steelheading in the lewiston area and turning in snaggers!!!!!!!

[chrome_junky]

i have been holding off on this post because the fishing has been hit or miss for the last couple weeks with the crazy water levels. we have been fishing the northfork of the clearwater pretty consistantly.using jig and bobber we hooked fish every day we have been there in the last 2 weeks having a hard time keeping them on those jigs just dont hold fish as well as a circle hook does the fish have been spawning in the shallows for a week now right off the bank but we left thos fish alone trying to get the fresher fish holding in the deeper water. 2 days ago my buddy matt landed 2 one was 13 lbs and the other was 11 a buck and a hen very green and red. yesterday we headed out to the northfork and got there around 10am pulled up to the spot just in time to see a man and a teenager fishing where we normally fish and could see all the steelhead piled up right infront of them and these guys were casting there jig and bobber 5 feet off the bank to these fish. then i saw what made my stomach turn the the teenager set the hook hard and snagged a big big hen right in the stomach not knowing we were watching them they landed the scarred up hen that began drooping eggs all over the place and beat it with a rock. then hurry and ran it to their pickup truck i told my buddy i was gonna call them in for snagging but i didnt have CAP's number right there so we grabbed our stuff and went down to fish next to them when we got down there i said the boy that was a pretty nice hen he landed and asked him where he hooked it he said right in the mouth and i asked him if he was sure because it looked like he snagged it in the belly from up there. then he realized i watched the whole thing go down so he started ignoring us the guy and teenager grabbed there stuff and moved down river away from us. so we fished for about 2 hours matt hooked and lost what looked like a fairly fresh fish and about a 15 lb hatchery buck right at the bank it was the slowest day we have had out of the 6 other times we have been recently so we decided to hole hop the main stem of the clearwater back into lewiston as we left the man and teenager came scurring back down the boat ramp and started at the spawning fish again so i looked CAP's number on my phone and called them as we drove out right when the lady answered the phone we pulled up to a fish and game check station so i just told them about it and they headed right down to confront the people. i didnt stick around to find out what happened but i have to say i have no remorse for telling fish and game they were doing it.

on a side not the first place we stopped at on the main stem on my 3 cast with a float and trout bead i landed a wild buck steelhead that i would say was around 10 lbs we took a pic with my phone but my buddy forgot to hit the save button to bad it was a really pretty fish. nothing else the rest of the day so we headed in. i will post some pics of matts fish in a little bit.
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