Seems like this entire fishing report section is overrun with salmon reports. Pink pink pink sockeye chinook pink pink pink-----------

Anyway, I thought I would post something from my side of the state, Idaho actually.
With water temps climbuing into the 80's on the main lake at Coeurdalene Lake, I heve refrained from chasing pike for a little over a month. I made the drive to banks lake a couple of times to get my fishing fix and catch a bunch of walleyes since that bite was and still is hot.
Over night temps have been dipping into the 40's lately, telling me the water temps would be dropping to a more effective level, so I thought I would get back to what I do most.
We were on Cda Lake by 7am and I missed my first pike at about 7:10. Not a monster jsut a nice 7 or 8 lb fish by the looks of it. We moved on to another location and my partner lost a pike near the boat. We were off to a decent start and saw 3 pike in the first hour of fishing but none landed. We moved out to deeper water and started catching small mouth. I actually got some nice bass. One at 4 1/2 lbs and a couple others over 3 lbs.
We explored some new water and some water I haven't fished in several years, then found some pike again. The first pike was a very fiesty 27"er. I ended the day with one at 24" 2 at 27" one at 30" and near the end of the day I landed my personal best pike that was 45 1/2" long and had a 20" girth. I was suprised to see a fish of that size in shallow water at this time of year, but to say the least I was happy to meet up with her. This beauty was revived in just 2 or 3 minutes and gave me a bit of a shower as she said good bye and swam away to populate the lake with millions of babies!
If you ever want a good net man in your boat ou may want to invite Mark K along. He does a great job. He takes great photos to. :) Spinner baits were most effetive on the pike and the smallies took a liking to the Tenessee shad colored rapala husky jerk in a size 12.
Water temps were from 67 to 72 degrees throughout the day. Fish were all in or around cabbage beds but were certainly not bunched up. We had to work hard for the ones we found. I wouldn't say the pike bite is on fire right now, but they do seem to be showing themselves a bit more than they were last month.

Sorry for the crummy paint job on the pohots. I've been having some luck in new locations to me lately and don't really want to give up exact locations. I was glad to see a few more fish this trip out. Things are looking up.
Funny, I made a trip to Canada and caught my personal best pike, only to come back home and blow that one away right in my own back yard.

Good luck to all

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