The start to what was sure to be a great trip. I just returned home from a weekend of breathing fresh mountain air, wet wading a cold, clean alpine river, and sleeping under the stars. With North Idaho's playground in my rear view, I spent the majority of my three hour return trip home grinning ear to ear. The rivers of North Idaho have underwent their seasonal flush and the trend seems to be dropping, cold, clear, robust flows, priming the rivers for some excellent early season fishing. Hopefully the beginning to a cool, wet summer. I could not believe the variety of feeding behaviors we witnessed. Everything from lazy cutties riding the cushion of their bucket ready to chew a well presented dry fly to supercharged bank huggers chasing streamers out of their seam like a junkyard dog. The fish have had a steady food supply for a few mon...

Pet and animal shelters are always looking for help. Whether that be volunteering or donating, the goal of these shelters is to have those homeless animals adopted into a loving home. To help with this cause, Hill's Science Diet has implemented their program "Hill's Food, Shelter & Love" to nearly 1,000 shelters. This program helps shelters by encouraging others to volunteer, donate, inform pet parents on proper nutrition for your pet and ultimately adopt from the shelter. Furthermore, they have been providing food to these shelter to help these animals become and remain healthy with a complete and balanced diet. We, too, at North 40 try to help out as we can. One of the ways we help out is our Pet Adoption Program. The Pet Adoption Program at North 40 started with our Lewiston store. The members of the Lewiston store worked with th...

  Join Trout Unlimited and the Wild Steelhead Coalition for the Spokane presentation of Steelhead Science for Anglers on Wednesday May 11th at the Spark Center inside the Kendall Yards development in downtown Spokane. Great parking options abound as well as drink/dinner opportunities pre and post seminar. In focus will be renowned steelhead biologist, John McMillan, who's presentation will jump you light year's ahead in your understanding of steelhead behavior, what's going on in the conservation community, threats and challenges for our fisheries and probably some great stories from his years researching and fishing. Sneak Peak The theme will focus on the diversity of steelhead and will cover a range of issues that many anglers have long been interested in. For instance, do you know why steelhead are unique compared to salmon? Do y...

Recently, I had the opportunity to fish alongside two astounding anglers, my good friend, Don Reeves, and our guide, Scott Wilson, on the Yakima River. My familiarity with the Yakima is limited, which is unfortunate since it is a beautiful gem in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. Mostly, I go ripping along her banks at breakneck speeds in a desperate urgency to make it to Seattle to catch a plane; often catching a glimpse of her waters just long enough to give myself a mental lashing for not fishing her more. The Yak is a storied watershed that is at the heart of the Washington fly fishing industry. She provides tough proving grounds for young anglers who are desperate to learn the ways of her well taught and finicky finned inhabitants. Those that rise to the top and become respected guides on these waters can match skills with the bes...

Whenever you’re starting something new, it’s important to get off to a good start. The same can be said about fly fishing. If you’re just starting out, having your first fly rod, reel, line, and case all ready to go, the last thing you need is a no bite start. Just like everything else, if you don’t get results, you get discouraged, and sooner or later, that new fly rod will be sitting in the back of your closet gathering dust. I have seen this scenario happen far too often for my liking. So, in order to combat this problem, I’ve compiled a list of places to fish near Sandpoint, Idaho. I have found these spots to almost always produce fun trout, perch, bluegill, crappie, and bass. (Ok, so this one wasn't caught on the fly, but look at that face. That feeling of success is going to keep anyone coming back for more.) Round Lake ...

Nucanoe was founded on a simple phrase: "Get a billion butts in boats." We know simplicity works, and this is true for Nucanoe as well. The product does what you would expect it too it is a hybrid between a kayak and a canoe and offers exceptional versatility and customization options. I talked to Blake, the CEO, and he told me no two Nucanoes are alike some people use them to fly fish and strip them down to drift, some people motor them up to get more mobility out of it. A story that really stuck out to me was that of an older customer 75 years and had been kayak fishing for decades. He wrote into Blake and told him until he found Nucanoe, he thought his kayak days were over- getting into and out of a traditional kayak had become too much for him to do, but with the open Nucanoe design, which makes it much easier to use alone, this gent...

For episode 15 of #AskNorth40, we were asked about the durability of West Paw Products. To answer, we facetimed Mary from West Paw Design who give us a run down on their products. In a nutshell, West Paw toys are made to withstand plenty of action and abuse as you and your pet enjoy playing, tailored to both indoor and outdoor play. West Paw Toys for Indoor Play There are times when you can't go outside and let your dog play in the yard or the park. Whether it be a rainy day or simply not feeling like going outside, there are still ways to play with your buddy indoors. Games of tug-o-war on the couch, small fetch games in the hallway or open areas of your homes with a Hurley bone, or giving them a treat dispensing toy like the Tux are great ways to engage your pet without going outside. These games work well with smaller, indoor dogs, bu...

Fishing on the Coeur d'Alene River this last week has been great. Lots of bugs mid-day has made for some happy anglers with plenty of solid fish stories to tell. River flows continued to fall all week, making for great water visibility. Many variations of may and stone flies are definitely in the air. I was able to float from Big Hank down to Shoshone this past weekend with great results on March browns and JC specials for drys. The 20 incher and Trina's micro copper stone produced good results under an indicator. Streamers in brown/olive also helped us land several hearty fish. With that being said, it was definitely the Crowd Surfer Salmon fly that produced some of our most hair raising action; including one fish that broke off on 2x that will haunt my dreams for a little while. Skating this dry with large aggressive twitches was just ...

Surprise On The Clark Fork April 13th was an odd day of fly fishing for me to say the least. It was a cloudy day, temperatures in the low 50s with off and on rain. A perfect day to chase a BWO hatch. I headed to the Clark Fork with hopes of hooking into a few trout on some dries. It didn't take long for me to realize that there were zero bugs in the air or on the water. I tossed my dry dropped combo around for a while without any action. Greatly disappointed, I tied on a #10 green Drake Nymph and a #18 red midge under a trusty indicator. I get to the end of my first cast and hook into something big. As it turns out, I had hooked a great big, healthy sucker. I wasn't mad or disappointed because this fish gave me a great fight. But, I released him and cast out again. The Tagged One Five minutes go by, and I hook into another fish. This...