My wife and I had the chance to go to Washington state and Idaho. Visiting her sister and family, they were kind enough to kick me out of the house so I could Fly Fish!!! Now that’s what I call a great family!!!!
My first river was the Spokane river that literally flows thru downtown Spokane; you can find places to Fly Fish from the banks ask the locals, all very friendly. My first port of call was to the local fly shop Silver Bow Fly Shop. Very helpful fly guys turned me on to the streams and what flies worked well when I was there. I ended getting a guided trip down the Spokane River for the day with one of their guides, Gary.
Interestingly you start the float downtown, and off you go for about six hours, which was plenty of time due to the hot sun. He put me on so many Fish, chasing Red Banded wild Rainbows at the end of the drift my arm was aching so much casting. Caught plenty of fish and lost a few I should not have!!!
Next, I fished the Little North Fork Coeur d’Alene, wet wading, a mixture of dry flies and nymphs caught some very nice cutthroat trout, fished for about 4 hours. Easy drive, you can follow the stream via a dirt road that runs alongside it.
After that, we headed to Lake Pend Orielle, where we set up camp for a few days with my wife’s family. I could sneak off and fish some of the local streams catching cutthroat, browns, and rainbows.
Again, a mixture of dry flies and nymphs. I fly fished the Pack River, Grouse creek, Moyie River, and the mighty Kootenai River.
I spend one-day wet wading on the confluence of the Moyie river running into the Kootenai River. The Moyie is much smaller, but there were so many Cut Bows in the water about fifteen feet from me that they drove me crazy. I spent hours on them, tried every fly and technique in the book only caught two that morning, both on a big dry hopper.
They were holding there, giving me the finger!!! Funny enough, I did move over to the side of the Kootenai for an hour or so and caught a nice size Golden Sucker on my bottom nymph; he gave me a hell of a fight in the big, fast-moving water; great fun!!!!
After that, I waded up the Moyie catching some nice, wild rainbow, who took a black woolly bugger and a nice sized black stonefly. At the beginning of the day, I was lucky enough to bump into a local guide picking up a boat—Leeanna Young of the Last Resort Outfitters. We talked, and as it happened, she had just had a cancellation for the next day. Perfect, we set up to meet at ten the following day
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We left her base camp for a short drive around ten in the morning, putting in on the river about twenty minutes later.
Leeanna knows the river well and is a very accomplished guide and Fly fisherwomen, we started with three rods set up to cover all angles for the day.
First off, we were casting tiny dry flies. In a river this big and fast-moving, it can be hard to see the flies in the different sunlight, so you have to be on top of your game. The hits came quickly, and with fly cast out quite a distance, you have to be quick on the strike. At the start, I missed quite a few, but over time I got better at seeing and quicker.
Leeanna has a well set up Willie aluminum drift boat with plenty of room for two Fly fishermen /women, Ideal for drifting this big, fast-moving river.
When we fished, the Kootenai River was flowing around ten thousand cubic feet per second, but it can get up to thirty-five thousand cubic feet per second, so it can be a swift ride for sure.
Leeanna knows all the back eddies and took me many times back for a rerun on missed fished to get a better angle. The second-rod set up was for swinging big streamers, casting into the fast-moving water let it swing down thru the current, then strip back. I did miss one big fish using this method. Next, we went to a smaller lightweight nymph rig set up high, sticking the current; we did catch a few fish, however Leeanna put the rod down and promptly sat on it, breaking the tip off. Funny we had just talked about breaking rods, and there you go Murphy’s law came to play!!
Leeanna is probably my number one pick for a guide; she put me on a ton of fish, knew the river backward and forwards, told me OutFront that we would fish till dark as she wanted to be able to cover any hatches that might emerge. Leeanna has great enthusiasm and professionalism as well as catering to all my dietary needs, I’m a vegan no easy matter!!!! She has a unique way of cutting up whole Mangos!!!
The Kootenai river starts in British Columbia, winds into Montana, then down thru Idaho, eventually turning back into Montana. We started below one of the dams about thirty-five miles south of the Canadian border, very scenic float about elven miles long for the day. We were on the river from ten-thirty in the morning until just before dark getting off around eight-thirty at night; what a day!!
Wild Rainbows, Cut bows, and cutthroat trout. I lost count on the number of fish landed. I really recommend Leeanna Young as a guide; if you ever get up to that part of the world, give her a call, you will have an exceptional experience.
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Flyfishingwhynow 