Chasing Steelhead on the Clearwater

We arrived late Thursday night on the lower Clearwater River to spend the next three days on the river chasing steelhead. Reports had been awesome with anglers landing 10+ fish a day on gear and a 2-3 a day on swung flies. Most of the campsite on lower Hog Island were taken so we resorted to a new spot with a friendly kitty cat as a neighbor. The cat was less than 6 months old and fat and happy from snacking on all the trash that was left in the camp spot we chose.

Around midnight the rest of the crew showed up consisting of Denver, Paul, Keaton, and David. Excitement built as we told stories around the fire till the pre-dawn hours. When the alarm when off at 5:00am thoughts of steelhead made getting out of bed a little easier. This year we pulled down three jet sleds and had a crew of 15 people. Joining us later that morning were Whitey, Nick, and Keith. The river dropped on us overnight from 3,900 cfs to 3,100. The next morning we launched the sleds and headed upriver we had high overcast and no wind making conditions just about perfect. Barrett hooked up right away in our first run and put a nice 7 pound fish in the boat. Whitey ended up landing a perfect 30" buck later that day and a few more fish were hooked and landed by others. Fishing was much slower than we expected with the few fish that we landed. We did notice a large number of Chinook in the river and most likely they were pushing the steelhead out of the traditional lies that they hang in forcing them into shallower water...in theory at least. Over the next two days we hooked and landed a few more fish, all were big fish and some even bent out stinger hook or ripped them out of poorly tied flies completely.

Overall it was a great trip spend with good friends who we only get to see once or twice a year. I can't wait to do it again next year for Paul's 30th birthday weekend. That is going to be fun!