These sea-run rainbow trout are now moving well up the Salmon and Clearwater Rivers-
The season has been good so far. Now the fish are moving well upstream. I see the average time to catch one is about 5 hours, depending on your fishing location.
Roger Phillips’ Fish Rap: Steelhead fishing is heating up a cold winter. Idaho Statesman
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Thanks to El Nino, enjoy this year, next year is not looking good.
I’ve always wanted to catch an Idaho steelhead. How did you do, Ralph?
I live less than two miles from the Payette River. I would like to someday catch a salmon or a steelhead there. Idaho Power promised to get salmon and steelhead past the Hells Canyon Dams when it built them 50 years ago. How long do we have to wait for them to be responsible? Salmon and steelhead once occured so plentifully here, that there used to be a sockeye salmon cannery at the outlet of Payette Lake in McCall.