El Nino is in full affect here in North Idaho

El Nino is in full affect here in North Idaho. Rain on ski hill everyday combined with warm winds is making normal winter activities a chore. On the bright side of things, the water temps are still in the low 40’s providing some fishing opportunities. Kokanee are still spawning in a few of the local creeks and there are some big fish hanging out with them. The Clark Fork River has been putting out a few fish and there are even some midge hatches during the heat of the day if conditions are nice enough.

On Tuesday we went a swung some flies searching for a bull trout or post spawn brown. With 15’ of T-18 we searched some of our favorite runs with only a few grabs to show for it.

Fishing on Lake Pend Oreille has been good still. The water temp is around 41 degrees from 150 feet all the way to the surface. Fish are still keyed on flies and plugs near the surface. There are thousands of post spawn kokanee floating near the shore and the shoreline is full of bald eagles right now.