03-10-2009, 06:42 PM
Im going to make this brief and let the photos do the talking. So pardon the spelling/grammer.
Left SLC on friday at 4pm got to boise at 8:30 watched the jazz game and spent the night at dads gfs house. Took off LATE saturday morning slept in [crazy] oops. Got off by 6:30. On the way to Orofino we saw a lot of people fishing on a river and having no idea what it was we decided to fish it. Fished a hole where there was nobody for about an hour no luck. Decided to go up to one of the packed holes(later found out it was "mailbox") to see what was going on, and if anyone was catching em. On the way up the muddy bank an experienced steelhead fisherman saw us and gave us some good advice with our gear and had us follow him upstream to a deeper hole(mailbox) he dropped us there and went further up river. While fishing in this hole my wife caught the first fish on a jig. Picture 1. Man she was excited and her arms were burning so bad as she tried to reel this thing in after a 10 min fight bingo! Landed it 33" about 12lbs on the scale(youll notice a trend here). I didnt catch a fish all day. And this was the only fish of the day. I was really feeling the pressure because we didnt see many people catching fish, and I didnt want to have to admit she had caught the only fish of the trip.
Fishing day 2
Fished almost all day on the south fork again as we really didnt see many people on the main river or the middle fork or the north fork. They seemed to be stacked on the South fork.
We fished the middle section of mailbox again and I finally hooked up to a fish on a bag of roe I had tied. Landed it, this one went 32" on the nose 12lbs again(sound framiliar?) We fished here most of the day and then ran upstream just below a town I cant remember the name of and fished in a hole next to a whole bunch of other people. I walked up threw out my bag of roe and caught a fish on my first cast. 31" 12pnds on the scale. I guess they hadnt caught anything from the hole until I got there but one gentlemen did catch a big male that probably went 18pounds hatchery and left with his fish shortly after.
Day three fishing.
Drove down from Orofino again(should have stayed closer but there wasnt any way to know where we were gonna fish) to fish mailbox. Got there early enough that the icebergs were still in the river. I decided I was going to catch fish on a jig today and put the roe away. Fished for a little while and BAMB caught my biggest fish of the trip. We didnt measure this fish or really weigh(it was shaking when I weighed it by myself and then we cleaned it shortly after) but it sure looks like the biggest fish. we caught. There was only a few other people there this early. Nobody else had caught a fish. And about an hour later I hooked up to the trips smallest fish a male again it wasnt measure but this one was released. Im guessing 26-28 and thin. We left mailbox and ran up to the whole below the city we had fished the night before. I was fishing at the head of the hole and my wife at the bottom and about 5 people between us when she yelled out she had a fish. I ran down and she had the thing like 3 feet from shore already and it was BIG! At least as big as the guy from the night before 17-20pounds somewhere in that range. After a 2 min fight it got down into some rocks though and DING popped off. She was beyond
about it. And I was too. When we pulled up the line her knot had actualy broken in half. Poor girl. About 20 min later we headed home for good.
All in all it was the single most fun fishing trip I have EVER had. Learned a lot of things. One was that even though I was new to steelhead fishing. I caught more fish durring my time there then I saw caught by almost EVERYONE else combined. No, I dont think Im a better steelhead fisherman than anyone else after 1 trip. But what I do know is that I also lost 10-1 jigs to anyone else I saw. I just figured my bait had to be on the bottom of whatever hole I was fishing. And I guess that worked to my advantage on this trip. Beautiful area. Deer, Elk, Bald Eagles, Wild Turkeys, Big fish and big water. All in all for a trip for 2 we kept the whole thing with gas, lodging, rental car, tackle and food to under $300 for 3 days of fishing, cant beat that.
P.S.
I dont have the time nor the patience to resize my picture and they come from a 10mp camera so beware.
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Left SLC on friday at 4pm got to boise at 8:30 watched the jazz game and spent the night at dads gfs house. Took off LATE saturday morning slept in [crazy] oops. Got off by 6:30. On the way to Orofino we saw a lot of people fishing on a river and having no idea what it was we decided to fish it. Fished a hole where there was nobody for about an hour no luck. Decided to go up to one of the packed holes(later found out it was "mailbox") to see what was going on, and if anyone was catching em. On the way up the muddy bank an experienced steelhead fisherman saw us and gave us some good advice with our gear and had us follow him upstream to a deeper hole(mailbox) he dropped us there and went further up river. While fishing in this hole my wife caught the first fish on a jig. Picture 1. Man she was excited and her arms were burning so bad as she tried to reel this thing in after a 10 min fight bingo! Landed it 33" about 12lbs on the scale(youll notice a trend here). I didnt catch a fish all day. And this was the only fish of the day. I was really feeling the pressure because we didnt see many people catching fish, and I didnt want to have to admit she had caught the only fish of the trip.
Fishing day 2
Fished almost all day on the south fork again as we really didnt see many people on the main river or the middle fork or the north fork. They seemed to be stacked on the South fork.
We fished the middle section of mailbox again and I finally hooked up to a fish on a bag of roe I had tied. Landed it, this one went 32" on the nose 12lbs again(sound framiliar?) We fished here most of the day and then ran upstream just below a town I cant remember the name of and fished in a hole next to a whole bunch of other people. I walked up threw out my bag of roe and caught a fish on my first cast. 31" 12pnds on the scale. I guess they hadnt caught anything from the hole until I got there but one gentlemen did catch a big male that probably went 18pounds hatchery and left with his fish shortly after.
Day three fishing.
Drove down from Orofino again(should have stayed closer but there wasnt any way to know where we were gonna fish) to fish mailbox. Got there early enough that the icebergs were still in the river. I decided I was going to catch fish on a jig today and put the roe away. Fished for a little while and BAMB caught my biggest fish of the trip. We didnt measure this fish or really weigh(it was shaking when I weighed it by myself and then we cleaned it shortly after) but it sure looks like the biggest fish. we caught. There was only a few other people there this early. Nobody else had caught a fish. And about an hour later I hooked up to the trips smallest fish a male again it wasnt measure but this one was released. Im guessing 26-28 and thin. We left mailbox and ran up to the whole below the city we had fished the night before. I was fishing at the head of the hole and my wife at the bottom and about 5 people between us when she yelled out she had a fish. I ran down and she had the thing like 3 feet from shore already and it was BIG! At least as big as the guy from the night before 17-20pounds somewhere in that range. After a 2 min fight it got down into some rocks though and DING popped off. She was beyond
about it. And I was too. When we pulled up the line her knot had actualy broken in half. Poor girl. About 20 min later we headed home for good.All in all it was the single most fun fishing trip I have EVER had. Learned a lot of things. One was that even though I was new to steelhead fishing. I caught more fish durring my time there then I saw caught by almost EVERYONE else combined. No, I dont think Im a better steelhead fisherman than anyone else after 1 trip. But what I do know is that I also lost 10-1 jigs to anyone else I saw. I just figured my bait had to be on the bottom of whatever hole I was fishing. And I guess that worked to my advantage on this trip. Beautiful area. Deer, Elk, Bald Eagles, Wild Turkeys, Big fish and big water. All in all for a trip for 2 we kept the whole thing with gas, lodging, rental car, tackle and food to under $300 for 3 days of fishing, cant beat that.
P.S.
I dont have the time nor the patience to resize my picture and they come from a 10mp camera so beware.
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And got another rental car. LOL Will be up there from sunday-tues wohoo. LOLOLOLOL