Coeur d'Alene Fishing Report 09.20.18

Coeur d' Alene River

The fishing here is great right now. It’s such a great fall, with an occasional rain to help flows and keep the water cool, it has just been great.  There are lots of good reports coming in of great blue wing olive hatches and mahogany duns as well.  The October caddis are out and bouncing happily around.  So, using a big orange stimulator skittered through the riffles in the afternoon will get smashed for sure. 

If we get more overcast and rainy days, look for fish sipping bwo's in the tail outs and mahoganies as well.  There are a few chinooks in the system now and an egg pattern below the redds will catch some nice cutties.  Think Alaska style patterns for these fish -flesh flies, hot pink bunny flies will get fish in specific situations on the Coeur d' Alene River.  Things should stay great for the next few weeks as we are in the mid-60's with some overcast conditions and rain too. These are perfect fall conditions.

St. Joe River

The St. Joe River is fishing fantastic.  Banker’s hours here, guys and gals.  No need to get an early start. Go get a cup of joe and breakfast then hit the river around 9:00 a.m. in the morning.  Things really won't start picking up until the water warms up and the bugs start hatching mid-day and into the later afternoon. 

An orange stimmie with a bead head pheasant tail dropper in a size 12 will catch fish all day.  Plus, using smaller 16-18 x caddis with a small blue wing olive cripple dropper will work for the sippers too.  You’ll want to look for rising fish in the pools and tail outs in the slicks and lengthen your leader to 12-feet and 5x and make your casts count. 

Things can be a bit more technical this time of year but that is part of the fun.  Streamer fishing is still good. You’ll want to use smaller sculpins, meat whistles, and small woolly buggers.  The rivers are pretty vacant now, so you shouldn't have a problem finding a spot to fish.

Clark Fork River (MT)

The Clark Fork River is fishing great right now.  This is my favorite time of year to be on the Fork.  Mahoganies, tricos, blue wing olives are the players now.  Hoppers are still out and using beetles and ants mid-day will get looks.  Plus, October caddis works too. Again, keep them twitching once and a while and you'll get some aggressive takes.  Small x-caddis with a small soft hackle dropper will work well in the afternoons. 

Overcast days this time of year will do wonders for the hatches, so if you can pick a rainy or overcast day to hit the Fork, go! Take your time floating this time of year and pick a shorter float to do. If you find fish, take your time and hang out and pick them off.  The days are shorter and again banker’s hours this time of year, so things really don't get going until mid-morning. It will taper off as the sun goes down in the evenings.  Enjoy this time of year as we have such great fishing to be had on all local rivers, and the weather has been great.

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