N Idaho 4th Trip: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

Thanks to everybody (esp fishingmom) for the info on the St. Joe. I had the whole 4th-of-July week off, so I took off Saturday and headed to Spokane to visit a buddy there.

On the way, I stopped to fish a place I've driven by a dozen times and always wondered - are there any fish in there, or just woolly mammoths? (yes there really are mammoths still below the lake)

This time I had my float tube and fly rods, so I gave it an hour or so just to see. Turns out there are a lot of fish there. I caught a bunch of these:

and some nice bluegill and a couple bucket mouths. None of them were big, but it sure beat taking a nap in a rest area. On to North Idaho.

Sunday, Kurt and I fished the St Joe. I'd forgotten what a beautiful place it is. Oh yeah, and it's loaded with cutt's. And the best part - gas was cheaper in Avery than in Boise. How does that work? Here are a couple of the many we got that day.

Looks like I need to give Kurt lessons on how to hold a fish for the camera.

Then on Monday, I thought I'd try for some pike on the fly in lake CDA. I fished an hour or two from the tube with the most obnoxious charteuse and white pike fly I had. It was about 5" long. Perfect. I didn't catch any pike, but I did get a couple nice largemouths. I definitely don't have the pike on a fly thing figured out; I guess that will be my next challenge.

Back to work tomorrow. Only eighteen years til I can retire and every week will be like that.