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.
Whorde Tries to Catch a Salmon, Episode 15, takes a new and surprising twist. But the result doesn't change.
Another forum member, JonB, and myself, have an ongoing conversation about hiking up a mountain to fish for golden trout. This hasn't happened yet, but he suggested that I show up WAY out in the sticks to try to catch a salmon yesterday. So I got in my car an started driving. I probably should have looked at the map a little more closely before agreeing to this, as it turns out that it's an hour to Mt. Vernon via I-5, and then another 50+ miles once you get to Mt. Vernon!
In any case, I found the spot, found JonB and his friend, and we did some fishing. I've never fished salmon in a river before, so I had a long conversation with Jon about what to use, how to use it, where to use it, etc. It was very scenic, and there were some promising spots to fish, so we got after it.
After a while I learned an important lesson about how to cross a river without drowning. In retrospect, I was actually as close to potentially dying as I have probably ever been. For those of you who have never crossed a relatively fast river, and dont have the benefit of years of inline skating so you have exceptional balance - #1, get a long stick to use if you start to slip, and #2, make sure you dont try to cross a river that is the same depth as your waders are high. Find a spot that is more shallow. If I had slipped, which I had many opportunities to do, I *probably* wouldn't have drowned since the water got more shallow (although faster) shortly thereafter, but it was the sort of scenario that one really doesn't want to test. But absolutely best case scenario, I would have been wet head to toe, bruised extensively, and incredibly pissed off.
In any case, once I had managed to creep back out of the river, we crossed at a more shallow spot and all was well. We fished a couple of places, and eventually got back up to where Jon had an encounter with some less friendly sorts prior to my arrival. He thought this was the best hole, and as it turned out we stayed there quite a while.
I saw a jig in the water which we rescued, and I was jigging a different one that Jon suggested from his stuff, and we got lots of hits, kinda clumpy with a few 15 minute quite spots, for ... oh I dont know, maybe 90 minutes or two hours? I caught the whitefish, as Jon called it, relatively early on, with the jig. Jon was entertained by this, as he said he'd never caught one on a jig before. Then after a period I had a hookup, and with a rrrOOOOWAAARRRRR a zombie lumbered out of the water, spit the jig back at me, and then disappeared with a splash! Three times this happened while we were there, 2 on my jig and one on Jon's. The zombie kings were pretty big - pushing 20 pounds I'd guess. They would also jump periodically. Jon said he saw some actual silver flashes, and at one point I had a hit and then pulled up my jig with just a single scale stuck on the point of the hook, so *probably* we were getting some hits from silvers. And at one point I saw a monstrous fish jump that didn't look like a zombie ... Jon speculated it might have been a steelhead. Eventually we headed out, with no salmon caught, but an entertaining afternoon certainly. I definitely had fun. Long story short, now I know how to fish for salmon in a river, at least some basics, so that is very nice. Thanks Jon for your teachings and patience!
You might double check on goggle maps, but I think you will save some drive time if you take hwy 530 instead of going all the way up to mount Vernon. keep it up.....you will catch some here real soon!
just for fun I put it into google maps - taking I-5 all the way is 11 miles longer. how is the speed on the 530? can you go 65-70 mph on that road, or is it 55 max?
Whorde, I was the other guy you fished with along with jonb yesterday. I'm glad you made it across the river okay! You probably now know this, but you want to especially check the river flows of any river you will be wading across. I know the Cascade and the levels you can safely cross it. Yesterday the river was low enough, but being a small river it can rise and the flows increase in a hurry after a rain. As for the speed limit on 530, the speed limit is 55 mph. I wouldn't try to go 70 on it just for the safety of others.
Hello! Ok thanks for the info. With the speed limit difference, I'm not sure taking the 530 is faster. If no fish are caught in the Cascade though, perhaps taking the 530 back would provide more fishing options for an afternoon though! Where I first tried to cross was deeper than it looked so that's really what nearly caused the disaster. There were about 5 steps to take that were going to be up to / over the top of my waders, so thankfully I got turned around before that happened.
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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.
