end. Then all I hear is my reel drags go insane. He ran and got into a deep hole in the river, took me a while to get it out of there but I finally got it landed.

I didnt have a cameraman or a measuring tape but I laid my rod next to it and then measured my rod when I got home. It was right around 25". Here is my best solo camera shot, its real hard trying to get a pic without beaching the fish.
Guess I just dont want to beach them unless I am going to kill and eat um.

For another hour I fished the hole and watched quite a few other chinooks breach the water like whales. Pretty cool experience I think it took my heart 30 minutes to stop beating after let the fish go.

Now I just need to figure out the fastest and easiest way to land, remove the hook, and release these big fish. I dont have a net and I am waiting for my tailing glove to get here. This One I just got it up into the shallows rolled it on its side and removed the hook but that was easier said than done.


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Congrats on the first steelie! its the toughest one and it just gets better from there!
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Sweet!
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Way to go man. Congrats.

Are you positive it was a steelhead though? I don't know if it is just the pic, but it looks an awful lot like a salmon.
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Maybe it was? I thought it was a salmon at first sight because its jaw didn't look very trout like and its color wasn't very trout like (for being fall). I thought chinook at first but the coloring of its mouth didn't look like the chinook I have seen. And its back didn't have spots like the chinook I have seen. There were spots but they were smaller and not very dark. It did have large teeth on the end of its bottom jaw which screamed salmon but I haven't seen a steelhead close enough to know if they grew those teeth aswell.


Hopefully I can get this figured out so I don't run around saying stuff that ain't true haha. My gut said salmon but my eyeballs said steelie.

Either way it was a first for something, might just need to edit the thread a little bit.
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Way to go! You got your first fall chinook!
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Hmmmm... those white gums do not look very "Chinooky". Any other photos of the beast?
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But then again, has a few things that do not look too much like a steelie either...
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Perhaps a Chinhead or a Steelnook!?!? [:p]
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+1.

Looks like it might pink.

Idaho
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[left]Hahaha nope thats the only photo I could get. It was to hard to take a picture and keep the fish docile.

The white gums (on upper jaw) are the reason I didnt think it was a chinook. I am trying to remember the lower jaw, I had the fish on its back to remove the hook from the roof of its mouth so I dont remember the lower jaw all that much.

I thought Coho, after seeing one when I was way younger up in Alaska. But I have not heard anything about Coho in Idaho, I know they used to be here and last I heard they were being reintroduced but I havent really heard much about them. After a little googling it sounds like coho would be redish this time of year? No red on this fish.

Basing off what I have been told coho like to run and Chinook like to dive. This one for sure dove. It swam upstream 10 yards into a deep hole then dove. As soon as my float came back to the surface it went back down into the hole.

I really need to work on my fish ID but it seems I always find one exception that always tricks me. Had a few cutts trick me this summer, everything about them looked like a brown trout, they had very little to no red and their dots were massive.... [unimpressed]




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Definitely looks like a Chinook to me. If you are interested in fishing other spots on the Clearwater for those guys there is a great spot at Mrytle beach (about 10 miles upriver from Lewiston) where we hooked 12 of them in one morning just last week.
Congrats!
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Thanks all! Finally got midterms out of the way (except next week I have ANOTHER round of tests coming.)[frown]


A friend of mines dad is taking us out on his boat this weekend. Not really sure where well be fishing, because I am pretty sure he has a jet boat, but we shall see when the time comes.

Anyone know about when the chinooks are going to start spawning? Guys at CC&H said that as soon as they start the trout beads will start gaining popularity. I figure ill still float my jigs but I do want to give beads a try now while the weather is nice. Get a feel for how to fish them.
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It sure looks like a coho to me. Thanks to the Nez Perce, they have returned!! Flyfisher is right. Chinook haven't got any white in their mouth...thus the name blackmouth used on the coast for resident kings. If it fought like an insane fish, it definitely was a coho! Anyway, nice fish. Mike
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With that white in it's mouth, I'd say it's a coho or silver as well. Even with every other marking screaming king or chinook you can get a ticket on the coast with any white in the mouth.
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I was surprised not to have them staged up in their spawning beds when we went two weeks ago. They are usually getting ready by then. I would expect that has begun by now. Like I said, if I was targeting Chinook on the Clearwater I would start with Myrtle. When we were there the fish were holding right about 30 ft (the hole is about 40 ft). There were also plenty above the hole where it gets shallow (~6 feet) and there was an angler that picked one up on a spoon. We were fishing shrimp under a bobber and that was working great (hooked 12). If they are getting ready to spawn, they will hold just below the deep portion of the hole just above the rapids below the hole. It is only a few feet in that section and you can see them holding there.
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Spent a little while on the internet today. Browsed through some youtube videos, found the one about the Nez Perce and the Coho's reintroduction, and watched some fishing videos of people catching various kinds and I now do believe it was Coho.

I was told that by now they should have began spawning but I was seeing salmon breach the surface and none seemed to be red. Mine didnt have a lick of red. I didnt see any red anywhere. And when I was down there they seemed to be feeding on stuff that was on the surface of the water.

Hopefully we can hook into something this weekend!
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That isn't a coho............ I'd bet money on it...........
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[quote STEELHEADKID]That isn't a coho............ I'd bet money on it...........[/quote]

From a guy that worked with guides on the Clearwater, Snake, and in Alaska, I would take his word on this...

I have seen many chinooks that have white in their mouths once they hit their natal areas. The cohos in the Clearwater are greener. Just sayin'...
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[indent]All that being said, nice salmon. Honestly, congrats on a great first!

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