Little Salmon River Steelhead Fishing

Today I must admit that I think the steelhead fishing on the Little Salmon River in Central Idaho for the most part was less then impressive as compared to previous years.

The River Flow has finally increased to near normal spring flows but the only thing that I noticed is an increase in the number of Steelhead Fishermen and no real increase in the number of Steelhead in the river.

Just what happened to the fish is some what of a mystery not only for the anglers but also for the fishery managers. Many of the other rivers around the state have seen good to great results the South Fork of the Clear water has seen some pretty impressive numbers or the last couple of weeks and the upper reaches of the Salmon River have been producing some nice results also. Where are the fish for the Little Salmon, no one really seems to know and since it is now past the middle of April, about all that is left for us to do is clean up our gear and put it away and wait until this fall in hopes of better numbers next year.

There were a few days this spring where I thought Steelhead fishing was going to pick up however the next trip was only full of disappointment. I do remember that several years back we had an early run off that brought up the river which was followed by a sudden drop in temperature which trapped a lot of the smolt in ponds and troughs when the river flows suddenly dropped and there was a large number of dead smolt in these spots. Maybe that is what is going on, we just lost too many of the smolt before they could even start their migration to the ocean. I’m not sure but it is just one explanation that I have thought of over the last couple of weeks while I was fishing and waiting for the main run to start.

Fisheries managers are expecting a good run of Salmon this spring and while I hade hopes that this would actually be the case the numbers over the last couple of days are becoming discouraging also. Right now we are just in a wait and see mode I will try to keep every one up dated as they dam counts come in so stay tuned. Remember that River flows will be much higher this year then we have seen in a number of years so be careful out there.

By: RR Smith
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