I’ve driven by this lake so many times going back and forth to visiting my son in Montana, always wondering how the fishing was. So when the opportunity came up to fish with the Club Chairman for the Coeur d'Alene Anglers Association you can bet I was all in!

Aaron and I met up with Roger Blackstone to fish the lake on Saturday and Sunday, launching out of the 3rd Street boat ramp. This is a great four lane ramp, but the area is being refurbished so it’s a bit of a mess.

Our spring chinook strategy was to troll whole herring in helmets at 1.8-2.0 mph off of downriggers and sideplaners. The sideplaners that Roger uses are totally different from my previous experiences. These were big, designed to handle 3-4 lines with 2-3 oz of weight on each line, and able to run 50-75 yards out from the boat. Very much like I would expect to see in the Great Lakes, the sideplaners allow the baits to be spread out and away from the boat. We also had two downriggers running. Baits were set back anywhere from 150-200 feet. Roger uses Daiwa reels with line counters on all his rods, which were medium action salmon trolling rods. Most fish this time of year are caught in the upper 30 feet according to Roger.

Ours days started out crisp, 50s, and warmed into the upper 60s. Winds were for the most part light to moderate, and it was partly sunny.

Roger told us that fish can hit any time of the day, but the best bite seemed to come at 10am and 2pm. His knowledge of the lake and fish proved to be dead on for both days.

Saturday, rock/paper/scissors pro Aaron got to take the first fish, which hit on schedule at 9:45 on the port sideplaner. The fish took some line and gave Aaron a good fight, eventually coming to the net and weighing in at an impressive 9.8 pounds. The shine and chrome on these chinook is really something! We revived and released this fish to get bigger, and off he swam. Coeur d'Alene puts out some huge fish. Last year’s “Big One” Derby winner was over 26 pounds, and the state record is over 41 pounds.

We learned that these chinook are generally lone wolves, and in order to be successful you have to pound the water. Like any fishery, you’ll have red-hot days and so-so days. The excitement of the first fish caught and released over, we were back to our trolling patterns, moving in and out of various bays and locations. We caught another two fish on Saturday, 18” and a 12” “shaker”. Minimium size to keep is 20”. The primary feed for the chinook are the kokanee in the lake (which are everywhere, based on what I saw on the fishfinder).

On to Sunday and once again Aaron bested me at rock/paper/scissors. And like clockwork, fish number one came around 9am this time on the downrigger at 15 feet. At 5.8 pounds, we got to bonk the fish to take home to the barby. Another shiny bright chromer. At this point Aaron graciously said “next big fish is yours”. Which didn’t take too long, as the port sideplanner rod started dancing. The fish put up a nice fight, but as we got it close we realized it wasn’t a chinook, it was a nice bull trout. Since these fish are protected we quickly got him unhooked and safely released.

The morning stretched into afternoon and the sun warmed the boat. Soon Aaron and I were snoozing, until at 2pm (remember, clockwork…) a starboard reel clicker starts screaming. I jump up, yelling (in a semi-sleep daze) “which rod, which rod”?! Roger grabbed the rod and handed to me and I had a nice fight with another fish in the 5.8 pound range. Another BBQ fish! With that we decided it was the perfect time to call an end to our weekend and headed back to the boat launch.

Id’ like to thank Roger Blackstone for taking us out and showing us this fishery. Roger is a first rate angler, knows Coeur d'Alene like no one else, and is a great guy to spend the day fishing with. He’s passionate about the fishery and the Coeur d'Alene Anglers Association.

If you’d like to learn more, check out their web page at: http://lcaaidaho.com/index.html

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