Salmon River

Weekend steelhead fishing reports from local fishermen have all been very good, with lots of fish caught from below Salmon to Sunbeam. The river has some slight color to it with a temperature of around 37 degrees, and last night’s cold temperatures did not produce slush here in Challis. Spoons are working well, as well as shrimp or nightcrawlers for bait drifters. Black leech streamers, Little Eddys, Green Butt Skunk’s, Poker Faces, and Steelhead Hammers are all great flies for current conditions.

Mackay Reservoir

Recent reports of ice fishing on Mackay have been very good, with plenty of kokanee being caught. We have been hearing consistent reports of fishermen limiting out on kokanee in the first twenty minutes of fishing. The ice is still about a foot thick, however the edges are bad by afternoon. Fishermen have provided planks to get out on the ice. Pink jigs tipped with wax worms or mealworms are the answer here, as well as jigging Swedish Pimples.

Big Lost River

The fishing here has been excellent, and we had a report of a “close to 100” fish day between two anglers this weekend. This writer fished the Big Lost Sunday afternoon and had luck drifting a size 18 Brassie. Midge sipping was observed, and fishermen are reporting the best fishing between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.