With high water levels and cool temperatures, area lake fishing will be trickier, said Johnny Booey, fishing lead at Cabela's.

"Water is still high everywhere, but multiple species, including crappie, smallmouth and largemouth, can be caught when the weather holds," he said. "The fish are still pretty finicky. Slow your presentation down, size your presentation down. It's more of a finesse bite right now."

Crappie fishing on Upper Twin Lakes along the shorelines is a good bet.

"They're hitting about anything small and slow," Booey said. "Average size is 8-and-a-half to 9 inches."

Planter trout, bass, crappie and blue gill can be caught on Fernan.

"With this unusual cold spring, fish are not really moving anywhere in masses like they would under normal weather conditions," Booey said.

Fishing on area streams is still not good due to high water.

"There's still snowcaps on the mountains that would have normally been cleared by now," said Booey, adding that runoff in the rivers from the snow is still high.

Kokanee is biting the best on Lake Coeur d'Alene, said Jeff Smith with Fins and Feathers Tackle Shop and Guide Service.

"It's just like hammertime on the kokanee, it's unbelievable," Smith said. "There must be thousands of them packed in down there."

There is a catch limit of 25 on tribal waters, he added, and a limit of 15 on non-tribal waters.

"Folks are catching their limits either way, easily," Smith said.

Raleigh Turley, also with Fins and Feathers, suggested using lake trolls or weddings rings to snag the kokanee, using corn or maggots or both.

"They're real close to the surface," Turley said.

Smallmouth bass fishing is also doing well on Lake Coeur d'Alene, Hayden Lake and Lake Pend Oreille, Turley said.

The fish are sticking mostly underneath docks and against rocky shorelines, he added.

"A lot of guys are either running tube jigs, or they're running lipless crank baits or small bomber crank baits," he said.

The Coeur d'Alene River is starting to clear up, Turley added.

"Guys are really doing well up there on fly fishing and spin casting," he said.

Fly fishermen are throwing a lot of Orange Stimulators and Renegades, he said.

Spinning fishermen are running small spoons or Roostertails, he added.

He hold that the cutthroat trout are catch and release only.

Nothing much has changed from last week, which means the fishing is still good, but bound to get even better, said Blake Becker, at Black Sheep Sporting Goods.

When water temperatures hit the low 60s, spawning season will kick into full gear. Right now, temps are still in the 50s, but fishing is still going well, especially in the bigger bodies of water such as Lake Coeur d'Alene and Hayden Lake.

But largemouth bass, pike and crappie are the best bet at any of the area lakes.

Largemouth are in water five to 10 feet deep, chasing three to four-inch curly tail jigs, tube jigs, or cinco worms. Basically, all kinds of plastic baits are a good bet.

And if you want crappies, use 12-inch husky jerks. Tennessee shad is the best color for those patterns and pike are going after rapalas such as X-raps, and husky jerks, shaded Tennessee shad or fire tiger-colored.

Once the water warms, it'll get even better Becker said, so get out there now to fine tune the skills.

"It's just going to pop," he said.