We will be in Idaho (Boise) for the holidays. We plan to fish near Boise, like the Boise river one day and head over to Palisades (Henery's Fork) and spend a few days at my girlfriends cabin.

Before we come back home I would like to head over to Riggins/ Clear Water area and do some Steelheading. I was wondering if it's worth it ? (we can get a room and spend a few days before we come back to Boise to catch our flight, and if the fishings good we can change our flight ) . What other rivers (no more then 3 hours from Boise, as we will be driving more then enough while we are there) worth hiting for Steelheads?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You

Well, I have been waiting for an opportunity to make my first post and this seems as good as any.

I can't help with fishing near Boise or the Salmon River, but do know a bit about the Clearwater between Lewiston and Orofino. The river is really low this year although recent rains have raised it to near normal.

The whole highway Lewiston to Orofino has good water that should typically hold fish at this time of the year. But here are two of my favorites.

Try fishing with bobbers and black and white 1/4 oz. jigs tipped with shrimp tails above I think it is called the "Arrow Rock Bridge." The bridge is the first bridge that crosses to the South side of the river. The water is about 15 feet deep at the head of the hole. At this time of the year there should be some fish here, and usually big ones.

Try the same set up near Orofino. There is a turn off with lots of parking (and usually lots of fisherman).

Check out the fish counts over Lower Granite to get a rough idea of how many fish are in the river. I was told it takes everything from four to seven days for a fish to move fast from Lower Granite to the Arrow Rock Bridge. Good luck.

how far up the clearwater do you think you may be fishing? i do all my fishing up near ahsahka, im going over there in january for a week 1/2 to do some steelie fishing, it should be good by then, my fav jigs to fish over there is 1/4 black maribou with green head, or pink maribou white head..

Thanks for the info.

BB, I think we are going to stay in Riggins and fish the Big Salmon. The story is the steelhead are coming in and they have been doing well the last few days, till the wind picked up. We will also try Oxbow .