Northwest Fishing Reports

Headed to the snake river to give it a shot while were down there fishing for steelhead. Anyone have any pointers on how to do it?

Rigging?
Bait?


Thanks!

Seth

They like sand shrimp or anchovies on the bottom with a soft leader. We'd rig up the sand shrimp and tie 'em on with magic thread so the bullheads wouldn't tear it off. Use a slydo and a pyramid sinker, heavy enough to keep it stuck on the bottom. Then you wait. They hit soft at first, you wait for 'em to eat it, then you set the hook real hard. I'm talking from experience fishing on the Lower Columbia and Chehalis rivers. They hit anchovies when they were fresh. WE always bought the bait the morning of, which had been harvested the day before. But it's definitely a boat around and sit and wait type of fishing. I dunno about fishing places that aren't affected by the tides, but I would guess that sand shrimp don't live around there, so maybe the fishier baits work well, except that sand shrimp work great for kings and steelhead so who knows? I'd put a pole out with one and another out with the other. Also, doubling up on sand shrimp keeps the smaller fish from stealing your bait.

When I went to school at WSU most people would fish for Sturgeon as close to Lower Granite Dam as possible. Below the Dam. Whole bait offerings like Natetreat said, even herring. The spider thread is sweet for wrapping the whole bait around the hook and lower portion of the dacron leader, with a sliding weight above. If you can't cross the dam you might be able to launch at Waiwai, even bank fish for them. Also, Lyons Ferry area might be good in the deeper slots.:chef:

The key in the upper Snake is depth. We often stop the jet in the hells canyon area and use Steelhead gills for bait. If you can find a deep hole, fairly slow, then weight it down and weight it out. Sometimes we get some huge fish.

Remember, catch and release and don't remove the fish from the water - It's the law.