Coeur d'Alene Fishing Report 05.02.19

Coeur d'Alene River

It's on!  Flows have dropped quite a bit in the last week.  This morning at Cataldo the river is running 3,500 cfs.   This is an amazing flow for this time of year.  There have been lots of great reports coming through in the last couple of days.  Skwalas are out and there are also lots of March browns too.  This weekend should be fantastic.  Whether you want to nymph, streamer fish or dry fly fish, you will catch fish on any of these techniques.  The mornings will be better for streamer or nymph fishing, and the afternoons will pick up with the dry fly fishing.  An olive chubby chernobyl with a longer bead head dropper will be a great set up all day on the Joe.  You’ll want to have a good assortment of soft hackles too.  If you find fish up in the flats, try a March brown adult trailed with a soft hackle for an emerger.  You'll find the fish will favor the soft hackle usually.  The temperatures are going to rise into the 70s by the weekend, so it should be fantastic fishing.  As we know, the rivers will start to rise as the weather warms up.  But, man, it is going to be good for the next week!

St. Joe River

Same report here, folks.  It's going to be amazing.  We are looking at flows at Calder today at 4,140 cfs. Again, an incredible flow on the river.  If you want to do some walk/wading or floating, you are good to go.  At this time, we’re not sure how far up the river you can get due to the snow on the road.  To Avery, you should be fine but, beyond that, I haven't heard of a road report.  They do not plow above Avery during the winter, so it takes a while for the upper river to be clear of snow.  The passes from Wallace and over St. Regis will still be a while before you can get over them.  It will likely be the better part of a month before they are open.  We are going to be in good shape for this summer -nice slow melt this spring with the cooler weather.  Hopefully, we will get some rain this summer to keep the water cool.  The same players here too as far as bugs go; skwalas, March browns, midges, blue-winged olives and you might even start to see a caddis or two.  Sculpins in the morning and high floating skwalas in the afternoon.  Stonefly nymphs down deep will get fish too.

Clark Fork River (MT)

Well, it is not ideal today, but by Sunday or Monday, it might be good to go.  It is currently at 18,300 cfs at St. Regis.  It will fish better at 14 to 15,000 cfs.  Now, this is still a pretty strong flow.  So, if you are new at the oars you will need to heed caution.  Be on the lookout for back eddies with strong currents and be careful if you drop your anchor.  Keep in mind, these are big flows and you should be careful.  The fishing should be good though.  Same bug selection on the Fork as the Joe and CdA, There is an exception that we may start to see some gray drakes as well.  Plus, skwalas, blue-winged olives, midges and plenty of March browns. The Clark Fork can be finicky.  So, if things aren't popping on top just stay down with a double nymph rig.  You’ll want to use a bigger stonefly for your lead fly and a smaller bead head nymph as a trailer.  San Juan worms work well this time of year in high water.  Also, try dead drifting a big crayfish or rubber leg woolly buggers as your lead fly and a bead head nymph for a dropper.  There are some rather large crayfish in the Clark Fork, and the fish love them.  With the cooler water temperatures on the Clark Fork, the big rainbows are going to be hot!  Still, a ton of snow to go so get it while it's good.

See past reports from the CDA region here, or click here to view all northwest regional reports.