What a fun and rare opportunity to fish for trophy Gerrard Rainbow Trout! Aaron and I received an invite from Jeff Layborn of Superfly Flies to join him for a day of hunting these amazing fish on Lake Pend Oreille. I was definitely “all in” and excited to see this awesome lake – it did not disappoint!

We met Jeff at 730am and had his boat in the water and fishing by 8am. Jeff runs planer boards and I got to help deploy the lines which was pretty cool to see how it’s done. Between the ten planer board rods and four downriggers we had fourteen rods running! On Pend Oreille there is, get this, no limit on rods you can fish. Seriously? Count me in!

The planer rods ran from surface to probably 20-30 feet with drop weights while the downriggers targeted the deep fish anywhere from 60 to 120 feet deep. A variety of plugs and flies were deployed. We used no bait. Pend Oreille has bull trout and cutthroat which are catch and release only.

The day started off quickly with a beautiful cutthroat caught on a fly off a planer board. Then we had a long stretch (and a couple naps) before Aaron grabbed a downrigger rod that exploded with a good fish on a plug. The fish was an estimated ten pounds and we quickly got a picture and released for others anglers to catch. Jeff is strictly catch and release on these trophy fish and I am 100% on board with that. These fish are a treasured resource to be enjoyed! The record for Lake Pend Oreille is over 30 pounds and now a days a fish in the mid-twenties is trophy sized.

Jeff ended the day with a “smaller” rainbow, probably 18” and very respectable anywhere else!

I am super excited to fish this lake again and search out a twenty plus rainbow. Check out superflyfies.com to see some of the high quality lures and gear Jeff has for sale.

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