Panhandle cutts make comeback
The St. Joe and Coeur d’Alene rivers have never been at the bottom of the list of places to go fishing in North Idaho. This year, however, they should provide the best fishing in decades.
“Joe Dupont, our stream biologist, has summarized all the cutthroat snorkeling trend information for the past 30 years, and those rivers are poised to have the best densities of large cutthroat that we’ve seen in recent history,” said Ned Horner, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional fisheries manager.
“The flood events in 1996 and ‘97 really knocked back the cutthroat populations to the levels we had when we started with restrictive fishing regulations in the early ‘70s. It’s taken this long to rebuild the populations, but now we’re back and the fishing should be really good.”
While the lack of snow pack raises concerns about summer stream levels and fish survival, Horner said the early-season fishing should be excellent, with the rivers likely to be in shape for the May 27 stream fishing opener.
Of course, the Panhandle offers numerous other good fishing options, with fisheries in the three largest natural lakes in Idaho, more than 40 lowland lakes, 80-plus alpine lakes, and about 2,000 miles of fishable streams and rivers.
About 156,000 trout are scheduled to be stocked in 32 Panhandle lowland lakes this year, although the fish come from hatcheries in southern Idaho and logistics sometimes interfere with stocking schedules, Horner said.
Additional thousands of cutthroat, rainbows, golden trout and grayling are stocked in about 34 mountain lakes.
Fernan and Hauser lakes near Coeur d’Alene are among the most popular lowland lakes for stocked trout and other species, and Lower Twin Lake has a reputation for producing larger-than average trout.
“Some of the smaller lakes that don’t get so much pressure are worth exploring,” Horner said, noting that a survey of trout in Smith Lake near Bonners Ferry indicated a good number of 14-17 inchers.
Any two of the popular and productive Spokane-area lakes, such as Fishtrap and Williams, might be stocked with more hatchery trout than all of the North Idaho lakes combined.
“We have relatively unproductive waters,” Horner explained. “We have to keep our stocking numbers down so the fish can grow.”
Kokanee also are popular in North Idaho, and another great year is expected at Lake Coeur d’Alene. “The fish should average around 12 inches this summer,” Horner said.
Kokanee also can be found in Spirit, Hauser, Lower Twin and Mirror lakes. The kokanee fishery at Lake Pend Oreille remains closed as biologists try to keep the fishery from collapsing.
“We’re encouraging anglers to harvest the midsize range of rainbows and mackinaw in Pend Oreille,” he said.
Fishing for warmwater species, such as bass, perch and northern pike, ought to excellent at most waters this year, Horner said. “The Panhandle lakes are mostly natural and not subject to drawdowns, so we tend to dodge the bullet of drought that might dry up some southern Idaho waters this year,” he said.
Lakes such as Cocolalla get a dose of hatchery trout, but they also provide excellent fishing for popular species such as perch.
Hayden is known for trout as well as bass and big crappie.
Lake Coeur d’Alene has it all, from chinook salmon and kokanee to trout, bass and northern pike in the main lake as well as in the lateral lakes along the lower Coeur d’Alene River.