We have brand new Fly Fishing Drift boats on the Middle Fork and wood Dories on the Main now, so it is a really amazing new way to experience the rivers. The drift boats on the Middle have large fishing casting braces that are padded for easy casting.

The huge rocker on the wooden Dories makes the wave trains on the Main Salmon just amazing. It feels like being in a gondola in Venice but you are floating on a historic wooden boat in the largest roadless wilderness area in the us, seeing incredible historic relics of a time past and meeting present day pioneers along the way. Dave and Sue at Yellow Pine Bar makes knives with mountain mohagany handles all from the old cable at Campbell’s Ferry. Heinz and Barbara at Buckskin Bill’s and Phyllis and Doug at Campbell’s Ferry share their intimate knowledge of the canyon with us. After riding a Dory on the Main you will think the elegance and grace and style of the Dory is far superior than a rubberized raft. In fact I’ll make a bet with you that you even call regular rafts “ugly” after riding with us down the Main Salmon.

Middle Fork Salmon River fly fishing is one of the most popular activities in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Fly fishing can be a challenge, but it’s also one of the most rewarding hands-on experiences nature can provide. Here are a few things that might help you get the most out of fly fishing Idaho or anywhere else for that matter.

Try Different Retrieves

Most fly fishers cast, and then they pull back their fly with the same speed, the same smooth motion, and the same pacing that they’ve used for years — for many of us, it’s second nature. But while this might work often, sometimes you just run into a batch of fish that’s feeling lazy. They can’t be bothered to charge after a bug that’s zipping long at what they see as a rapid pace. Similarly, some fish want a fast-moving, energetic bug to snap up.

The end result is that, if your normal retrieve isn’t working, you should switch it up. Mix up the speed — make it quick and jerky, or slow and smooth, or slow and jerky, etc. Twitchy retrieves work particularly well on fish that can’t be bothered to do any chasing
and want to snag something that looks injured.

Change depths

Some days, fish hang out near the surface — other days, not so much. That means that if your floating line isn’t working, it’s time to grab one of those sinkers that will have your fly slowly moving toward the bottom until you start your retrieve. Wait different amounts of time on each cast until you figure out where the fish are sitting today.

Fish Downwind

If there’s a decent wind blowing, go to the downwind side of the river. It’s a small effect, but the wind tends to blow the bugs and other fish food, and the fish often gather on the side of the river that has all of the food blown over to it. This move alone can mean the difference between wasting your day and hooking several decent ones in an afternoon.

The Main Salmon River Details are as follows.

MEETING PLACE: Stagecoach Inn, Salmon, Idaho (flight is $190 from Boise)
MEETING TIME: 7:30 PM, the evening before your trip
RETURN PLACE & TIME: 10-11 am arrival at Boise Airport by Cessna Airplane from the river
RIVER RATING: Class III
RIVER MILES: 56 river miles
PUT-IN: Corn Creek
TAKE-OUT: Mackay Bar Ranch
AGE LIMIT: Minimum age is 5 (12 at high water)
TRIP LENGTH: 5 days

ITINERARY
 Please arrive in Salmon, Idaho the night before the trip begins. Salmon is an hour flight from Boise, which costs approximately $190/person and can be arranged through Sawtooth Flying Service (800-798-6105). We have a pre-trip orientation at the Stagecoach Inn (208-756-2919) at 7:30pm the evening before the trip begins. We will get acquainted, answer questions, and have a short orientation to show you how to pack the waterproof gear bags we provide for your personal gear. Please note flight from Boise to Salmon and lodging at the Stagecoach Inn is arranged on your own.

DAYS 1 ~ 4
Upon launching our rafts at Corn Creek, 3200 feet above sea level, we journey into the pristine heart of the Frank Church Wilderness, each day brings new discoveries: exciting rapids like Salmon Falls, Big Mallard and Growler, historical sites such as Buckskin Bill’s homestead and Jim Moore’s place (maybe you’ll find the fortune he buried in the hillside!), and the much anticipated Barth Hot Springs. Avid hikers may enjoy a challenging climb to Rabbit Point, where the beautiful views are well worth the effort of getting there. The fishing is excellent during these days, and on trips in July and August, warm air and water temperatures encourage frequent refreshing dips in the river. Evenings find us relaxing by the campfire, playing horseshoes and listening to the river and watching for shooting stars! On night 4 we overnight at the Mackay Bar Ranch for showers and beds and a festive farewell dinner with the guides.

DAY 5
We say farewell and take a morning flight by Cessna 5 seater airplanes to the Boise Airport. We should arrive by 10-11am so schedule your flight after 12 noon. If you drove to Salmon for the meeting and did not drive we can fly you back to Salmon instead of Boise, just let us know.

The Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho is the premier wilderness rafting trip in the US. It flows 100 miles of Wild and Scenic free-flowing river through the largest wilderness area in the US. The canyon is the second deepest in North America.  The Middle Fork of the Salmon is unspoiled, remote and roadless so you can be sure you will “get away from it all”.  Simply put, it is the best river run in the West!

Middle Fork River Expeditions, licensed and bonded outfitter, has run safe and well-managed river trips on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho and are celebrating our 30^th Anniversary in 2010. Trips are 4 or 6 days of exciting river rafting, wilderness camping, fine fishing, and adventure travel. Our equipment is specially designed for wilderness whitewater rafting, and offers mild and wild boat choices (oar boats, paddle boats, inflatable kayaks and stand up paddling surf boards!).  Our river guides are seasoned professionals, licensed by the state of Idaho and First Aid Certified. They are expert river runners, magnificent cooks, great storytellers, and knowledgeable, helpful outdoorsmen.

Join Middle Fork River Expeditions for a magical wilderness river vacation this summer!

Idaho’s rivers access some of the most pristine terrain in the country. They are home to abundant flora and fauna, an impressive network of hiking trails, and some of the country’s best whitewater. No river displays all these characteristics quite like the Main Salmon River. The Main Salmon is the longest un-dammed river in the U.S.A, and also boasts the second deepest canyon. The Main Salmon offers free-flowing Class III whitewater that’s great for any age and experience level, big sandy beaches perfect for camping and playing, beautiful mountain scenery, abundant wildlife, and a natural hot spring are all hallmarks of the Main. Perhaps inappropriately dubbed the “River of No Return” by early river runners, the Salmon is in fact a river you’ll want to return to again and again.

Trips are 5 days of exciting river rafting, wilderness camping, fine fishing, and visiting historic home-steads along the way. Our equipment is specially designed for wilderness whitewater rafting, and offers mild and wild boat choices (oar boats, paddle boats, inflatable kayaks and stand up paddling surf boards!). We also bring along an 18 foot Wooden Dory named Hen Wen and fishing drift boats on most departures. Our river guides are seasoned professionals, licensed by the state of Idaho and First Aid Certified. They are expert river runners, magnificent cooks, great storytellers, and knowl-edgeable, helpful outdoorsmen.

Join Middle Fork River Expeditions for a magical wilderness river vacation this summer!

Let’s take a trip town to Riggins to do some steelhead fishing, Idaho style. The nights are cold this time of year, so we can’t expect the fishing to be anything other than tough, but sometimes the river just calls. When that happens, you don’t have any choice but to make do with what the river will give you.

The drive out to Riggins will be relaxing; the snow is receding and the deer and elk are out in force by the sides of the roads — nature is getting in on this little trip long before we’ve gotten anywhere near the river. Did you bring binoculars, or a spotting scope? There’s a magnificent bull elk that hands out regularly at the rest area just this side of Rapid River; if you’re lucky, we’ll see him along the way.

Once we get to Riggins, we’re going to be putting down in a couple of places: Short’s Bar and the Riggins Park. Each is teeming with steelhead, but getting a bite won’t be as easy as it sounds in this weather; everyone’s feeling conservative in the cold, even the fish. The gentle breeze combines with the midday sun to make it actually pretty warm out, but we miss the first hit of the day because we’re distracted by a deer.

Finally, a few hours and a couple of lure changes later, the first hit! It’s a small crappie jig, so we have to fight the steelhead carefully — and fight it does. Several minutes later, certain of our victory, we start to reel the tired fish in, only to have the hook go straight on us, and the steelhead start making its way back to the Pacific.

As the evening starts to set in and the midday warmth leaves, we huddle in and devote ourselves to fishing Idaho‘s most elusive steelhead until we have something to bring home. Finally, an hour later, as the first drips of what promises to be a small monsoon start to fall, another solid hit, and this one doesn’t seem to have the will to fight — good thing, too, because neither do we. But our desire to put this trip in the ‘win’ column wins out over our fear of getting wet and the steelhead’s determination to be anything other than our dinner.

Victory is sweet.

If you wish to bring your pooch on the Middle Fork of the Salmon or the Main salmon this summer, it is possible with MFRE. You just need to give us a resumer for your pooch and see if h/she is a good fit for a river trip. If they are, then they need a life jacket and we need to double check everyone else on the trip is ok with a dog on the trip. We sometimes bring along Corndog, Dusty’s Dog or Sammy, Scott’s dog. Dogs must be well behaved and not beg and be good with people of course. It is a great way to bond with your dog and the family. They are great to have along, we are dog friendly. That said, we have only had a few trips were people brought there dog, and it always works out that the other guests love them.

Come join us this summer and don’t leave your well trained dog at the kennel!

Yours for rivers, James

MFRE just purchased two 16 foot Hog Island Mckenzie Drift boats to use this summer.  These boats have large padded casting braces on the bow and stern.  This makes for some amazing fishing.  These boats are also indestructable, made of HDPE plastic in a process called Roto- Molding.  There is a You Tube video about chainsawing one in half and it still floats with three fisherman floating in a lake!  Amazing.  The stern has a large captains chair fishing seat and the bow has a 125 qt padded cooler to sit on.

Come Join us this summer on the Middle Fork of the Salmon in style with these new drift boat options.

Fish on!

Yours for rivers, James

If you’re into steelhead fishing from a drift boat Idaho has some of the best places in the world to get your lure on. Drift boat fishing is probably the most common method used to catch steelhead, but it’s also one of the hardest to get good at. You’ve got to have the right equipment, a clear understanding of how steelhead move and think, and the ability to distinguish between hooking a steelhead and bouncing your lure off of a rock or a log.

That last part is the hardest. When you’re dragging a piece of lead with a lure and hook attached across the bottom of one of Idaho’s hundreds of lakes or rivers, you’re always going to run into natural debris at the bottom of your waters of choice. Even steelhead fishermen with decades of experience have been known to pull up their line after what they thought was a simple rock bump and found evidence of a bite that they simply misread. The mastery of this skill is beyond the scope of this simple article, however: you’re just going to have to learn through experience.

Fortunately, while the skills may take a lifetime to master, you can get started drift boat fishing Idaho with a small investment in the right gear.

The Rod
Your drift boat fishing rod needs to be firm enough that you can feel the bottom as you bounce over the rocks and gravel, but flexible enough to not snap when a big steelhead starts fighting you from 30 or 50 yards out.

The Reel
Your reel needs to match your rod. A bait casting reel — or level wind — takes some getting used to, but they are very effective drift fishing tool, as they let you release additional line while maintaining control. If you’re using light lures or fishing from the banks in areas with lots of natural obstacles, a spinning reel can be the superior choice.

The Line
Your line can be braided or mono according to your preference, but should generally run at least in the 10- to 15-pound test range.

Leaders
When drift boat fishing, you’ll always want a leader that’s lighter than your main line, because the chances of getting snagged on something and having the line break are much greater than in other styles of fishing.

All of the other gear choices are essentially matters of opinion, but follow this advice with your gear, and learn to master the art of telling a bump from a bite, and you’ll be well on your way to drift boat fishing Idaho like the veterans.

MFRE purchased two C4 Waterman ISUP’s (Inflatable Stand Up Paddle) Boards last summer and had a ball! It was amazing to surf on the river in the calm sections and around camp at night. You can kneel and use a kayak paddle, stand up adn use a ISUP paddle, or lie down and paddle like a surfboard.

It’s amazing to experience the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in this way. It is even better yet on the Main Salmon RIver where the water temps are warmer and there are huge beaches to camp on. This makes the perfect place to learn this new and fantastic sport in the largest Wilderness Area in the US. The Main Salmon River Canyon is deeper than Grand Canyon. Both rivers have loads of hot springs. Imagine, ISUPing down the river to a natural hot spring shower that is natural and on the riverside. You paddle up and jump under the 104F waterfall and receive a back massage from the pounding of the spring on your back. Then jump back on the ISUP and peel out into the current from the eddy and head downstream. Sounds like a dream but that is what is happening out there is you just allow yourself to take a leap from fear and embrace the wilderness. The ISUP is one more tool in the quiver of river craft that MFRE provides to give you the ultimate experience.

Come Join us this Summer!

You’ll get those ripped abs you always wanted while ISUPing the Salmon River.