Fishin' for Some Change
Steelheading on the Salmon River
Last week I did something that I had been avoiding like the plague during my adult life... I went fishing.
Now, I hadn’t been avoiding fishing because I don’t like the act... in fact it’s quite the opposite... I had been avoiding fishing because I knew that I would love it.
Growing up on a lake in the deep south meant I had been exposed to fishing throughout my youth (mostly bass fishing and the occasional offshore excursion for random bachelor parties), but I had successfully avoided “catching the fever” by only casually partaking whenever the opportunity arose.
But after bidding on a guided steelhead fishing trip at the annual Idaho Trappers Association banquet last year my outlook was destined to change.
After a few calls to arrange a time with our guide, myself and two buddies from out of state were set to venture by jet boat deep into the ‘Frank Church Wilderness of No Return’ on the Salmon River near Riggins, Idaho.
After picking up my friends at the airport, we ventured north until we hit the end of a long dirt road to get to our launching ramp at Vinegar Creek. In our open top jet boat we took off on a brutally cold morning in search of some very large and very delicious fish, the steelhead trout.
With none of us knowing anything about fishing we were not entirely sure what to expect, but ended up having a blast of a time. Between our jetting up river, we would let the current take us back down stream as we cast our lines of colored shrimp into the water to try and entice the limited numbers of available fish.
For hours we boated, saw tons of wild game (in particular a beautiful bighorn sheep ram), and caught two fish — one of which we were able to get into the boat. We also learned that in Idaho you are only allowed to keep hatchery fish which have a notch cut out of their adipose fin... And the one fish we did catch was a ‘native’ with its adipose fin fully in tact... a bummer considering we would look forward to a tasty post-excursion steelhead meal.
After a day of sun, casting, and some good company I can totally see why people get the bug for fishing and I plan to learn more over the years to take advantage of some of the rivers, streams, and alpine lakes that are near our homestead in the backcountry.
