Report Date: 1/28/14

Fishing over the past week has remained very good on Idaho’s Clearwater River.  We have been experiencing one of the best January catch rates that any of us have ever seen!  We truly feel that this bodes very well for our upcoming February and March fishing.  Most of our success has come side drifting eggs and we have managed to have a few double digit days over the past few weeks.  Our second go to technique has been backtrolling diver and coon shrimp combos.  Our best producing colors of shrimp have been pink and purple.  On top of the great gear fishing we have had some stellar fly fishing over the past week as well.  We have landed fish both swinging large leach type flies on sink tips, as well as fishing egg patterns under indicators. We have also been landing some very large B-Run Steelhead in the 15-19 pound class almost every trip.  Most of our effort has continued to be on the river below Orofino, Idaho.  The upper river is currently very cold and has been impacted by some slush ice in the mornings. 

For this upcoming week and the first part of February we anticipate fishing to remain very good.  We are forecast to receive some rain in the Clearwater Valley starting Wednesday 1/29.  Some small storms moving in and out of the area should help warm the water temps in the upper river and get some fish moving.  We really think the great fishing is going to continue all the way through our season.  Gear anglers will see most of their success side drifting bait or backtrolling divers and shrimp.   Fly fishers looking to tough it out will continue to find success swinging large leach type patters on sink tips and fishing egg patterns under indicators.  Most of us really love to swing flies but we also realize just how effective a tool the indicator can be this time of year. 

We still have some opening for February and March, so if you are looking for a spring steelhead trip don’t hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email as we will most likely be able to fit you in somewhere.