There is a surprising number of fish being caught below Riggins as I heard a couple of second hand reports of fish being caught at lightning creek and twin bridges and the fish and game reported 16 being caught from Rice creek to Hammer creek. I expect the plunkers to start doing ok in the lower Salmon if the visibility is all right. The rising river was colored up Sunday from a first hand account. A friend called tonight and reported a pit tag he checked at Bonneville making the 8 dam trip in 9 days.
I am making the trip tomorrow to Lewiston area and will report the findings. My friends there are all starting to pick up a few fish the last couple days but it appears the Clearwater fish have been holding up in the warmer confluence after crossing Granite. Things could change at any time as the Clearwater appears to be warming up. The percentage of Bonneville pit takes over McNary is in incredibly high for the Rapid River fish.
Little Salmon is producing fish
any good numbers or just on here and there?
Big crowds yet?
Fished Riggins Wed afternoon hooked a couple and saw a couple landed and lost. Not many fishing and the main was colored to about a foot of visibility. Fishing was slow there thur-sat with only one boat and no bank fisherman visible on the way back from White BIrd Friday afternoon. Only about three fish reported caught below the motel thurs and Friday. We were able to limit on the Clearwater Thur but only caught one Friday morning. Water temp was 44-45 degrees both days. Water cleared a lot in main Salmon Friday to about 18". Water has dropped a little and cleared according to reports in main the last two days. Only saw one rig in little Salmon on the way home. Seems to be following the norm as to fish showing up 16-18 days from the first 1000 day over lower granite which was the 26th of April. Water will probably dirty up and rise to 29000 by Friday so park may not fish this weekend if Hydrological prediction service is correct. At some time the Clearwater will explode with the fish stacking up in the snake and pretty poor fishing across the board.
I see Hydro prediction service flows for Whitebird have been downgraded to only 25000 from what I saw last night so that will help.
Anyone have any recent info out of Riggins? I’m looking to possibly go up for the weekend, pm me if you want.
Thanks
Couple buddies were fishing Mon/Tue said it was slow. 1 fish on the bank at the confluence/8 people. No takers in the little river, Most of the people fishing were below hammer cr
if your going don’t bother making the pull into pitsburg landing the river is WAY down and is so full of floating moss we could not run a plug for more than 5 min without a basketball sized glob of moss all over it
stupid slow
On Monday we fished there at the hammer creek access and fished for a few hours. OF the two boats and 15 bank anglers we only saw 1 fish landed. We pulled out and towed over to pitsburg landing. A bit of a mistake the river is way low and so full of moss. WE ran down river a ways and tried to fish and it it was so full of moss that we could not run our plugs more than 5 min before there was a basket ball sized ball of moss. We did get one hit but it is hard to fish without having the plugs in the water. WE tried to fish bobber rigs and even those mossed up. So we puled back over to hammer creek fished and did jack didly squat. Pulled out at fish and ran into Riggins to grab some food. Ran into rich friend (one of the local guides) he was grumpy about the moss in the river as well he said he could not even bass fish in the snake because of the moss. he said that give it about 2 weeks and rapid river will really turn on. WE decided to run over to lewiston the next day and joined the herd at the railroad bridge hooked a couple of fish landed nothing. WE fished the next day there at the bridge hooked up 3 times landed nothing. then thursday morning we fished from 6 to 10 nothing and then came home.
I am headed up to Orofino on Friday the Memorial Weekend. Will be there for nine days. Wahoo!!! I have jittery hands just thinking about hooking into one of the baby’s. We did awesome last year and are looking for a repeat. The fish are sure moving fast upstream. I think I am going to be a little behind hitting them at just the right time. Am also worried about closers…It’s going to be close. Keeping fingers crossed. Happy fishing everybody.
Any chance it will clear up for memorial weekend after this rain starts letting up?
We put 14 fish in the boat fri-sun. . Buddy landed a little river fish sat evening. Sun was slooooowww. 1 fish for 4 people fishing
were you fishing the main a ways down river from the confluence?
We were the 4 guys in the 15 foot bluefin with the 25hp motor trolling plugs
I need to get more of those black with silver glitter plugs. Those things were smoking hot.
was there yesterday. very slow only saw one fish caught. I caught only a sucker. I think most of the fish went upriver. Lewiston was closed guides were saying Orofino might close sat. just fyi
Heading up to riggings on Monday -Tuesday. Is it still to early? If anyone is up there we will be at the confluence. I am horrible at salmon fishing so be nice. Tell me if I am in your way ill move. I am polite and just looking to learn. If anyone has any bank yankin tips please Pm me.