From my number one son, John. Trout
fishing and steelheading out in Idaho and Washington. What a trip. We
drove out to Superior, MT and over Hoodoo pass into the Idaho wilderness.
Once we made it into the woods, my friend Nathan and I stayed in a forest
service cabin on Kelly Creek. Kelly Creek flows into the North Fork of
the Clearwater River, which flows into the mainstream of the Clearwater River,
near Orofino, Idaho. Orofino is home to the Dworshak steelhead fish
hatchery. This place is a very popular fishing area because the hatchery
grown steelhead run from the ocean all the way back to the hatchery waters to
spawn.
Anyways, Kelly Creek is a world
class Westslope Cutthroat dry fly fishery with fish averaging 18-22"
during the summer season. As we get closer to fall the Cutties migrate
down river into the N. Fork of the Clearwater and down into Dworshak reservoir
to spawn. We caught mostly resident fish in the 14-16" range, but
catching 30 in a day on October Caddis dries made for some awesome fishing.
I highly recommend you look into trying this place out some time.
The access to awesome camping spots is unlimited out there, and once you
get tired of catching cutthroats, you can go chuck big streamers on the N. Fork
for big bull trout. And these guys get BIG, like over 30". A
great place to catch a trophy trout in the Idaho backcountry.
From there we spent a
couple days swinging wet flies on spey rods on the Clearwater below Orofino.
The final destination was the Grand Ronde River in Washington. All
in all, an awesome and humbling fishing trip.
