Northwest Fishing Reports

Wasn't sure which forum to post this on since we're hoping to do both lake and stream fishing, but here it goes. My wife and I are taking a camper for 4 days to Idaho to explore and fish. This is our first trip there so its part fishing and part info gathering for future trips. We're thinking about leaving the boat home and taking our float tubes, but we also love stream/river fishing. We hope to find nice quiet somewhat remote camping areas either in a camping park or just along a nice river or lake without the world camping around us. Of course we are also hoping to find some of Idaho's legendary blue ribbon trout waters in hopes to at least having a chance to catch more then just stocker sized trout. I am partially disabled so I can't go on long hikes anymore, but don't mind a moderate amount of effort to find "the spot". I figure with the seasons feeling like their changing this should be a great time to trout fish, especially brown trout.

So, please give me your insights if you know anything about fishing and camping in Idaho. Where pretty good at exploring, map research, scouting, etc. but would love some advice on narrowing it down. We are planning to be in the northern "stove pipe" part of Idaho and possibly even wondering into Montana. I-90, Hwy 2, and Hwy 20 areas as prime corridors of travel, but we hope to eventually get off of those and travel a little more remotely.

Thanks for your help.

Dan

Your goal seems to be trout, so I moved it here.

It just might be a good time to start a couple Idaho forums. lol

Google Roman nose lakes, moyie, st Joe and n fork Coeur d alene rives......lots of options.

I was in Bonners Ferry for my work back in May for a few weeks. Moyie river was great. Got into a few brooks, 1 very nice 18 in rainbow as well as a very nice cut of about 16 inches. Person who took me showed me pictures of multiple Rainbows of well over 5lbs each pulled from the river. One picture of what they said was 15lb. Smith Lake nearby is a nice little easy access lake. Campground right there. Rainbows, Cutts and Kokes in there. I was going for Kokes. Average sized, 11-14 in. I did get into a few better than average rainbows. A little further east in Dawson Lake. Very float tube, Kayak friendly, they have a "no wake" rule on the lake. I tried for Pike/Muskie as I have never fished/caught any before. Still haven't caught any but I did have constant panfish action (lmb, perch, crappie).

I didn't fish it because it is just so freaking big, but Lake Pend Oreille from what locals told me can be extremely good fishing, and has just about everything under the sun in it. Lakers 20lb+ if you have the gear, bows, cutts and everything in between. Was also told if you don't know the lake, you won't catch a thing.

Hey guys, thanks for all the info... Very helpful. We decided to hold off until the 25th instead of this week. Weather should be better then as well. Any other info from anyone would be much appreciated. We're probably bring both the boat and float tubes and will probably be fishing for pike, lake trout, etc. as well as regular trout. Def. kokes.

Thanks again.

Dan