This past week saw some fantastic fishing on Idaho’s Clearwater River. The river woke up from its deep freeze the week before and the steelhead started to get frisky. We saw good catches of fish throughout the river from Orofino to Lewiston. There were a lot of fish concentrated in the river near Orofino, but the bite seemed to be a little sporadic with the bite window seeming to open and close very quickly and at random times. We also had boats fishing in the lower part of the river downstream from Orofino. Catches were good in this section, but during this time of year fish in the lower river can be really spread out. When fishing downriver of Orofino we often find the need to cover a ton of water as some good holes just wont have fish in them.
Our number one technique this week was bobber dogging beads. This has been a very consistent method for us this year, and when river conditions allow, bobber dogging allows us to cover an incredible amount of water very effectively. Our most popular beads have been softbeads from BNR beads and an assortment of hard beads in 12 -14mm. Clearwater River Steelhead seem to have an affinity for the larger beads and we have also had some good days fishing the 20mm BNR soft beads.
For this next week we are seeing a major change in river conditions. The Clearwater at the moment is really high and dirty making fishing very difficult. The one caveat to this is that during really high water the fish get concentrated in a few spots that at times can lead to the best fishing of the year. We have not had a high water event yet this winter, so this is long overdue, and will lead to some incredible fishing over the next couple of weeks as we see a bunch of fresh fish move into the system. In the past fishing in March has been a big part of your year and we are expecting fishing to continue to be fantastic through at least the 3rd week of March. If looking for a great trip that has a little better weather don’t hesitate to book a March Steelhead trip on Idaho’s Clearwater River.
