steelhead fishing conditions

Steelhead fishing conditions in the Salmon River near Salmon are improving, but still variable from day to day.  Today the river was 41 degrees at mid-day, with a little less that two feet of visibility–not crystal clear, but fishable.  Snow is mostly gone off the valley floor, including  the Lemhi nearly to Gilmore Summit.

As usual in spring steelhead fishing, success has been good some days, not so good on others, depending somewhat on water clarity.  Weather has been blustery.  There seems to be a decent number of fish moving through the area.

As we approach the busy part of spring steelhead fishing, I would remind people to be considerate in parking at the launch sites.  It seems that there is more poor parking recently.   For example, today at the Tower Creek ramp, which has only seven designated vehicle-trailer slots (obviously inadequate, but that’s what’s there), some jackass had parked an unhooked trailer straddling two lanes, using four times the space he needed for an empty trailer.  A little consideration of other users makes things go a lot smoother.  That applies to sharing the river, too.  As the river gets busier,  I’m hearing of boats pulling in closely below other boats, cutting off the  the first boat in the run.  That’s pretty poor manners, and unnecessary.  There’s enough river to let a boat work its way through a run, or to wait a bit to follow a boat that is already fishing a run.