Rain isn't spoiling fishing in North Idaho
DAVID COLE/[email protected] | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 5 months AGO
<p>Ella Yde, 7, catches a fish at the Youth Fishing Derby in Rathdrum on Saturday morning. The Rathdrum Parks and Recreation Department and the Fish and Game Department stocked the creek with approximately 800 fish at Rathdrum City Park for the event.</p>
<p>Ella Yde, 7, counts the fish that she caught at the Youth Fishing Derby In Rathdrum on Saturday morning. The Rathdrum Parks and Recreation Department and the Fish & Game Department stocked the creek with approximately 800 fish at Rathdrum City Park for the event.</p>
<p>Leah Yde, 4, hooks a fish at the Youth Fishing Event hosted by The Rathdrum Parks and Recreation Department and the Fish and Game Department at Rathdrum City Park.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - The smallmouth bass in Lake Coeur d'Alene are hitting on tube jigs along rocky shorelines and edges of docks.
And pike are still biting in the shallower 4-to-6-feet depths at the edge of the weeds.
"They sit there, lurk and wait for something to swim by," said Jordan Smith of Fins and Feathers Tackle Shop in Coeur d'Alene. "The pike follow the weeds."
The chinook salmon in the lake are still biting on the orange and red size herring with a helmet. The plastic helmet helps preserve the bait.
"It helps the herring roll at a rate that the salmon out here like," Smith said. "Keep it simple for them."
The chinook are at depths of 35 to 60 feet, Smith said.
Kokanee are biting down by Harrison and Harlow Point, he said. He still recommends the red, pink and orange wedding rings with an attractant.
Pat Way, of Orvis Northwest Outfitters in Coeur d'Alene, said the rainy weather this past week has made for tremendous fishing on the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River.
"There are good green drake hatches in the rain," Way said. The blue wing olive also like the rain and low pressure, he said.
The low pressure and rain make it easier for them to break through the water surface. Happy bugs make for happy fish, he said.
He recommends Prichard and upstream.
"It's been kind of the only river out here in the west that's been good," Way said.
The St. Joe and Clark Fork remain a week or two out from being ready.
As the weather changes from rain to sunny and warm this week, Way said that could bring more insect hatches on the Coeur d'Alene.
Insects like the caddisfly need a bit of a bump in water temperature, Way said.
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