NF Coeur d'Alene Post Memorial Day

Ready for fun

The big holiday has come and gone and now the "main" fishing season is upon us. Memorial Day weekend kicks off the trout stream fishing for many with rivers like North Fork Coeur d'Alene, St. Joe River, and Spokane all being fishable this year right outta the gate.

Like we predicted last week, those three rivers fished about like we expected. I was able to fish the upper North Fork Coeur d'Alene River and the St. Joe River over the past week/weekend. Mike and Bo were able to get up the NF CDA as well last week. Both locations were good and all of our fishing reports lined up with each other.

Classic May fishing on the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River consisted of cutties looking for a chubby, golden stone, or salmonfly. Adding a dropper (perdigon, tungsten pt, frenchie, etc) two feet below racked up the fish count considerably. While hatches weren't hot and heavy, they rarely are here, we did see a mix of goldens and salmonflies (salmonflies were pretty far up the drainage), while yellow sallies, pmds, and drakes made up the smaller assortment. Prospecting with a stone/dropper was the way I prefer to fish until I find a consistent fish up feeding and then I would switch to a smaller pattern like a pmd to pick 'em off.

Bo and Mike reported similar fishing. They did toss some euro rigs as well and of course that racked up more numbers.

Later in the evening PMD spinners brought fish up consistently for some evening head hunting.

Angling pressure was about as expected, people were out, main areas were fished already by midday, but the more creative you are the more un-fished water you could have.

Oh... and let me reiterate... THE NORTH FORK OF THE COEUR D'ALENE RIVER WATER LEVELS ARE NOT TOO HIGH... IT IS ACTUALLY VERY BELOW AVERAGE FLOWS FOR RIGHT NOW.

Happy fishing!