Fishing Report – July 24
Fishing has been great in our area the last few weeks as the water has dropped and the summer weather has arrived. Insects are abundant, and the fish are looking up. We have just started using more of the summer patterns like grasshoppers and ants along with attractors and matches of the many hatches that are occuring everyday. We are seeing everything from several types of mayflies to smaller caddis’s, yellow sallies and still a few large golden stones. Lake fishing in valley lakes should be decent with many of the lakes recently stocked. Look to the inlet and outlet areas for better fishing. Most High mountain lakes are now snow and ice free and fishing is excellent. Idaho Fish and Game has done some stocking in many of the ponds and lakes, as well as the Upper Main Salmon the past few weeks with catchable rainbows and many of the non stocked rivers and streams are fishing well for native trout.
SALMON update:
Salmon season opened June 20 and will close July 26 at 10 PM. If you didn’t know it, last year was our first Salmon season in over 30 years. It opened on June 19 and ended in late July. The numbers this year have been great and many people have had a great salmon season.
General Information
Many of the fish we catch in our area are Westslope Cutthroat, native Rainbow trout and Bull Trout. These fish are native, natural fish and must be released. If you do not practice catch and release and prefer to keep fish, there are rainbows with missing adipose fins which can be kept. If you are fishing the Main Salmon River, please be sure to check the adipose fin and if the fish has one and is not a Mountain Whitefish or Brook trout, it must be released. Please handle it carefully, practice good catch and release techniques and let it go to catch another day. Consider fishing only with a single barbless hook to increase survival rates of the native fish and don’t keep the fish out of the water for over 20 seconds. Hatchery stocked, catch and keep rainbow trout will be missing the adipose fin. Middle Fork tributaries are CATCH & RELEASE only.
Check the regulation book for exceptions and remember that many fish are protected and cannot be kept. The regulation book tells what can be kept and how to tell the difference.
Fishing report courtesy of Sawtooth Fishing Guides (208) 774 8768 or info@sawtoothfishingguides.com
