Nov. 17 Idaho Steelhead

Over the last few years I've had the good fortune of making my living guiding for Steelhead in western Michigan on the Muskegon River. Actually, I'm extremely fortunate in a couple of ways. First of all I worked for Midwest Steelhead guru, Kevin Feenstra. Kevin isn't just a talented guide and fisherman, but he also has a real passion for swinging big flies for Chromers and taught me most of what I know about Steelhead. Second, I guided and fished rivers full of naturally reproducing fish that are more than willing to grab a well presented fly. Truly a spey casters playground. Being a Great Lakes Stealheader, obviously the number one fish on my ever growing fantasy fish list is a real west coast Steelhead.

This past weekend Jason the shop rat, my girlfriend Sarah, and myself piled in to J-Dog's Subaru and headed west to Idaho in search of metalheads on the north fork of the Salmon River. We arrived in the village of North Fork well after dark excited to set up camp, get a fire going, and get to work on the 12 pack of Fat Tire we picked up in Butte. With a sleepless night of freezing my back side off under my belt, we broke camp after a hardy breakfast and raced the sun light to the river to scout out potential fish holding runs and pools. One of the things that Great Lakes and west coast Steelhead have in common is that they hold in the same type of water, so it wasn't a challenge to find water to start swinging flies through.

Bright skies and clear water are great for leisurely visits to the river, but unfortunately a bad combo when trying to fool Trout or Steelhead into chasing a swung streamer. With those exact weather and water conditions working against us, we thoroughly worked water that looked to be ideal holding water for both Trout and Steelhead. After a handfull of pools and a couple of tours up and down the highway in search of more water, we had to call it a day and head back to Montana.

We rushed to get there, we rushed to set up camp, we rushed to the river, we fished our fannys off, but at the end of the day with the exception of one big Sucker Fish, all three of us got Green Butt Skunked. Unless you're a dedicated Trout bum or Steelheader this sounds like a lot of work and a lot of miles to go to not catch fish, but to us it was one of the most satisfying trip's we've had this year. To me this trip was just another reminder of how lucky we are to live in the middle of the world's greatest fly fishing water. Here in the Bozeman area we're surrounded by quality Trout streams, and just a few hours west you can fish for real ocean run Salmon and Steelhead. If you've read enough of these reports and blogs, I'm sure that it sounds a bit cliche by now but I'll say it any way.... Get out and fish! Take advantage of the thousands of miles of rivers and streams that the Rockies have to offer. After all they're right here in our backyard.

Ty