Rifleman Goes Fishing - 40 Year Family Tradition (Fishing Trip VLOG)

This is a video log of our (nearly) annual steelhead fishing trip to the Clearwater River. We fished several spots along the river between Lewiston and Orofino, Idaho. Steelhead fishing is a challenging but rewarding adventure, but it is not for the restless. Fishing times are usually around 2 hours in between strikes and you can't always keep the ones you land. Fish that are considered native to the river (vs hatchery fish) are not legal to harvest.

Steelhead are an ocean going rainbow trout living around 4 - 6 years and spending 2 years in the ocean between spawning runs. Even with hatcheries working to preserve their numbers, they are pushing up against the threatened species list. Part of that is due to a growing sea lion population at the mouth of the Columbia River. Both Oregon and Washington consider the sea lion to be protected so they don't do anything to manage the invasive species that they are. Sea lions wait at the mouth of the river and as the steelhead and salmon make their run up the river, the sea lions hunt them and take just a single bite out of the belly of the fish to eat the eggs and leave the rest of the fish to waste.

The steelhead fishing season in Idaho is constantly evolving with harvest ranging from normal limits to limited harvest and sometimes no season at all. This year they moved the season up by a month. This trip was a little more challenging for us to move schedules around... we could only spend 3 days on the river this year instead of our normal 2 weeks. I didn't bring my good cameras and I was having some issues with my phone so the videos are a little limited, but I hope you enjoy what I was able to get.

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