04-30-2014, 03:37 PM
I can second (third, fourth, whatever) just about everything that has been said here.
Trying to fly fish for Salmon in Riggins is definitely trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Nevertheless, I have seen fish landed on a fly pole on the Little Salmon. . . . more than once.
I know I have told this story before, but back when we could still camp at the Bluff Hole on the Little Salmon, I used to set my tent in the same spot every year. I lot of times I would drive all night to get there, so a 1PM nap was standard issue. Back then, you could also cross (what used to be) the swinging bridge and hike up the opposite side of the river.
Well this one particular dude who obviously fancied himself as a fly fisher (he had a snazzy hat and a vest to prove it) used to hike up there and fish across the river from my tent with his fly pole. Almost without fail, I would wake up from my nap and see him over there, and rattle off a bundle of sarcastic comments to my wife about why he was over there slamming his head against a brick wall trying to catch a fish that way when everyone else was lugging around baitcasters and dead salmon.
Welp, I don't know if it was because he was some kind of fly pole wizard, or the karma from my smack talking, or a combo of the two, but over the years I did see him hook and land a handful of salmon. It wasn't til about the second or third year that I realized it was the same dude, lol!
Now I haven't ever casted a fly pole myself, but I have seen A River Runs Through It probably 35-40 times, and I can tell you that what he was doing really wasn't what I consider fly-fishing. I spent a fair bit of time watching the guy, and to me, it appeared to be a combination of drift fishing and bobber fishing, by way of a fly pole. Now, this was the subject of much of my teasing, but by heck, it worked.
Well, if that crazy lunatic that is holed up on the other side of the swinging bridge wasn't trying to amass the largest collection of bad karma that had ever been garnered this side of the Milky Way, by trying to single-handedly shut down salmon fishing on the entire Little Salmon River, I would send you over there in a jiffy. But since he's still over there making the O'Doyle family look like a bunch of sweethearts, I would say you should take your fly pole to the South Fork of the Clearwater River.
There should definitely be fish in there by then, and I know there are a handful of members here that catch steelhead over there with fly poles pretty regular. It's a lot lower water then, but based on what I have seen, if you can put some kind of little bobber thingy on your line, and get a sinker dragging on the bottom of the river, you should have a real legitimate shot!
Good luck my friend!
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Trying to fly fish for Salmon in Riggins is definitely trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Nevertheless, I have seen fish landed on a fly pole on the Little Salmon. . . . more than once.
I know I have told this story before, but back when we could still camp at the Bluff Hole on the Little Salmon, I used to set my tent in the same spot every year. I lot of times I would drive all night to get there, so a 1PM nap was standard issue. Back then, you could also cross (what used to be) the swinging bridge and hike up the opposite side of the river.
Well this one particular dude who obviously fancied himself as a fly fisher (he had a snazzy hat and a vest to prove it) used to hike up there and fish across the river from my tent with his fly pole. Almost without fail, I would wake up from my nap and see him over there, and rattle off a bundle of sarcastic comments to my wife about why he was over there slamming his head against a brick wall trying to catch a fish that way when everyone else was lugging around baitcasters and dead salmon.
Welp, I don't know if it was because he was some kind of fly pole wizard, or the karma from my smack talking, or a combo of the two, but over the years I did see him hook and land a handful of salmon. It wasn't til about the second or third year that I realized it was the same dude, lol!
Now I haven't ever casted a fly pole myself, but I have seen A River Runs Through It probably 35-40 times, and I can tell you that what he was doing really wasn't what I consider fly-fishing. I spent a fair bit of time watching the guy, and to me, it appeared to be a combination of drift fishing and bobber fishing, by way of a fly pole. Now, this was the subject of much of my teasing, but by heck, it worked.
Well, if that crazy lunatic that is holed up on the other side of the swinging bridge wasn't trying to amass the largest collection of bad karma that had ever been garnered this side of the Milky Way, by trying to single-handedly shut down salmon fishing on the entire Little Salmon River, I would send you over there in a jiffy. But since he's still over there making the O'Doyle family look like a bunch of sweethearts, I would say you should take your fly pole to the South Fork of the Clearwater River.
There should definitely be fish in there by then, and I know there are a handful of members here that catch steelhead over there with fly poles pretty regular. It's a lot lower water then, but based on what I have seen, if you can put some kind of little bobber thingy on your line, and get a sinker dragging on the bottom of the river, you should have a real legitimate shot!
Good luck my friend!
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