CLEAR OFF YOUR CALENDAR FOR BRUNS

Clear Off Your Calendar For B-runs

A decent run of larger hatchery steelhead is returning to the LewistonClarkston area this season, and they’re biting well.

By Jeff Holmes

The Lewis and Clark Valley and the towns of Clarkston, Lewiston and Asotin have felt like home since childhood. My family took frequent winter getaways here to escape the Spokane County snowscape, and I have continued those visits my whole life, especially when it comes to steelheading in the winter. I love visiting the valley and its laid-back pace of life, great restaurants, fine drinking establishments and inexpensive lodging, and I make several trips every winter. Lewiston and Clarkston are great, but it’s undeniably the wild landscapes and waterways that draw most of my attention.

The valley is home to the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, and its proximity to these and other famed fisheries – as well as the Blue Mountains, Hells Canyon and Idaho’s vast working forests and wildernesses – earn Lewiston and Clarkston my vote for best Northwest sporting town. Frankly, nothing comes close when you consider the diversity of hunting opportunities and the amazing fishing for steelhead, salmon, sturgeon, trout, kokanee, trophy smallmouth, catfish and even walleye these days as they make their way into the waters above Lower Granite Dam.

But steelhead rule the valley’s

Kiley Mitchell of Yakima tied into a big ol’ hen this December on Idaho’s Clearwater. Famed for its two- and three-salt B-run steelhead, the river is in top form this season after the run over Bonneville was unusually comprised of 80 percent two-salt or older (bigger) fish. One-salt A-runs, which usually comprise 80 percent of the run over the dam, did not show, making other fisheries a little tougher but leaving Clearwater anglers likely to be smiling throughout winter and into spring. (MITCHELL SPORTFISHING)

fisheries, and despite some lean years due to bad ocean conditions, fisheries surrounding the LC Valley have offered the most reliable steelhead angling upstream of Bonneville. That’s true again this season, with the Grande Ronde and Snake offering good angling and with the Clearwater and its extra-large steelhead in especially stellar form.

A very large return of perhaps 20,000 hatchery steelhead – most of which spent two and even three years gorging in saltwater –has been providing excellent fishing all season in the Clearwater, and that excellent fishing will continue throughout January and beyond. It seems strange that the Clearwater’s fishing would be so good given the modest returns over Bonneville this summer, but those modest returns are due to the dismal returns of one-salt fish that typically comprise the majority of the run over the Columbia’s downstreammost dam. In 2022, 80 percent of the total run is comprised of two-salt fish whereas during a strong run like we saw during the 2000s and early 2010s, 80 percent of the run is comprised of one-salts. As a result, a large number of those two-salt fish are bound for the Clearwater since it historically produces a much higher proportion of two-salt fish than other popular fisheries that are dominated by onesalts, like the Snake and Grande Ronde. The bottom line is that there are lots of big fish in the Clearwater in 2022, and this winter is a fantastic time to combat cabin fever and plan a guided or self-guided trip.

TRAVIS WENDT OF Reel Time Fishing (208790-4113) is one of the most respected steelhead guides on the Clearwater, the river where he got his start as a 14-year-old high school sophomore working for the owner of Reel Time Fishing (reeltimefishing.com), Toby Wyatt. Wendt worked for Wyatt every weekend during high school and also spent three to four nights a week at his shop cleaning boats and curing up bait during steelhead season. As he progressed through high school he began to learn more about fishing techniques, reading water, operating the boats, and teaching clients. So when it came time to make a decision on what to do with his life, he decided to build on the hundreds of hours he’d spent supporting guiding for steelhead and stuck with it.

In 2008, at age 18, he became the youngest guide on the Clearwater, a title he held up until just a few years ago. Taking a similar route to Wyatt, Wendt earned a business degree from Lewis and Clark State College, bought a boat and then went to work guiding in 2011. He has since been a full-time steelhead guide alongside Wyatt on the Clearwater every October through March. I’ve wanted to work with Wendt, and with Wyatt being in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, dialing in his new

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Travis Wendt (208-790-4113) of Reel Time Fishing (reeltimefishing.com) and his clients, like this one, have been returning happy to boat ramps in 2022, and that will continue this January in the new year. Wendt prefers plugging, bait divers and sidedrifting the big, deep winter holes where Clearwater steelhead reside in winter. (TRAVIS WENDT)

offshore boat and presumptive new business venture, it led him to ask me to reach out to Wendt when I reached out to Wyatt. I’m glad I did. I’ve known Wendt for a few years and asked him recently to sit down for an interview since he and his clients have been landing a lot of big fish –and because he’s on the water every day.

“The Clearwater is a very special steelhead river, no question one of the world’s most famous because of

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Craig Mitchell of Yakima’s Mitchell Sportfishing (mitchellsportfishing.com) took a weekend off from guiding and headed east toward the LC Valley to catch big B-runs with his wife, Kiley. Many religious steelhead enthusiasts, like the Mitchells, have made the pilgrimage to the holy waters of the Clearwater this winter. This January is a great time to take a family or significant other to enjoy laidback dining, wineries, shopping and some easy living in Lewiston and Clarkston – along with some river time.

(MITCHELL SPORTFISHING)

our B-run steelhead,” says Wendt. “A B-run steelhead is a genetic strain of steelhead that spends more time in the ocean and is much larger than most other strains in the Northwest. I have taken out many anglers who have become loyal or even addicted to the Clearwater and the size of steelhead we catch here. It spoils some anglers, and they won’t steelhead fish anywhere else.”

“Although the Clearwater has dealt with some struggling returns in the past several years like all our Northwest steelhead fisheries, even on a bad year we have still seen 8,000 hatchery fish swim 450 miles to the Clearwater,” says Wendt. “On good years like we have this year, we will see upwards of 20,000 hatchery fish make theirtrek back to the river. And these fish are built really different from coastal summer steelhead. Our fish enter the Columbia in August or September packed with the fat they will need to survive eight months in freshwater before spawning. So even in January, our steelhead fight like crazy and still cut OK.”

“Along with being a reliable bigfish fishery and an especially awesome one this year, what also makes the Clearwater a special steelhead river is the length of the season and the fact that these fish stop and hold throughout the winter,” says Wendt. “It makes them easy to target. B-runs wander a lot and spend time on the Columbia and Snake in pretty random, only somewhat reliable areas. But as we approach January the bulk of the run is in the Clearwater, and if we have cold water in December, those fish slow down and tend to hang out in the deeper buckets. For the most part in January these fish congregate around Dworshak National Fish Hatchery near Orofino, as well as the South Fork Clearwater and up around Clear Creek near Kooskia. This really allows us to target holes with a higher concentration of fish that don’t tend to move around a whole lot.”

“Another plus side to the Clearwater is our hatchery systems, since we are almost always able to provide harvest opportunities whereas many other steelhead fisheries don’t. A normal harvest season on the Clearwater allows for two hatchery fish to be kept in the fall retention seasons (September 10 to October 14 and November 10 to December 31) and three hatchery fish in the spring season (January 1 to April 30). The river is catch and release from October 15 to November 9. Historically, the river was catch and release prior to the October 15 retention season, but Idaho Department of Fish and Game made that change for the 2022 season due to a complicated mix of reasons. It seems to be working out.”

“THERE ARE THREE primary types

of steelhead fishing that I do as a Clearwater guide, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other techniques that work just as well or sometimes even better, but these are the three I know very well and am very confident in with all clients,” says Wendt.

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The Clearwater can be fished from the bank in the winter quite effectively, but the best way is in a boat, and the best way to learn the river for bank fishing or boat fishing is to go with a guide. Here one of Travis Wendt’s clients shows off a nice buck. Clearwater bucks color up early in the fall after only a short time in freshwater, but don’t let them fool you. They enter the Columbia system in late summer more loaded with fat than any other Northwest steelhead. Had it not fallen to Wendt’s client, this fish would have lived off its rich fat reserves from late summer through early spring. Upriver summer steelhead are a totally different breed than coastal summers and fight like hell, even in late winter. (TRAVIS WENDT)

“The first is back-trolling plugs. Once you dial yourself in, this technique is very simple and very effective, especiallyif you run into fish that are tight-lipped or in very cold water temperatures. Running plugs in January you want to target the slower, 8- to 15-foot pockets. My primary plug is a 3.5 Mag Lip,made by Yakima Bait. There are many other options for plugs out there, so use what you are confident in as long as the plug dives to an appropriate depth for the water you’re fishing, which tends to be deep in January.”

“At certain times running a diver and shrimp is also a great technique. If I’m fishing shallower than 15 feet, I will use a Brad’s Standard bait diver or Mud Dog-style diver. If you can get your hands on fresh sand shrimp, you’re in the game; however, that’s tough to come by upriver, and cured coon shrimp also works very well behind a diver. Some days the fish will push deeper than 15 feet and then I go to a Jet Diver. I use the 50-foot divers because I know they will dive to 30 feet with no problem, but also will fish as shallow as 15 feet. Basically, the colder the water, the deeper the fish will be on the Clearwater.”

“The other technique I use is sidedrifting beads, yarnies or bait. This is very effective, but it requires more skill as a captain and as an angler. Boat control and positioning is key, as well as having people on the rods who can consciously determine the difference from the bottom and a fish, which can be very difficult at times. In January the water is cold, so the fish don’t bite thathard, and sometimes you won’t feel them bite at all until your rod loads. But once you rip back, you’ll know immediately you have a monster B-run hooked up. Of course, bank anglers use other techniques, and floats and jigs and also old-school drift fishing are very popular on the Clearwater in January.”

“Normally, B-runs average 32 to 34 inches, but we have been catching more 36- to 40-inch fish than in past years thanks to our hatcheries no longer spawning small A-runs with B-runs,” says Wendt. “B-runs now get spawned with B-runs, and as a result our hatchery fish have been chunkier and longer. As a general

rule of thumb, a 40-inch steelhead weighs right around 20 pounds, which is extremelyrare, and you don’t see or hear of fish that big being caught frequently, but what is awesome about the Clearwater is the next fish you have biting your line could very well be that 40-incher or maybe one even bigger. I personally have heard and seen picturesof two steelhead over 20 pounds this year, and both were caught by our clients, one on a guided trip with us and another was fishing on his own in his personal boat.”

While Wendt’s bread and butter is Clearwater steelhead fishing, and this is a really good year to book a trip with him, he targets a diverse array of other fish too. His spring months focus on trophy smallmouth on Dworshak Reservoir, which are by far the Northwest’s largest and some of the biggest in the world. The state record from Dworshak is 9.72 pounds and is cruising to be broken.

Wendt also chases spring Chinook on the Clearwater, catches and releases oversized sturgeon on the Snake River in Hells Canyon (as well as smallmouth), and pursues walleye and smallmouth on the Snake in various locations. He also spends most summers in Alaska, guiding for Chignik Bay Adventures where he targets Chinook, coho, sockeye, halibut and lingcod.

WHEN I VISIT Lewiston and Clarkston, which I do all four seasons and which are separated by only the Snake River, I definitely have some favorites.

These days I primarily stay at the Hells Canyon Grand Hotel in Lewiston, which despite the impressive name has really affordable, large, clean rooms and is perfectly located with a giant parking lot that can accommodate my boats in a well-lit area. I also sometimes stay in for dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, Meriwether’s Bistro, which is really good.

But I generally like to go out on the town with friends and prefer Hogan’s in Clarkston as by far my favorite bar, upscale bar food, and part-time live music venue. It’s in the valley’s original sporting goods store building on Main Street, and I freaking love it. I also enjoy Clarkston’s Saute on Sixth and Fazzari’s Finest Pizza, and in Lewiston I love the Mystic Café for breakfast, Bojack’s for the weird, oldschool giant dinner and famed bite-size steak, Bravada’s Hells Canyon, and lots of other places including the food cart pod (“The Food Yard”) on Snake River Avenue.

Basically the LC Valley is, for me, the perfect jumping-off spot for many of my favorite fisheries, morel hunting grounds, and hunting grounds. I can’t recommend a trip highly enough. I’ll be fishing the Grande Ronde and the Clearwater out of the LC Valley this winter, and the Snake is another option for steelheaders who want to avoid crowds in a sportsman’s paradise. NS

To Bait Or To Bead?

Trends. What funny things they are in life. Seeing recurring trends grace us again FOR THE LOVE with their presence By Sara Potter OF THE TUG always amuses me. They may be slightly different than their inspiration, yet we know we have seen them before. In junior high my girlfriends and I rocked bellbottomed pants as if we were straight out of the ’70s, even though it was 1996. Seeing peg-legged pants reinvented with this generation surprised me, as I thought that silly trend would stay buried. It did not.

Traditions. What special things in life they are. Learning and sharing passion and the ways of the world from one generation to the next – how incredible!

Both trends and traditions bring excitement into our lives, allowing me to see the beauty in being human. Drift fishing is a tradition I’ll never let go of; that is for certain. But as far as what I tie on, I realize some things I wouldn’t have seen as much more than a trend 10 runs ago are in fact here to stay. In seeing this I believe some traditions in the steelhead world might have to be kept alive simply because we love them, not necessarily because we need them. IN THIS PAST 10 runs of life I have put a great amount of thought and passion into pursuing the majestic winter fish. It’s no secret, I by far prefer to drift fish for them. Bouncing the bottom, waiting for that magical feeling of life is second to none.

In the beginning it was all about yarn. Yarn and eggs; yarn, Corky and Pro-Cure. As long as I had yarn I was good! Yarn holds scent best and isn’t fussy. It stays put exactly as I perfectly position it in my bait loop. I’d use multiple colors of yarn if I so desired; quite simple, quite deadly. I landed 16 winter steelhead in my first real year on the bank. I didn’t dabble in the hearsay of these beads or those floats, though others did.

Sara Potter will probably always be partial to using yarn, eggs and a Corky for winter-runs, the go-to method that really set her on her way, but she’s also gradually gained confidence in using a bead, naked or otherwise. (SARA POTTER)

I would say I was an old-school fisherman, even though I was not old, nor had I fished long. I found success and a massive amount of joy in this method and those riggings. As much as possible, I made sure to catch a river dropping into shape after a hard winter’s rain. To this day I will put my money on these oldschool methods when the river is olive green and dropping. One should never underestimate the beauty of some yarn with scent and a Corky when the fish are on the move and the river is coming into shape. The way they work together between the weight of the yarn and the Corky’s ability to float, I find they ride just right in the water column and the fish will seek them out in that high olive water and gladly eat it. Oh, man! It’s good stuff.

I HAVE TO remind myself often, though, that if we aren’t growing, then we aren’t truly living. Yes, it’s true I could have stayed cozy in my world of yarn, Corky and eggs, but I’m thankful certain people came into my life and shared beads with me when they did. Seeing the fish want them like they do firsthand was a game changer.

Brandon Wedam of BnR Tackle came into my life by fate. It was funny, as I was indeed intrigued by the idea of a soft bead; matter of fact, Santa had just put my first BnR soft beads into my sock and I couldn’t wait to give them a whirl in the run ahead. It was mildly wild to meet Wedam on my river a month later, as we were both guests on a TV show.

On that day in January 2015 I got a firsthand lesson on his product and gained a friendship that has never wavered in my time on the river or within this industry. I have to say, I have loved watching him and his product grow. With tests and trials Brandon has tweaked his product since 2009. In recent years he has developed a legit bead stop, which is honestly a must. His brand is top of the line, as he has put a great deal of passion into it and I can easily say he has been an innovator in the now booming world of soft beads. I’m super grateful the river brought us together when it did.

Nowadays beads come in all forms and are well on their way to taking over. Soft ones, heavy ones, acrylic ones, rubber ones, foam ones, glass ones, spiky ones, small ones, big ones! Holy beads! I have to say, these beads are in fact deadly once you figure them out. Each one fishes slightly differently than its competitors. Some are far deadlier than others, but make no mistake: The fish want them.

Honestly, in the beginning of my beading I struggled, possibly because I had zero confidence in what I was fishing, even though I knew they worked – I’d seen that with my own eyes. I had to work my way to where I felt confident in what I was doing, as fishing a method with confidence is damn near as important as the rigging itself.

So, what did I do? I hunkered my soft bead down with yarn. It gave me the slightest comfort in what I already knew, I suppose. Little by little I became comfortable with beads, to where now I prefer a naked bead when beading. That single egg presentation bouncing down an emerald-green winter river is legit! In fact, it’s too legit to quit!

Soft bead guru Brandon Wedam of BnR Tackle with a handsome wild buck caught on yarn and eggs. “I really love that in all my years of fishing with him he isn’t against using other lures,” writes Potter. “Getting to watch that bite, that pull, was super rad.” (SARA POTTER)

FINDING CONFIDENCE IN beads increased

my chances of success and has no doubt evened the playing field for winter fishing as a whole. Everybody has beads nowadays and I truly do see why people love them. Simple, quick, effective, no mess, not much effort is needed to rig them up – what’s not to love? Steelhead slam them when they want them, producing a far different bite than I had encountered, literally hooking

A freshly caught hen’s egg skeins represent bait in the making. Cured roe clusters are a messier alternative to beads, but also their

inspiration. (SARA POTTER)

themselves at times in ways I have never seen! It’s radical, really!

However effective they might be, I never want to not know that pull, that loaded feeling as a steelhead chews on some good old bait and yarn. Let them pull at your heart strings, and then you return the favor! That’s got to be love! One must execute correctly on that pull if one intends on fighting that fish, and I like that!

There is a fair amount of precision when concocting these riggings. Bigger is not always better, I have found. Natural beauty outweighs the flash of flamboyance when it comes to steelhead and bait. It’s very different than the gobs of a bright bait you use for springers. I have nabbed fish on nothing more than my finely trimmed yarn and egg and skein remnants. Bigger isn’t always better for these fish. Water clarity, of course, is a factor, but even then I brighten up my yarn in murky water but keep my eggs evenly matched with my size 2 or 4 Gamakatsu octopus hook. Yeah, there is a bit of effort, a mild stink, and we’re forced to use numb hands more often, which isn’t a bad thing. One must give far more attention to a rigging of this nature more so than a bead; maybe that’s part of why I like it.

Finding things in life that help make things a little easier seems to be the trend nowadays, and as this easier route is indeed effective, I will hop on board. However, I will always cling to the little traditions in my life, yarn and bait being one of them. Fishing will always evolve, just like life. We can let things go or we can hold onto them. The choice really is our own. My heart is on the river and I couldn’t change it, even if I tried. NS

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