Late spring fishing is excellent across our region. It is\npeak season for many ponds, lakes and reservoirs, which should be the focus for\nanglers when spring runoff makes our local rivers muddy, fast and\nunpredictable. Here are a few ideas to help you plan your next Idaho fishing\nadventure: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hit a Local Pond <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As I recently wrote\nabout in the Idaho Statesman<\/a>, local ponds are fun, convenient places to\nfish, especially if you\u2019re bringing kids. Idaho Fish & Game lists\n24 ponds<\/a> in the Southwest Region as Family Fishing Waters<\/a>.\nFor kids, I recommend ponds within city parks (Simplot, Kleiner, Settlers and\nMcDevitt, to name a few), which provide easy access, multiple species to fish\nfor and the added bonus of nearby playground equipment. For more serious\nanglers, places like Sawyer\u2019s Pond and Wilson Springs provide room to explore\nin a rural setting\u2014and they are home to some lunker\nfish<\/a>. The primary catches in most ponds are largemouth bass, bluegill and\nstocked rainbow trout. Some also hold catfish, crappie and carp. I find most\nponds are best in spring, before the weeds get out of control. Now is the\nperfect time, with plenty of stocked trout swimming around and warmwater\nspecies actively on the hunt. Go get them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slappin\u2019 the Bass <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bass season is in full swing. In addition to catching a few\nnice pond fish with my daughter, Quinn, I have made two trips to nearby Lake\nLowell and one to legendary Lake Walcott near Burley. Lowell has been solid, with\nmy boat averaging 3 to 4 fish per hour. We\u2019ve caught fish flipping plastic\nworms and creature baits in the trees and buzzing spinnerbaits over the\nsmartweed mats, and we\u2019ve even had a few fish on topwater frogs and poppers.\nYou have to work at it, and it\u2019s rare to catch a bass over 3 pounds, but Lowell\nis unbeatable for convenience and it remains a fun fishery. Walcott, on the\nother hand, was an unbelievable trip\u2014one I highly recommend if you like catching\nsmallmouth. I fished it out of a kayak with a couple of friends, an adventure I\u2019ll\ndocument in an upcoming column. Long story short, we caught five smallies over\nfour pounds, including multiple personal-best fish. Minnow patterns, mainly crankbaits\nand swimbaits, were the ticket for us on these giant smallmouths. Tie good knots!\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catch a Catfish <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Catfishing has been sneaky good on the Snake River, and it\nshould continue to improve as the weather warms up. For my money, fresh cut\nbait (I prefer pikeminnow) on a slip sinker\/circle hook rig is the best way to\ngo, but I\u2019ve also caught catfish on worms, bacon, crankbaits and Ned Rig jigs.\nCatfish are also found in Brownlee Reservoir, C.J. Strike and many local ponds.\nTo get the inside scoop on catching a big cat, check out my next class, Catfish\nare Jumping<\/a>, on June 17. Tight lines! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Late spring fishing is excellent across our region. It is peak season for many ponds, lakes and reservoirs, which should be the focus for anglers when spring runoff makes our local rivers muddy, fast and unpredictable. Here are a few ideas to help you plan your next Idaho fishing adventure: Hit a Local Pond As…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1241,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions\/1241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}