03-16-2009, 06:05 PM
A group of us headed up to Salmon this weekend. Friday two of us hit the river flyfishing around tower rock and downstream to North Fork. My buddy caught a 14" rainbow and hooked into something that peeled line pretty quick before throwing the hook.
Saturday the whole group of 5 of us were up there and started out at Tower Rock either fly fishing or bottom bouncing. No hits there, but the geese were beating the crap out of each other. We did see 2 bald eagles flying the river about 50 feet up. After a bit 3 of us headed down to the Lemhi hole and joined the crowd there until 2pm. I landed 4 suckers and hooked into something that I like to tell myself was a steelhead, but was probably another sucker. I also landed a decent bull trout, snapped a pic and released it. We did see 3 steelhead landed there and heard of a 4th just before we arrived. After lunch the whole group headed down river to fish the canyon near dutchoven since the best reports we heard were from that area. On the way there we saw a bachelor group of big horn sheep on the other side sparring and grazing. Managed to get a few decent pics using the super high end zoom lens on my point and shoot (AKA 10x42 Nikon binocs). After about 45 minutes fishing I hooked into and landed a decent wild steelhead. I didn't get a pic since I was trying to keep it in the water until the minute of the picture and it squirmed and took off. About 20 minutes later though I hooked into a smaller one that I landed and wacked (pic included) Over the next 2 hours I hooked into 4 that were on just momentarily to up to 20 seconds before throwing the hook. One of the other guys hooked into 2 that both threw the hook. It was his first time steelheading so he was pretty stoked just to hook into one long enough to see what it's like. BTW, all were hit while bouncing shrimp.
Sunday there was only 2 of us left. We started out in the hole that did well Saturday evening. After 2 hours a group of guys set up just up from us and after 20 minutes hooked and landed a hatchery fish on a brown helgie. We tried to tell them it was bad form to set up 30 feet away and catch fish right in front of us like that, they just laughed[
]. At least it showed us they were still in there. After lunch we packed it up and headed back to town and fished the Lemhi hole again. One guy we talked to said he had caught 4 that morning. Another guy showed up a while later and said he had caught five, then proceeded to catch another one. Probably just to torment us. D/t the wind we set up drift bobbers, something I knew the concept of, but never tried. Using purple jigs we were casting from 5-40 feet from shore. My buddy got a hit but had too much slack d/t the wind. Later he landed a sucker that we took a quick pic of then released. I hooked into a steelhead, got it about 6 feet from shore when it threw the hook at me, practically beaning me in the head. As the wind died we tried bouncing shrimp, worms, helgies, and jigs with no effect. Maybe next time!
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Saturday the whole group of 5 of us were up there and started out at Tower Rock either fly fishing or bottom bouncing. No hits there, but the geese were beating the crap out of each other. We did see 2 bald eagles flying the river about 50 feet up. After a bit 3 of us headed down to the Lemhi hole and joined the crowd there until 2pm. I landed 4 suckers and hooked into something that I like to tell myself was a steelhead, but was probably another sucker. I also landed a decent bull trout, snapped a pic and released it. We did see 3 steelhead landed there and heard of a 4th just before we arrived. After lunch the whole group headed down river to fish the canyon near dutchoven since the best reports we heard were from that area. On the way there we saw a bachelor group of big horn sheep on the other side sparring and grazing. Managed to get a few decent pics using the super high end zoom lens on my point and shoot (AKA 10x42 Nikon binocs). After about 45 minutes fishing I hooked into and landed a decent wild steelhead. I didn't get a pic since I was trying to keep it in the water until the minute of the picture and it squirmed and took off. About 20 minutes later though I hooked into a smaller one that I landed and wacked (pic included) Over the next 2 hours I hooked into 4 that were on just momentarily to up to 20 seconds before throwing the hook. One of the other guys hooked into 2 that both threw the hook. It was his first time steelheading so he was pretty stoked just to hook into one long enough to see what it's like. BTW, all were hit while bouncing shrimp.
Sunday there was only 2 of us left. We started out in the hole that did well Saturday evening. After 2 hours a group of guys set up just up from us and after 20 minutes hooked and landed a hatchery fish on a brown helgie. We tried to tell them it was bad form to set up 30 feet away and catch fish right in front of us like that, they just laughed[
]. At least it showed us they were still in there. After lunch we packed it up and headed back to town and fished the Lemhi hole again. One guy we talked to said he had caught 4 that morning. Another guy showed up a while later and said he had caught five, then proceeded to catch another one. Probably just to torment us. D/t the wind we set up drift bobbers, something I knew the concept of, but never tried. Using purple jigs we were casting from 5-40 feet from shore. My buddy got a hit but had too much slack d/t the wind. Later he landed a sucker that we took a quick pic of then released. I hooked into a steelhead, got it about 6 feet from shore when it threw the hook at me, practically beaning me in the head. As the wind died we tried bouncing shrimp, worms, helgies, and jigs with no effect. Maybe next time![signature]