Shop Fish Day Wrap-Up

No fish, no fun

It had been a year since we had the chance to hit the water together, so we shut down the shop for a day this week and got out for an R&R session on the North Fork Coeur d'Alene river. The shop life can get a little hectic this time of year, so I think we all appreciated a day where going fishing was the only priority. We did this around the same time last year and plan on making it a regular outing every Spring.

After the mandatory gas station pit stop for fuel and caffeine, we made it up to the river and got the boats in the water around 10:30. While Bo and Sean ran the shuttle, Mike and I plucked some fish on nymph rigs right at the boat launch. Once we pushed off, we ran dry-dropper rigs and were into fish right out of the gate. After enough action on the dry, (and untangling enough fish from the dropper rig,) we pretty much rocked a single salmonfly dry the rest of the day. It’s always nice when the cutties are behaving and want to eat a big foam bug.

We found fish in just about every water type, from shallow riffles to the deep green pools. We did notice that the fish seemed to prefer the sunny side of the river, most of the shady banks weren’t kicking out fish nearly as consistently. Based off the cold water temps, it made sense that fish were seeking out that extra couple degrees of warmer water. Anywhere you could find overhanging willows or downed trees seemed to be hot spots, since this is where the big stoneflies tend to hatch and helplessly end up in the water.

We saw the full spectrum of Spring hatches throughout the day. Plenty of Salmonflies fluttering around, March Browns, Grey Drakes, Yellow Sallies, Golden Stones and a handful of caddis as it warmed up. Even though we don’t get the mega Salmonfly hatches other rivers get around the West, there’s plenty of them to get the cutties looking for a big meal on the surface. There was a noticeable lack of fish actively rising, which could have partly been due to the stretch of river we were on. Whenever we saw a random rise, plopping the big dry on their head did the job often enough.

Flows were a little swift for prime wade fishing, especially if you were heading further upriver above Prichard. This will only improve over the coming weeks. We are basically on the back side of the Spring runoff. There might be a slight bump here and there on the super warm days, but I wouldn’t be worried about the rivers blowing out going forward. Get out there while it’s good! We certainly will be.

- Kenyon Pitts