I spent last weekend with a local friend, AJ Morris, fly fishing his favorite river in North Idaho. He has fished it for years and seems to know its every nuance. I have visited the river only a few times since moving to the region, myself, though I have enjoyed fishing there each time. Since fishing, for me, consists of more than catching trout, this means I have also enjoyed the beauty surrounding the river, the animals giving life to that beauty, the companionship of my friend, and so on.
My views are not unique. Archaeologists have confirmed that the river’s drainage has been inhabited for some 12,000 years. The Nez Perce or Nimiipuu, descendants of those ancient inhabitants, live there still. And I know that my Nez Perce friends find the area just as important to their lives as their ancestors did, despite profound changes brought by settlement, dam-building, and other damaging activities.
Author and Trout Unlimited CEO Chris Hunt describes Northern Idaho, from a fly fisher’s perspective, in Fly Fishing Idaho’s Secret Rivers (The History Press, 2014). He writes:
From a fishing standpoint, northern Idaho is defined by the Clearwater River drainage. The Clearwater itself is a legendary steelhead river, even today, with all the impediments facing Idaho’s oceangoing rainbow trout. But all the rivers and streams that come together to form the Clearwater have a fishy legacy that rivals that of any system in the state.
Hunt is the Director of National Communications for Trout Unlimited, and his words ring true. In fact, these rivers and streams really rival those found in many other parts of the world, too. The same can be said of their beauty.
The Literary Fly Fisher 
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