Coeur d'Alene Fishing Report 08.02.18

Coeur d'Alene River

The CDA is still fishing well in the mornings and evenings. Midday will be tougher fishing but doable.  If you decide to fish midday, nymphing and streamer fishing in the faster water will produce some results.  You’ll want to look for a combination of the fast pocket water with shade. Smaller hoppers with beetle, ant, or bead head droppers are the way to go.  You’ll also want to stay until dark for great dry fly action with caddis and pmd's.  Plus, using emergers in the riffles in the afternoon until dark will do wonders.  Smaller streamers, black wolly buggers, Near Nuff sculpins, slumpbusters are all good choices for streamer fishing.  Bigger bead head Prince nymphs or 20-inchers under an indicator with a smaller San Juan worm dropper will get fish too.

St. Joe River

Fishing is still good, especially in the mornings and evenings.  Water has come down quite a bit but is normal for this time of year.  The water temps are up as to be expected too.  So again, like the Coeur d'Alene River, or most any rivers now, you really should concentrate on the fast riffled water or pocket water with bigger structure like boulders, trees near the bank, or under cut banks.  Shade is your friend now too, so use a medium size or smaller hopper like a Morrish hopper, big secret hopper, or a chubby chernobyl in a smaller size. Also, you’ll want to run a deeper bead head dropper 3-4' down. This has been very effective.  Nymphing with shorter leaders is good too. You’ll want to run a bigger Pat’s rubber legs with a smaller bead head dropper or a San Juan worm dropper. Steamer fishing has been hit and miss. Last week it did exceptional and this week not so much.  You’ll want to keep at it and concentrate on the fast water. Keep moving through the runs and don't stay in one spot too long with the streamer, keep moving.  It looks like we are going to get a cool down soon so, this should help the fishing a bit. So, get after it!

Clark Fork River (MT)

Fishing is good from first light until 10-11:00 a.m. in the morning. You’ll then want to take a long midday break and hit it hard again just before dark.  During the early morning, the hopper fishing will be good, a hopper with a black foam beetle for a dropper is a killer rig this time of year.  Pound the banks and keep it moving occasionally with a twitch.  Tricos should be out any day now and this will be a big player.  You will start seeing podded up fish in some of the flat water sipping the tricos early morning to mid-morning.  This can be a frustrating hatch as the bugs are small and it is technical fishing.  Try running a pmd in a size 14 -16 with a trico spinner dropper.  You’ll want to try to make your presentation to the fish from upstream then down to the fish.  This will give the fish a fly first presentation and eliminate them seeing your leader.  As the summer progresses, the fishing on the Clark Fork will get a bit more technical with the weather being warm but coming into September the weather usually cools down. When that happens, it then becomes a bit easier and less technical.  In the meantime, get up early and stay late. This will be the norm for a while.

Read past reports from the CDA region here, or click here to view all northwest regional reports.