Orofino steelhead

I have never fished for steelhead at any time in my life, so I figured this weekend it was time to change it. I launched out of Pink House recreation area near Orofino and saw people around me hooking up pretty consistently. Sadly, not knowing what I was doing meant that I caught nothing from the yak. I was floating jigs or shrimp under a bobber on the advice of a friend, but it was obvious to me that the people catching fish were drifting roe on a 3-way along the bottom.


So, I beach the boat, load it up on the truck and drive off in search of roe. I find roe and get back to the hole I had been fishing with about 2 hours of light left. I decide to forgo to the time involved in re-rigging the yak and bank fish instead. About 30 minutes later I have my first ever steelhead on! Woo Hoo!


The sun went down before I could get another, and since this was a high speed, quick turnaround, exploratory trip, I wasn't able to fish it anymore. But I learned a lot and I'm ready to fish it hard again in a couple weeks when I head back down. Hopefully the fish will still be there!

Saweeet!  Thankx for the pic!!

Nice one FJ! That's a little beauty. Good on ya for  getting after what was working and making it work for you. Looks like ID is treating you well so far.


Z

Very nice Steelhead there FJ.

If you go to www.boatingtheinlandnw.com you can see all the great places to launch from on the Clear Water River near Orofino. I am with www.funtofish.com and will be posting various fishing reports shortly. Hope to have a Inland NW Hobie kayak fishing team put together shortly. I will be fishing this river soon. Thanks for your post.