Here they come!!!

[jigs]

The steelhead are coming over Lower Granite over 30,000 in the last 4 days counting wild fish and over 13,000 yesterday alone. Also the first coho come over yesterday.
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[jigs]

Is it to soon to be very excited.
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[Match]

Helly Jigs,
I am a newbie to fishing in general and I am wanting to try steelhead fishing with the wife this year. I once tried about 3 years ago with some friends and we got skunked. I am not familiar with the whole salmon river area very well but I know we fished an area called shoup and deadwater.
With the numbers looking really good this fall, when could I expect the run to hit the Middle fork to North Fork area? I noticed you referenced the numbers on the damn but not sure how this relates to time they get to Salmon city.
I am hoping to make it sometime in october on the 1st to the 15th.
I am looking foward to trying again this year and hopfully we can land a big one this time. I live in Blackfoot but since I changed jobs I have not had contact with any steelhead fishermen at work yet. Thanks for any advice or information.
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[jigs]

i am hoping the shoup area will heat up around that time, i am hoping to get down there towards the middle to end of october.
From my experience it seems a good amount of fish get in that riggins to deadwater. But as deadwater freezes up it stops the fishs progress and usualy all winter long is good fishing in the stretch below. Now last year it seemed alot of the fish had made it past deadwater before it froze.
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[MONTANA_MAN]

[quote jigs]

Is it to soon to be very excited.[/quote]

No! Not in my opinion![laugh]

Can you all believe the run this year...it is mind blow! I've been watching the counts since July...but the past month has been unbelievable.

I'll be over on the Clearwater in a couple of weeks for the catch and release season. The Winter run should be epic! I just hope I can get over Lolo Pass when the run starts this Winter! You bait guys need to give me some room.[]

Nothing like a 40" Metalhead on a 9 wt.....as if I would know!
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[jigs]

one of my goals this year is to get on the clearwater never fished it but it sounds like the fish are going to be about as thick as they have been in recent memorie
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[Got_Bait]

Hey bud, I was just curious as to how you were coming up with your #'s. I'm in total agreement that we are having a steelhead run for the ages, but I've been watching it pretty close as well, and ur #'s sounded a bit high. I suspect that you are adding together Steelhead and Wild Steelhead. I assume you pull the Fisherman's Update on the Fish Passage Center. . . check out the notes at the bottom of the page.

Here's what I got: since July 1 @ Bonneville (thru 9/7) 509,058 steelhead (this includes clipped and unclipped fish); Sept 4-7 @ Lower Granite 23,848 clipped and unclipped steelhead.

I was also a little how you were comparing with other years, but I will say this: 2001 was the largest steelhead return on record for both Bonneville and Lower Granite. It's too early to say what will happen at LG, but we are already a shoe-in for second largest ever @ Bonneville. To date, we are 17,626 steelhead ahead [:p] of 2001. September was a big month in 2001, so to secure this year as the largest steelhead return ever recorded we will have to average 3,845 steelhead per day for the rest of this month. It looks like it will happen.

Now lets talk rivers. I use PIT tag data to track this. It looks to me like the fish that are returning to the Salmon River this year are PIT tagged at a much higher rate than the ones that returned last year. For example last year only 126 Salmon River PIT tagged steelhead crossed Bonneville all year long. This year there has already been 1,590! For the Clearwater, last year by this time, there had been 134 PIT tags over Bonneville, this year we have had 133.

So it looks to me like the Salmon River should be gangbusters this year for sure, and it's a little too soon to tell on the Clearwater. The Cw steelies cross Bonne later: sept-mid oct. As a side note, around 25% of all the steelhead crossing Bonne the last week or so have been B-run (by age) or older. This is the highest I have seen so far this year.
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[Rockjmpr]

Great info from all, it just makes my decision on where to bring my dad in Nov. that much more difficult[crazy]. I'm hoping the B-run numbers really rock our imaginations in the coming weeks so either choice I make, Clearwater or Salmon, will be fantastic[]

Hey "Got Bait" I was hoping you could help me...where is the Ebenezer area of the Snake??
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[Got_Bait]

The ebenezer area is on the salmon river between the middle fork and panther creek. Let me know if you need a more detailed description than that.
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[jigs]

ya i see what i was doing wrong i was adding the total with the wild fish i was thinking the total was hatchery fish... but still an awful lot going over. [sly]
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[dcl]

What do think is the reason so many are coming back? I'm not complaining-just wondering? I think it is because they got rid of the island at the mouth of the Columbia River. I was there 7-8 years ago and they were there,last fall they were gone. Thanks
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[jigs]

115,512 over lower granite as of 9/20. Looks like the bonniville numbers are slowing down so i dont think we will top the 2001 numbers but should be an amazing run none the less. Anyone remember the limit that year. if i remember right it was 6 but i just went 1 day and that was alot of years ago. so maybe someone else has a better memory.
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[jigs]

552,962 over bonneville as of 9/20 so we are 53k short of the 2001 total of just over 605,000 chromers. so i guesse we could still get there but the numbers would have to hold were they are for another month. looks like the fish are earlier this year than they normaly are so maybe a late pod will show up
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[s.s.s]

has anyone gone and used up a day up there yet on the salmon or clearwater
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[packfish]

Going up Friday night until Wed. I will post when I get back
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[maghunter]

I am headed up first weekend in October. Can't wait, first time after the fall stealhead, and I've got a new pole and reel (thanks to Stealfisher) to try out.
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[SteelFisher]

Good luck Maghunter. I hope a few fish will put a good bend on that rod for you. If things go ok at work I hope to get out sometime in October.
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[jigs]

same here i am thinking around the 20th.
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[s.s.s]

same with me getting married on the tenth and headed up for fishin on the 20th I told her that this might not be the best time of year to get married but she insisted. can't wait for the run went to the grand ron a couple weeks ago it was a nice day with my uncle but that was about it I have an uncle in riggins that has been pullin them in already
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[jigs]

why wait tell the 20th take her on the honey moon
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