Hammer Down Excursions - Fish the lower Salmon River in Idaho for a one of a kind experience. Homer Brown has been providing first class adventures as an Idaho Outfitter for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, bass, trout, for over a decade. Top quality equipment, great boats, and an epic setting make for an experience you won't forget. We enjoy anglers from every experience level and offer Group Pricing for full boat rentals, excellent for families and other outings. Veteran owned and operated.
First time on Clear, was really just prospecting. Launched at the south end public launch. Went out to just in front of the resort beach, hooked a left, threw out a 2 1/2" Gulp minnow on a little jig head just to have something in the water while beginning my exploration. Immediatedly hooked a fish. Reeling in it didn't feel like much, but when it got along side the boat, I saw it was the biggest Crappie I have hooked in WA. It had been swimming with the boat, which is why there was not much fight. As soon as it saw the boat, it rolled on it's side, flip-flopped one time and spit the hook back at me. This was very encouraging. I spent the rest of the evening slow trolling between the resort and strait across to the opposite side, back and forth parallel to the line of buoys. Caught several very nice Bluegill, several smallish Crappie, and a whole heap of 5 & 6" LMB. I have never seen bass so small be so chunky. Football shaped at that size? Odd to me. Next time hopefully there will be more time for further exploration. Would like to get into a school of those slab Crappie. All fish today were C&R, as I have plenty in the freezer right now, but the Bluegill were tempting to keep. After the next fish fry....
Yeah it's kinda funny, set out to explore the lake and never got 1/4 mile from the ramp. This appears to be a pretty healthy lake with lots of fish. What struck me was that the bass I caught seemed to be too big for this years' spawn, but not long enough for last years', and super chunky. Do the bass here spawn in the fall too? I'm still trying to figure out alot of stuff about fishing in the PNW. It is way different from south Georgia.
uncyboo, i'm still trying to figure it out myself, it's a lot different then fishing the lakes in WI.
I've been hitting up clear a lot lately, always seem to catch fish, not huge but a few here and there. Nice to hear there are some decent crappies, haven't found them yet, I might try and get out there again here maybe tonight.
Nice report thanks for the info. So far for me, it's been bass and gills to the south end, decent trout on the north end.
What I did find is this - leave the public launch on the south end. Take a left and there's a little grass covered point. The west side of this point was a pretty steep drop-off down to about 21'. I marked quite a few fish hanging about 2/3 down this drop-off, maybe 60 or 70 yds. from the shore. Didn't get to fish it because 2 different people came and anchored on the drop-off, and started catching fish. Couldn't tell what they were catching and didn't speak to them, but it must be a fairly productive spot for 2 different boats to head directly for the same spot and anchor.
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Hammer Down Excursions - Fish the lower Salmon River in Idaho for a one of a kind experience. Homer Brown has been providing first class adventures as an Idaho Outfitter for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, bass, trout, for over a decade. Top quality equipment, great boats, and an epic setting make for an experience you won't forget. We enjoy anglers from every experience level and offer Group Pricing for full boat rentals, excellent for families and other outings. Veteran owned and operated.