Clearwater River, Idaho

 

 

 

 

 

October 2nd, Delta flight from Boston to Salt Lake City and then on to Lewiston Idaho arriving at 10:20 pm.  That was the plan, but our airline had a different one. With a late start we missed our connecting flight, one of only two a day and the last one on that day. So, we spent the night in Salt Lake, Mike (mbeng7), Bob (RC Broadhurst), Joe a fishing buddy of ours and myself.  

Day two we rise at four thirty for a quick shower then breakfast at the hotel and on to meet the guides.  Pacific North West weather, cool and overcast with drizzle from time to time. Drift boats are our mode of transportation,  jet boats are also used to get people around, from what I saw mostly bait and lure fisherman.  A quick lesson mid river on two handed rod fishing from a boat with Mike in the bow doing a double spey and me in the stern using a snap t. Bob and Joe getting their lesson to the left of us and Bob is hooked into a steelie on his first cast. We start our drift at seven thirty and wrap it up at dark around six thirty. Mike is first to hook up in our boat and after alot of head shaking, leaps and runs he lands a beauty of a hen.  I would get four hits before I tie into one, a nice male with a kype, measuring thirty six inches.  Mike takes the next fish and I get the one after that. We each land two steelies on day  two.

Day three, PNW weather with some rain thrown in and even colder than the previous day.  We drift from the dam starting at seven am, our plan to be off the water at five and eat dinner at a normal time. I get the first hit and pull the fly right out of the steelies mouth, trout fishing habits are hard to break. The guide beaches the boat and had us wade down through two channels of the river. Cast and step and cast,  I take time to look around at the hills that surround us as we fish our way down the run.  About half way down the run I hook into a nice fish that makes several good runs, two of which take me into my backing before I bring him to hand. Before the end of the day, I land two and Mike lands two with his second one coming about two hundred yards from the take out, it's four fifty five and he hooks into a nice buck. So much for being off the water at five o'clock. I get one more on in the same run and loose it before we head for the take out.

Day four, we are on our own and the weather is the same as day three. Mike meets his brother Kevin who is a guide down in Utah to fish for the day.  Bob, Joe and I drive south on route 12 for a half an hour and work our way back to the hotel pool. The first stop produced no hits and we didn't see any rises. Our second stop is two runs broken by a riffle with one guy fishing the lower run. Joe opts to go low and follow the other fisherman while Bob and I go to the upper run starting at the top working down to the riffle. Bob gets a phone call from a friend of ours back home checking on the fishing so I set up and make a couple of roll casts to get out some line, then on my first cast bang I'm on and land one about thirty inches. I manage one more around thirty two inches out of the same run and go fishless for the remainder of the day. We all agree to call it early at five o'clock and head back for hot showers, 800mg of ibuprofen and a good dinner. We head for bed with a three am wake up for the drive back to Lewiston on a five thirty flight back to Salt Lake then on to Boston. A great time with some great friends it doesn't get any better than that. One more place I can cross off my bucket list.