It\u2019s a great time to be an angler in Idaho! With everything\nfrom rivers and large reservoirs to small ponds and alpine lakes available,\nit\u2019s mostly a question of where and how you want to catch fish. Here are a few\nideas to get you started: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Snake River & Reservoirs (Sturgeon, Catfish, Bass) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sturgeon fishing is available year-round in Idaho, but I\u2019m\nseeing a spike in catch rates as the Snake River calms down and big fish turn\ntheir attention to feeding on abundant summer forage. It takes practice to get\nsturgeon holes dialed in, but targeting deep, slow-moving water with cut bait\nfished on heavy tackle is the basic recipe for landing\na monster<\/a>. If you want to learn more about catching sturgeon\u2014and get some\nhands-on experience\u2014check out my Sturgeon\nSeminar<\/a>! Other species are heating up on the Snake and its reservoirs, too.\nSmallmouth bass are crushing anything that looks like a crayfish, while anglers\nare hauling in lots of channel catfish on live worms, cut bait and Mormon\ncrickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Horsethief Reservoir (Trout, Kokanee) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m hearing good things about the trout fishing at\nHorsethief Reservoir near Cascade. Anglers are catching lots of pan-sized\nrainbows by flinging bait from the shore or trolling with spinners and wedding\nrings from a boat. Most of the fish are cookie-cutter hatchery rainbows, but\nHorsethief also offers a shot at brown trout, Kokanee salmon and holdover\nrainbows that can weigh a couple pounds. For steady action and fairly easy\naccess, it\u2019s a good bet. It\u2019s also a beautiful place to fish in the mountains\nwhen temperatures get toasty down in the Valley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bruneau Area (Bass, Panfish) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Located less than 90 minutes from Boise, Bruneau is one of\nmy favorite areas to explore. There are lots of fun, small lakes to choose\nfrom, including Crane Falls, Cove Arm and Bruneau Dunes. All are fishable with\na float tube, pontoon or other small watercraft, and bass fishing is usually\ndynamite throughout the summer. Soft plastics, spinnerbaits and topwater frogs\nare a few of the baits that will entice hungry, aggressive bass. Bluegill,\ncrappie and perch are also found in abundance\u2014target these smaller species\nusing panfish jigs tipped with worms, cut bait or crappie nibbles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Puget Sound (Chinook Salmon) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lean salmon runs have slowed Chinook fishing in Idaho, so\nhead west if you need a salmon fix. My wife and I visited Seattle last weekend\nand booked a trip on the Puget Sound. I\u2019ll write more about that soon, but\nthere are lots of Chinook coming in from the ocean, and they\u2019ll be available to\nanglers in the Sound and the Columbia River for the foreseeable future. Trolling\nwith spoons, hoochies or cut plug herring is the top method, but hover fishing\nwith bait will come into play as the fish progress up the Columbia. I recommend two guides in particular: All Rivers and Saltwater Charters<\/a>\nand Hester\u2019s Sportfishing.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a great time to be an angler in Idaho! With everything from rivers and large reservoirs to small ponds and alpine lakes available, it\u2019s mostly a question of where and how you want to catch fish. Here are a few ideas to get you started: Snake River & Reservoirs (Sturgeon, Catfish, Bass) Sturgeon fishing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-626","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\/626","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=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tightlines208.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}