Page 50 - North 40 Outfitters

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 t...

Missouri River The Missouri is down near 5,000 cfs and likely slipping to the upper 4,000 range soon.  Water temperatures are moving into the upper 60’s in the afternoons.  Wet wading is a joy right now.  Trico’s, caddis, and still some larger mayflies are about. Nymphs Lots of flies are working, but the general theme is something big up top like a zirdle/crayfish, bugger or a larger #12 nymph above a standard #16 or #18 small nymph.  In warm weather with rising water temperatures during the day, the best fishing is usually before noon.  In the afternoons, the fish are generally settling deep unless you get lucky and find a midday hatch. Dry Flies Trico’s are the major player, and if you can get on a good female hatch followed by the male spinner fall, you can be in for hours of casting to rising fish.  Headhunting for sipper...

Rufus Woods (WA) The very hot days we have been experiencing seem to be letting up a bit for the next week or so. With the forecast of the highs being in the mid-80s' and the lows in the mid-50s', fishing should improve a little. Depending on where you take a water temperature reading at Rufus, it seems to be running from 57-62 degrees. Luke McKee and I were just up there, and fishing wasn’t too bad. We were a little late getting on the water, someone overslept (me). Once we got the boat on the water, we made a short run up river. After trying a couple of different streamers, Luke hooked up a nice 4-pounder on a blue/black Kreelex streamer. I switched from my streamer rod to my 10’ nymphing rod, rigged up with a black/blue balanced leech. I set my indicator at the 6-foot mark and picked up a few that way. We were no...

Lochsa River (ID) The current flow is 782 cfs at Lowell with high water temperatures happening in the middle of the day. Fishing will be the best in the morning and evening. Anglers are reporting that small baetis have been producing more fish versus a bigger pattern. You’ll want to use a size range from #16-20. Fishing the big attractor patterns should work too. If they don’t, try skating and giving the fly some life on top of the water. This works in desperate times. Keep in mind, depending on the time of the day, construction delays vary from 15-20 minutes. North Fork Clearwater River (ID) The current flow is 1170 cfs at Canyon Ranger Station. Although the water temperatures have been getting into the 70's in the middle of the day, folks are still reporting some great fishing. We do not recommend fishing when the water reaches tha...

Clark Fork River (ID) Currently flows on the Clark Fork are bouncing from 4,000 to 35,000 cubic feet per second daily. The water temperatures are around 65°F and clarity is between 7-8 feet. Right now, the best fishing is when flows are between 4,000-10,000 cfs. Caddis, pmds, western yellow mayflies, rusty spinners, hoppers, beetles, and ants are all on the menu. If matching the hatch isn’t working, try throwing attractors like a #14 purple rocky mountain mint, a #12 purple chubby chernobyl, or a #10 tan J Slam. Streamers like a #6 sculpzilla and #6 zirdle will work too. Lake Pend Oreille Water temperatures are around 71-76°F and water clarity is between 7-8 feet. Mornings and evenings have been the best times to fish the lake. Ski boats take to the water around 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., so if you wish to avoid the waves, fish outside that w...

Hi everybody.  I’ve been getting lots of e-mails and calls asking me what the steelhead run is looking like this year and what we can expect in the future.  So, I figured it was time to give you all an update. This particular update is going to focus on Idaho’s hatchery returns as they are the ones that provide us our fisheries and these are the fish most people are asking me about.  I am going to break this update down into two sections.  One will focus on the hatchery steelhead that are returning to the Salmon River and Snake River upstream of the Salmon (A-run populations) and the other will focus on the Clearwater River return (B-run population).  A-Run Populations (Upper Salmon River and Snake River) For those of you who have been tracking the dam counts, you are probably aware that this year’s steelhead counts at Bonnevi...

Hi everybody.  I’ve been getting lots of e-mails and calls asking me what the steelhead run is looking like this year and what we can expect in the future.  So, I figured it was time to give you all an update. This particular update is going to focus on Idaho’s hatchery returns as they are the ones that provide us our fisheries and these are the fish most people are asking me about.  I am going to break this update down into two sections.  One will focus on the hatchery steelhead that are returning to the Salmon River and Snake River upstream of the Salmon (A-run populations) and the other will focus on the Clearwater River return (B-run population).  A-Run Populations (Upper Salmon River and Snake River) For those of you who have been tracking the dam counts, you are probably aware that this year’s steelhead counts at Bonnevi...

The fly fishing industry today is flooded with more options of floatants and dry shakes than the average fisherman can comprehend. With so many different types of gels, liquids, dusts, and drying-beads available, stopping at the local flyshop for a quick in-and-out purchase may take longer than expected. Hastily grabbing the wrong floatant off the shelf may get you out on the water quicker, but will cause more headaches than a good beer can relieve. For those who don't know, some floatants are actually better than others. The performance of floatant correlates directly to the type of application you intend and the product you select. Here are a few pointers to consider the next time your gel goes dry. Fly Fishing Gels: What are These? Various gels continue to be the most popular floatant used by fly fisherman today. Why? The answer is ...

Like most years, there is always some hype when it comes to the “latest technology” in graphite or some new nano resin that supposedly makes rods stronger, lighter, and more accurate.  Tip tracking, hand weight, balance, feel and soul are all things that casters talk about when picking up new rods.  Fly rod representatives fill your head with so many buzzwords that they practically make up your mind for you before you cast the rod.  Cutting through the hype, buzzwords and other non-fishing related terms I have come up with a review of this year's rods that I had a chance to cast at the 2018 IFTD show in Orlando, Florida. Orvis Helios 3D and 3F D is for distance, F is for feel.  The best part about this rod is the grip.  Orvis has a very unique grip that is almost a full wells grip, but not as bulky as other full wells grips.  I...

The J Slam is a fly that we will continue to carry for years to come. Recognized as one of the best cutthroat trout flies around Idaho and Montana, the J Slam is a fly that floats like a cork and looks like...well truthfully, I don't know. Is it a hopper, a stonefly, an ant? The answer is -yes. Does it come in purple? Yes! The J Slam features super buggy legs, a bright body, and foam over the top. That makes this fly a great attractor pattern, as well as a terrestrial. When fish are looking for beetles, ants, bees, or stoneflies, this fly is a great way to get attention. This fly has proved to be a great fly on the water. Add the J Slam to your gear today!

Patagonia's got a New Wading Boot Sometime in February, I was in Paul Considine’s office, who is our fly fishing buyer at North 40 Fly Shop.  We were going over spring travel plans, and fairly sarcastically he said, “Patagonia’s got a new wading boot… it’s $500 and they want us to come check it out in Portland.”  “Why Portland?” I asked.  “Danner is going to make it.”  I think we both thought that it was interesting but there was no way we were going to interrupt a busy schedule to fly to Portland in the middle of the week to see a $500 boot.  Our bestselling premium boots at that moment being about $200 or less. Patagonia's new wading boot won this year's IFTD Overall Best of Show. Here are our picks for Best of IFTD 2018. A few weeks later, Dexter Levandoski, our Patagonia sales representative followed up with ...