Trout Unlimited’s River of No Return Chapter published a fantastic October newsletter featuring this story about Deadwater Slough by John Loffredo, and we enjoyed it so much we wanted to share it here!
If you’ve been down river of North Fork, Idaho, you’ve seen Deadwater Slough — a unique stretch of river with quite a history. If you’ve spent time around here in the winter, you’ve probably seen some pretty impressive ice jams as well! John dives into Deadwater’s history and explores its ecological impact on our salmon runs. He notes that Deadwater may hold as many as 13,000 predatory northern pikeminnow, capable of consuming an estimated 22,000–193,000 juvenile Chinook salmon during the fall outmigration.
Northern pikeminnow are native to the river, but smallmouth bass are not — and we caught a fair number of them this summer! Smallmouth bass can put additional pressure on our native fish populations, including trout.
While we’re not happy to see them here, we figured we ought to put some pressure on the smallmouth bass ourselves. Come join us next summer when the temperatures heat up. We’ll float Deadwater, do some smallmouth bass fishing, and hopefully take some home for fish tacos. They may not be great for our native fish populations, but they sure make a good taco. 🌮
Interested in giving it a try? Check out our Streamer Fishing Trips here: https://kingfisherriverco.wetravel.com/users/kingfisher-riverco
Give John’s article a read, and we hope to see you on the river this summer!
