Spring fishing has arrived in full force! With warm temperatures and sunny skies, conditions are improving dramatically across southern Idaho, with quality fishing opportunities for largemouth and smallmouth bass, bluegill, crappie, perch, catfish, trout and more! The next handful of weeks will bring some of the best fishing of the year. As you plan your outdoors adventures, here are some ideas to get you started: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local Ponds (Mixed Bag) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Often overlooked and underrated, local ponds provide fun,\naccessible fishing for a variety of species. Many ponds across the Treasure\nValley are stocked with hatchery rainbow trout, but for me, the big draw is the\nopportunity to match wits with some of the biggest, oldest and smartest\nlargemouth bass in the state. These giants often approach (or surpass) the\nmagic 20-inch mark, and fish that big can be 15 or even 20 years old! They\u2019ve\nseen it all, and they act like it, but if you can fool one, it\u2019s almost certain\nto be your biggest bass of the season. I ALWAYS practice catch and release on\nthese urban giants, and finesse plastics, jigs and worm rigs are usually the\ntop producers. Many ponds also hold good-sized bluegill, crappie and other panfish\nspecies, along with big carp and catfish. It\u2019s a great way to sneak in a couple\nquick hours after work, or to get your kids in on the action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lake Cascade (Perch) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The ice is (finally) off at Lake Cascade, and the open water\nfishing is off to a hot start. Anglers are catching nice perch on both jigging\nand trolling programs as the fish aggressively feed on minnows (primarily their\nown species!). Smallmouth bass fishing has also been very good (they, too, are\ngorging on newly hatched perch minnows), and while I haven\u2019t seen many trout\nshow up yet, Cascade is always a good bet for a couple good-sized rainbows. One\nlucky angler even caught a big tiger muskie while perch fishing! Cascade is a\nbig, challenging lake. If you need some help figuring it out, I highly\nrecommend a guided trip with my friend Chris Weber, a fun guy who really knows\nhis stuff! <\/p>\n\n\n\n C.J. Strike Reservoir (Mixed Bag) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Fears of a down year for crappie have quickly subsided, as\nwater temps finally got the fish fired up and anglers have started catching nice\nslabs in large numbers. The fish can still be finicky at times, and being\nprepared to both jig and troll will give you the best chance of finding a\nconsistent bite. But the schools are there, and they are back to biting more\noften than not. Expect to fish with a crowd, especially on weekends\/in and\naround the Narrows. As always, C.J. Strike provides a multitude of fishing\noptions. If you catch enough crappie for dinner (or prefer more solitude), try\nrunning up the Snake River Arm to target bass or sturgeon. Trolling for trout\nby the dam is usually a reliable option, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n River Update <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Boise River remains blown out and unfishable for the foreseeable\nfuture\u2026the Snake River continues to fish well for smallmouth bass and channel\ncatfish. I love fishing crankbaits along rocky shorelines this time of year.\nSoft plastic crayfish, jigs and small swimbaits usually produce as well\u2026fishing\non the Owyhee River has been hit-or-miss for brown trout, but should improve\nnow that flows have stabilized. Small\nmidge patterns, terrestrials, streamer patterns, Rapalas, spinners and\nswimbaits are all solid options for tempting a nice trout. Tight lines! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spring fishing has arrived in full force! With warm temperatures and sunny skies, conditions are improving dramatically across southern Idaho, with quality fishing opportunities for largemouth and smallmouth bass, bluegill, crappie, perch, catfish, trout and more! The next handful of weeks will bring some of the best fishing of the year. As you plan your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2411","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\/2411","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=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2413,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions\/2413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}