the bent rod

Fishing Report

Salmon River Steelhead Fishing Report

This Photo was at Watts bridge at 11:30am today(18th).

Anglers caught a fair number of  Steelhead this weekend. The best fishing was reported down river below North Fork, but there were fish caught from Penal Gulch outside of Challis to Salmon. The fish are moving upriver slowly. They seem to be a week or so late. Water clarity has been around 4ft. I still would be fishing darker flies and spoons with the water clarity getting just a little cloudy due to snow melting from warmer temperatures. This weeks temperatures are going to be in the 50’s around Challis and Salmon, and 40’s in Stanley. But it will be freezing everynight from Challis to Stanley so it should keep the river somewhat at bay.

Here is F&G  post from fishing through the end of last week. Just remember they are not able to speak with everyone. There are usually more fish caught that are not checked. It just gives a good baseline of what is going on.

“Anglers interviewed downstream of the Middle Fork Salmon River in location code 14 averaged 16 hours per steelhead caught and did not report harvesting a steelhead. Anglers interviewed upstream of the Middle Fork in location code 15 averaged 7 hours per steelhead caught and 39 hours per steelhead kept. Anglers interviewed upstream of North Fork in location code 16 averaged 17 hours per steelhead caught and 69 hours per steelhead kept. Anglers interviewed upstream of the Lemhi River in location code 17 averaged 25 hours per steelhead caught and 224 hours per steelhead kept, and anglers interviewed upstream of the Pahsimeroi River in location code 18 averaged 13 hours per steelhead caught and 90 hours per steelhead kept. No interviews were obtained upstream of the East Fork Salmon River in location code 19.”

There is still a fair amount of ice above town. Greg