After a bit of a hiatus which involved hunting season, the holidays and then more hunting, I’m back in full fishing mode and ready to get the year rolling.
Though I frequently have done a fair amount of trout fishing by late January, we’ve had a real winter for the most part meaning snow, ice and cold temps. Up until recently, the rivers have been ice choked or filled with slush…in some cases frozen over completely which doesn’t bode well for winter fly angling. In the past week, as daytime temps have climbed, this has changed and with it has my interest in getting back on the water. I can only tie so many flies before getting the urge to start using them.
I kicked off the season this past weekend on the Salmon River in ID. We were in Salmon for a youth hockey tournament and, with some time between games, decided to hit the river. We lucked into several nice steelhead…amazing fish with which I have little experience. On the way home, we made a feeble attempt to fish the Big Hole but found it fairly choked w ice. Just yesterday, we embraced the ice and headed Holter Lake to ice fish for perch. Though its hard to beat a good hatch and rising trout, some good perch action isn’t far behind. So much fun and some outstanding table fare. It took me just as long to clean them as it did for my boys to catch them.
With some favorable weather in the forecast it looks like some trout fishing is in order for next week.