Fish Tips

Posted: Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008 - 10:24:27 pm PDT
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Mike Satren

Reaching for September

The days of summer dwindle down to a precious few as fishermen wait for the shorter days of September.

"In August the fishing just kind of goes, pfffft," " said Randy Johnson of Sportsman's Warehouse. "It's my least favorite month of the year.

"We're waiting for some cold weather."

Johnson may not have long to wait. Indeed, Coeur d'Alene Climatologist Cliff Harris recently ventured that later September could bring night lows into the 20s even in valley floor locations.

September has other benefits for fishermen besides a general lowering of temperatures which wakes up aggression and feeding instincts in many fish. As school starts, weekend sports activities draw families off the water and back onto sports fields freeing up water that anglers then reclaim.

That holds true for stream fly fishers, too. Josh Seaton's "vinyl hatch" of tubers fails to find the same allure floating down the Coeur d'Alene River in September as they did when temperatures soared.

Smallmouth bass

Smallies continue to be a bright spot in local fishing fun, especially on Coeur d'Alene and Hayden lakes, not to slight the upcomer, Pend Oreille.

"Three- and 4-inch grubs are still working well -- as are the Beaver lures -- and colors vary depending on conditions," said Randy Richards of Tri State Outfitters. "On calmer, clearer days, it usually means that Pumpkinseed and Watermelon will work. On cloudier or choppier days, it seems that chartreuses, whites, clear or smoke works better."

Richards likes the northeast end of Hayden Lake, the shoreline off Harbor View or the point off Tubbs Hill on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Randy Gardner of Fins & Feathers Tackle Shop still likes the plastics, too, either jigging or drop shotting.

"I start hitting shorelines, points, docks, anything I can find for smallmouth," he said. "The main thing is to be in 20 to 30 feet of water and I don't care where it is."

Largemouth bass

"Largemouth slowed down a bit when that cold spell hit," Gardner said. "They're still catching a few but not as good as it was."

Richards cautions not to give up on them, though.

Besides plastics in Camo or Watermelon, try Countdown Rapalas in Perch or Fire Tiger, spinnerbaits in black or black and chartreuse, or Rapala Husky Jerks in Glass Perch or Baby Bass.

Northern pike

Pike should be getting older and bolder as September arrives. Even now they will hit almost anything, Richards said.

Larger plugs, spoons or spinnerbaits all work. Try the back (north) end of Hayden, most bays in Coeur d'Alene or the Chain Lakes.

Gardner had a smallie on last Saturday and as he reeled it in, it suddenly got much heavier.

"I thought I'd hung up," he said. "I looked down and there was a pike about that (32 inches) big and he had my bass completely in his mouth.

"I couldn't even see the bass."

Gardner hoped for a twofer until the pike spat out the bass and took off.

His boat was in about 26 feet of water and he figured the pike came out of a weed bed not too far away in shallower water.

Kokanee

Coeur d'Alene trollers have through Monday to catch kokanee in non-tribal waters before the season closes for the rest of the year.

Of course they've been hard to catch and not many anglers have been trying.

"Right when it gets good, right when you have a better chance of catching them, the kokanee shuts down," Gardner said.

Mackinaw

Macks are hitting on both Pend Oreille and Priest lakes, although Pend Oreille Macks seem to be slowing their bite a bit.

Richards thinks it is because the lake is starting to turn and the fish are fluctuating between depths. Most of them are still between 60 and 90 feet but some have been caught as deep as 150 feet.

Drop shotting is still the method of choice but handliners are doing well, too.

On Pend Oreille try fishing around the islands on the north end, the deeper waters outside of Garfield Bay and, of course, Whiskey Rock, Richards said.

Up on Priest Lake, trollers can be successful pulling Green Perch or Frog Lymans or U-20 Flatfish between Bartoo and Kalispell islands or between Bartoo and Four-mile islands, also known as "Mack Alley."

Small lakes

Trout fishermen can do well from shore on our family waters using orange or fluorescent red PowerBait, night crawlers or marshmallows.

Spin casters would do well with the green Blue Fox Vibrax, the green Caddis Roostertail, or the straight silver Mepps Aglias.

Trollers should pull a standard Jack Lloyd or Ford Fender with a night crawler set up.

Or a Rebel Crawdad in brown, a size-3 or -5 Countdown Rapala in Perch, or smaller Flatfish or Lymans in Frog or Rainbow.

In spoons, try Needlefish in Bikini or silver and red, Krocodiles in straight silver or metallic blue, or small Dardevles in red and white.

In Fernan, they've been catching a few trout, some bass and big channel cats, Gardner said.

Steelhead

Johnson is looking forward to going down to the Clearwater this fall with two buddies that have drift boats.

"Steelhead should be phenomenal this year, it should be a bang up year that everybody dreams about," he said. "The numbers are just staggering."

It's also the time to fish steelhead with dry flies.

Lots of A-run steelhead are holding in the lower Clearwater waiting for cool Snake River water to beckon them home.

With an 8-weight setup, either single handed or double (spey) handed, throw Bombers from size-4 through -10.

Two favorite patterns are big foam Chernobyl Ants or big drunken double-floam Humpies, said Jeff Wilson of Castaway Fly Fishing Shop.

Another good choice is a Steelhead Caddis, a bigger version of an elk-hair Caddis with lots of hair up on top.

For wet flies on the swing, try a sink-tip line or an intermediate sink line.

"There's a lot of water in that system so the fish are holding kind of deep," Wilson said. "If you're going to go underneath, you're definitely going to need to get that fly down."

Try Green-butted Skunks, Purple Perils or String Leech patterns. Fish seem to be real sensitive to the size of the fly.

Fly fishing cutthroat

Even though the weird weather last week made it hard to call the river cutthroat bite, all in all, it's actually been quite good, Wilson said.

Water temperatures are great and Wilson is eagerly awaiting the great flying ant hatch that usually happens at the end of August and the beginning of September.

"They usually build and build and there'll be like three days when there's just blankets of them on the water," he said. "Then it'll kind of taper off after that."

Terrestrial patterns work well and rust-colored mayflies are coming out on the Clark Fork and there's more caddis than usual already.

The St. Joe River has been consistently good but a week of stable weather should get everything jamming right along again.

"Milder sunny days in the 70s is just perfect."

Ah September, these precious days we'll spend with you.

Just make it out on the water.

Mike Satren is the Hagadone News Network outdoors editor. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2015, or by e-mail at msatren@cdapress.com. Remember to review appropriate rules and regulations before fishing.