NF Clearwater, ID

Outing Information

Pictures

Fish Caught

Cutthroat Trout

Mountain Whitefish

Weather

Other Patterns Tried

No other pattern information for this outing.

Fishing Partners

No fishing partners were saved with this outing.

Waypoints

Notes

Started out early and was on the river by ~ 8:45 and put on the full gear, waders and all cuz it was still in the high 40’s-mid 50’s. Was a little apprehensive because this is a big river and I have zero experience on big water. Had seen some awesome rock gardens on the way to Kelly Creek the day before but decided to turn right off French Mtn and follow the river north and then loop back to Pierce. Stopped at the first turn-in (~ mile marker 47?) and ending up staying there for ~ 3hrs!
The river channeled down into a pretty run that dumped right into a LARGE, slow pool. I had listened to John at Anglers telling someone the pools were usually unproductive this time of year cuz of the potentially low O2 content and to fish the more turbulent, churning water. Got a quick flah on a #12 Royal Coachman and a couple small (9 inchers) on assorted stims, hoppers, and bigger flies. I then noticed a hatch of very small bugs and watched a few fish hit the surface after them. Of course, I spent 4 days tying #8 hoppers , stims, and a plethora of large flies and could picture my #18 - #22 flybox just as I left it back in Boise, thinking, ‘Won’t need these!’ Thankfully, I had ONE #18 EHC on my vestpad and struggled for 10 minutes trying to thread it on.
Then the party started. Got ~dozen ranging from 9-12 inches right off the bat until the poor fly was tattered and beaten. Must have missed just as many.
Went back up to the truck to shed waders because by now the sun was above the treeline and it was starting to heat up. Then I remembered my flycase had a tray exclusively for small flies. I opened it up and there was small EHC, Adams, and PMDs galore! AND it even had a couple of tiny threadders to boot! Went back down and caught a few more but the day was heating up fast. Switched over to hoppers and started letting them drift into the slow pool and that brought them up from the deep. Caught at least a dozen more slow drifting through the pool. Noticed that the fish would chase the stim as I reeled it in and had even caught one on a retrieve so switched to a green wolly-bugger with some flash and ended up catching 2-3 more on a short, fast strip on the swing and retrieve.
The fish are considerably larger on the NF and for the rest of the day my avg fish was ~14” with a 16” occasionally thrown in. That 5wt Helios worked like a dream. Allowed me to really target far runs and hotspots with ease. You could only wade in max ~ 3-4 feet from shore because it got deep quick. So distance casting was a plus.
The fish got savvy quick. I changed flies often cuz it seemed they figured out what was happening. I’d take 2-3 from a run or pool then it would dry up. So I’d change from a hopper to an Adams and take a couple more. Then I’d change to a stim and take a few more and so forth. But if you got a flash or a swirl, you could come back to that fish in 5 min and eventually get a strike.
Overall, it was the best day of flyfishing I ever had. For example, I took six 13-15 “ cuts on one short run in 5 minutes. It was a festival out there. Hell, even caught them on nymphs. It was really easy fishing.
All-in-all, I only fished ~2 miles or so of the river at ~4 drop-ins and caught 30-35 fish. Not a bad day of flyfishing!