Coeur d'Alene Fishing Report 09.27.18

Coeur d'Alene River

The fishing is fantastic.  The weather is ideal right now and looks like we will be getting the same throughout the week.  Tons, and I mean tons, of spruce moths are out on the rivers now -more than I have ever seen before!  I’m not sure the fish are super keyed in on them, as I had marginal success fishing a spruce moth pattern over the weekend and saw only a few get eaten in heavy feeding fish lanes.  However, I think as the weather gets even cooler they will be more responsive to them.

You’ll find that mahoganies, blue wing olives, rusty spinners, small ants and hoppers are still out.  Also, midday will be your best bet for rising fish.  The nights are cold now and the sun really doesn't have a chance to warm things up until mid-morning.  So, there is no need to hustle to the river very early.  Midday to later in the afternoon is where it’s at.

There is plenty of October caddis out. A big orange stimulator skittered across the surface will be sure to draw a great explosive strike.  Or, if the small stuff is more your style, look for sippers in the flat water and fish a mahogany or blue wing olive dun with a small soft hackle as a dropper and you will be set.

St. Joe River

The fishing here is also equally as good as the Coeur d'Alene.  You’ll want to use the same bug selection here, lots of October caddis and mahoganies.  Due to the deeper canyon walls on the Joe, further up the river areas may not get hardly any sun this time of year. So, the hatches will vary depending on where you are on the river.

Now if we get the nice overcast days with no wind and a touch of rain, the blue wing olive hatches are off the hook on the Joe.  You will get a lot of mahoganies too.  Also, don't forget to throw a streamer or two in the fast water, the streamer fishing can start to pick up in the fall.  The standard stuff like sculpins in 6-8's, olive and black will do the trick.  Plus, make sure to have plenty of soft hackles in smaller sizes and try swinging them or stripping them in the riffles and hold on!  The soft hackle is deadly this time of year.

Clark Fork (MT)

The fishing here is incredible.  I fished the Clark Fork Sunday, and I wished I had this week off to go back! We had lots of fish willingly eat the big #8 orange stimulator.  They were not super aggressive when eating the big bugs but rather deliberate and slow.  They were on bwo's and mahoganies were great mid-morning to late afternoon.  Using a tandem rig with a bwo cripple or dun and a small soft hackle, or pheasant tail nymph in an 18-12 as a dropper will get the fish sipping the small stuff really well. Or, using a tandem soft hackle setup swung through the riffles will get clobbered all day.

If you want to catch as many whitefish as possible, fish a tandem pheasant tail or prince nymph rig in 3 to 4-feet of water with a bit faster flow than walking speed.  You'll stumble upon an occasional trout doing this, but the whitefish are in full force when nymphing this time of year on the Clark Fork.  Streamer fishing will be okay, but what fish you get on the streamer will be quality.  Big, light-blue/orange crayfish patterns stripped very quickly off the banks will find a good fish or two if you are tired of catching big sipping fish on little dry flies.

The fishing should continue to be killer this fall as the temperatures look good for the next couple of weeks and not too cold.  It is banker’s hours now. So, you’ll want to get to the river mid-morning 9-10 a.m. and stay until the afternoon when the fish stop rising around 5 p.m. or so.  Overall, it is perfect fall trout fishing now on the Fork.

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