I'd like to take my drift boat down the Salmon River in Idaho on a Chukar / Steelhead trip. However, I don't have a clue where to put in, pull out, camping along the way, if it is dog/snake friendly, or the technical difficulties of the river. Can anyone help?

The Salmon is a long river, and there are many options, depending on what your equipment's like, what your skill level is like, what time of year (water level), and how long you want to go.

If you put in at Corn Creek (just past Shoup), you can't take out until Weiser, basically, five days later. Good campgrounds along the way, and lots of birds. Can be quite difficult (it isn't called the "river of no return" because it's nice and flat.

You can also put in as early as Stanley, but then you are basically floating along the highway until Shoup/ Corn Creek. Still lots of very good hunting opportunities for chukar, though, and technically not that difficult.

I would not recommend making the wildernis float on your own, without floating it with an experienced person, first. There are also restrictions (you have to draw a permit in a lottery to float during the season). In the off-season, permits are first-come first-serve.

Best suggestion I can make is to contact the Chamber of Commerce in Salmon, who should be able to direct you to the proper regs and authorities. HTH, Dutch.

Thanks Dutch. Can you suggest a stretch for a two day, one-overnight, hunting/fishing trip? I'll be in a Hyde drift boat and am of moderate rowing experience.

Let me ask some of the guys my wife works with --- who are avid floaters.

To me, the only reason for a boat is to get accross the river, so I don't have enough detailed info for you.

I'll try to get back to you in a bit. Dutch.

Dutch is paddling on the wrong river. If you put in at Corn Creek the first town you will get to is Riggins and it is quite a ways away. You will be in the Frank Church Wilderness area until you are within about 10 miles of Riggins. When you come out of the wilderness area you will have a crude road until you get to French Creek. The road continues on to Riggins. At Riggins the Salmon adds the Little Salmon to the flow and turns north and you might be able to float some of that and do some steelhead fishing and go for Chukar on the west side but most of it is private property. Quite a bit further north you join the Snake River and then on to Lewiston Idaho. BTW, it is easy to get confused as far as rivers in Idaho. It seems that most of them are named "some fork" of the salmon.

I used to do some of these cast and blast trips on the Snake near Pomeroy WA in my youth. Be forewarned,the canyons are very steep and very deep (3000 feet plus). The chukars are not at the bottom, much the opposite. If it were me, I would go to Riggins and float the river for fish and then take some side trips by car for birds. Each year we go thru Riggins on our way to a hunt in the Frank. The fishing in recent years in late October has been incredible for steelhead.

SBT- I have lots of family in the Riggins/Grangeville/Cottonwood area, and deer/chuckar hunt the area out of Riggins. You can put in at Riggins, and take out on the backside of Cottonwood, down Graves Cr. Road. Now that being said, I've never done it and dont know what the rivers like once you get past White Bird in the Canyons. I do know that everything you are looking for can be done right between Riggins and White Bird. There are tons of Chuckar there and Steelheading has been damn good the last few years. Just split it up, fishing in the morning and evening and chase quail and chuckar in the afternoon. And there are tons of chuckar in this country. No this is not snake friendly country. Lots of Buzztails in the area. My uncle who lives in Riggins has killed 4 at his place. Customstocks is right about the private land. Lots of it is owned but there is quite a bit of BLM/Forest Service that is accessable by boat. Hope this helps--Mike

Oh, Weiser, Riggins, I knew it was something like that.....

The biggest problem I see with the Riggins start is that it's some pretty big water. I've floated part of that a couple of years back, and you go down the river in a pretty big hurry. I don't recall any dangerous rapids there to the confluence with the Snake, but it's been a long time since I bummed around that part of the world (I graduated from High School in Grangeville).

Considering, though, that it is at least an additional 8 hr. drive. from Jackson, WY, to Riggins, I'd start by floating the upper end, say from Stanley on down. That's maybe a 5 hr drive, compared to 12 hrs. FWIW, Dutch.

SBT, no one has mentioned the level of difficulty on the salmon river expecially between corn creek and riggins idaho. Like Salmon Falls, above china bar. I run this section of river in a jet, up to china bar, never been above that. Excellent steelhead fishing and bird hunting but not for the unexperienced and not a short stretch, not sure how far it is from corn creek to riggins but china bar to the end of the road is about 35 miles I think. I would go with someone who knows the river before I attempted to float it sight unseen. Pretty nasty county if something goes wrong. Just my 02

We did basically the same trip with Agippah River Expeditions about 12 or 13 years ago. He is still in business and a quality outfit.

I can't speak for current conditions, but as Customstox said, the chukars are on VERTICAL terrain. My Lab spent half the trip trying to understand how the marsh got stood on end. On our trip, which was about mid October or a bit earlier, the steelhead were very scarce. I frankly didn't like the methods required to catch them, and didn't bother to try. One guy out of the 4 on our trip hung in there and caught ONE, but it didn't have the right tag, or whatever, and had to be released. Their numbers may have improved since then, or maybe not. Our guides said it was WAY too late for good smallmouth fishing, but they were WAY wrong. The Smallmouth fishing was superb, catching as many as a 100 a day. It just doesn't get any better, only different. As far as my fat butt was concerned, it beat the hell out of the chukar hunting which was as tough as you would not want it to be. However, the birds are there, if you can get to them. Sometimes they're even within a few hundred vertical feet of the river. Great trip, but be in shape, or plan on doing lots of fishing.