Lake Pend Oreille Fishing Report 5-23-17

We are beginning to have our summer weather here in northern Idaho. For me, this translates to long days on the lake, and late nights on the river.

I recently had the chance to sneak away from work, and spend a few hours on our local puddle Lake Pend Oreille. The goal was to hook big Smallmouth on the fly, what I found was something I should have been expecting.

Learn to tie Dillon's Dill's Pickle bass fly right here.

The wind was dead calm, temperatures were in the 70s, and water clarity was great. We launched at City Beach, and started at the rock wall along the Long Bridge. Here we found a few healthy Smallies, but hooking them seemed to be an issue.

Plenty of follows and grabs, but hardly any hook sets. Is my fly too big? Should I tie the flies with a stinger? The part that puzzled me the most was that the bass had no problem finding the hook all of last summer.

Never did I once question the hook size then. We continued to throw flies with little results. Steph did manage to land one decent bass along the rock wall on the Fry Creek side of the Long Bridge.

Next I decided to take a shot in the dark and hit Anderson Point. This spot doesn't produce numbers for me, but occasionally I find a fat, 3-4 lb. Smallmouth off the points. As we pounded the shoreline, I noticed there were fish regularly rising behind us in the open water.

I quickly switched my fly to a #10 Black Woolly Bugger, and was hooked up a handful of casts later. The fish weren't big, but it was fun to find Cutthroat in a giant lake.

I suspect the Cutthroat and small Rainbows will be cruising that steep shoreline all the way to Bottle Bay, sipping #10 Black Ants, and looking for vulnerable nymphs.

They should be there for the next few weeks until the water temperature really heats up.

If you are looking for guidance on where to fly fish for bass or trout on Lake Pend Oreille, stop by our Ponderay location, and I will give you the "down low" on what's working.