Coeur d'Alene Fishing Report 10.25.18
Coeur d'Alene River
The fishing here has been super good. Lots of great reports came in from this week and last week. If the good weather keeps holding out, we will be fishing in mid-November. However, it looks like we are supposed to be getting some cooler weather and rain soon. This will be a good thing though. Some cloud cover and a little rain will bring the blue wing olives out big time along with the mahoganies too. It will be a shorter window for the hatch, but it should be killer. As the weather gets colder, the hatches will be shorter lived. Nymphing in the mornings or streamer fishing will get fish before the hatches happen. Smaller sculpin patterns stripped quickly off the banks or fast riffles and you should catch some bigger fish. The October caddis are still out, and fish will look at them most of the day, but later in the afternoon, they will become more prevalent. Get it while it’s good guys. It won't be long until the snow is flying.
St. Joe River
Great reports here too folks. There is no need to hit it really early if you don't want to. The upper sections don’t see the sun at times, so the hatches may or may not be great in those areas. It's all about the water temp. now. So, until the water warms up, the bugs really won’t kick off. You can still pick off some fish with tandem nymph rigs or a streamer. So, keep changing up your game and moving throughout the day to find where the fish are podded up. Using small blue wing olives 18-20-22s in the flat water to the spooky fish will work great. Try running a mahogany dun with a smaller bwo cripple as a dropper, or a small soft hackle will work fine too. Longer leaders are more of a necessity now, 10 to 12 feet is not out of the question. This will help seal the deal on the tricky fish. The Joe is so beautiful right now. If the fishing isn't great, the scenery will make up for it!
Clark Fork River (MT)
Incredible! We have had some stellar reports in from the Montana side. There are big fish galore on dries for the majority of the day. You’ll want to use the same bugs here guys; blue wing olives, small caddis, mahoganies, October caddis, and midges. The nymphing has also been very productive too. Pat's rubber legs with a San Juan worm dropper in the fast pocket water or near the riprap banks will work great. A big orange stimulator with a #12 bead head dropper will be a great searching rig out of the drift boat from pods of fish to pods of fish. You’ll want to have a dry rod with a longer leader and a comparadun mahogany and a soft hackle dropper for the pods of fish. If you are getting refusals on this, switch to a blue wing olive or a midge and see if that works. The fish can be pretty selective this time of year, so make sure your first cast counts and keep the fly in "time" with their rises. It sometimes pays to watch the timing of the fish before you make a cast, so you know when they will rise. There can be so many bugs on the water this time of year that the fish can get in a cadence like feeding pattern. If your fly is going over the fish as it is going back down after feeding, you are out of luck. They may also only give you one chance too, so make it count. Technical yes, but tons of fun playing chess with these awesome fish.
See past reports from the CDA region here, or click here to view all northwest regional reports.