Northwest Fishing Reports

ID. Neither state is in my good graces for their policies towards pike management, but I haven't bought a WA license since the PO River first saw the gill nets. Now that the Salmon Recovery dollars have made their way upstream into Idaho, I don't have any nearby waters entirely free of gill net comp...

I think Fish-n-Fool has a good point about being vague on details, and I think the gillnet project is why it's been quiet here. I did catch 15 on a recent fishing trip. That's all I have to say about that.

This was an interesting site you linked to, Rick. There's a detailed history of all these collections of pike. One interesting note was that there was a sample from the CDA system in 1978, listing pike as "established," and having been "accidentally stocked or illegally stocked by anglers." In a sub...

I hope the boat was all you dreamed of, Mark! Mine is not, but with a new main battery, I think I'll get it back in the water again and have an operable big motor. I took the three kids with me for about 2 1/2 hours of trolling motor time on Friday but no hits and no fish to be seen. The water was r...

I don't know what it is but when I'm really slamming the crappies it seems like the fall pike are tough to catch, and when it gets a little colder and the panfish switch off, the pike get aggressive. Not that I'm exactly on the pike this year, but I fished with the kids a week ago and the crappies w...

I finally put the boat in the water yesterday. I fished in the rain for two hours. First picked up the crappie rod. It's hard to resist slabs on every cast, I think I caught about 40, half of which were over 10". The last hour fished pike. A new rod and reel and new swimbaits produced 4 or 5 hits bu...

15 lb 5oz 38 in pike w Lauren.jpg Looking back at my records, I caught 11 pike in 'Merica this year, plus 1 I didn't write down but got a leader touch on. That gives me 12 fish caught in Idaho for the year. The last one I caught is pictured, a 38" fish that weighed 15.3 lbs by my scale that was rel...

Hey Rick, both leaders were sliced off in the middle. One about 7" from the snap. I would have liked to have seen the fish that did it! It was a sharp toothed critter, no doubt, as this is a real rarity.

Fun day for sure. My pathetically limited number of outings this year were made up for with lots of bites and a pretty decent success rate. I did get bit off using 100# Seaguar Flouro leader twice within about 10 minutes. That's never happened to me before, and I even went back to wire before decidi...

I read the article you're referencing. What's most fascinating is that the check station appears to be getting set up at the Heyburn State Park Headquarters, run by, yes indeedy, the State of Idaho Fish and Game. Yet they played it all coy and claimed that they just had heard about this from the tri...

Those are some healthy, nice looking fish. I'm glad that the trip was productive, and I hope your arms are recovering! I look forward to hearing the stories sometime soon.

Oh, and thanks to AJ's Dad for the post in the Walleye forum. That was great! It was a good thread, and I couldn't help but put a post up myself.

Here's my two cents, and for once in my life, I don't have to be all that P.C. about how I feel. Let me tell you this; I've boycotted fishing Washington State (my home state) twice in my life, the first time some 15 years ago for getting ticketed for fishing bass out of season (yes, my fault, but I'...

Hey, Mark, way to go on the big fish. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that the first fish of the year for me will not be my biggest, and that your first will exceed your next biggest for the year by about 9 pounds. Haha, [flapper] , kidding, I'm just asking you to save a 20+ for me so I don't ...

1.3.15 Ice Pike 14 lb 4 oz web.jpg Haha, cheating or not, this was in fact my first tip-up pike ever (and not for lack of trying). But I had to "break the ice" at some point, I guess. The girls had a good time, and we caught two pike and about 20 small perch. Not a fast day, but this is in fact my ...

I guess I'm a year late now, but my last pike came on December 15th, out of open water on a point with some deep weeds. Swimbait was the one. I managed to reach my goal of at least one pike in each month of the year, so it's on to a new New Year's resolution this year. The last fish was my 106th. I ...

If you were hoping to launch at Rocky Point, well, maybe in a week. I'm hoping to pull the boat out after catching my December Pike open water, but it will have to wait until after some warm weather and rain. Chatcolet is iced over from Rocky to the bridge, and the river even looks iced over. It's c...

I was hoping you were going to give a good report, too! I'm counting on some warm weather in the first few weeks of December. I sure would like to get you those 13 fish! I've been a lousy guide the last couple of trips. The water levels are coming up in the lake and I think there will be chances to ...

My most recent trip up was on Sunday, 11/23/14. I fished with AJs Dad and The King. It was slow, but the weather was pretty tough, so I'm going to use that as an excuse. Right off the bat I lost a small pike flopping at boatside (no touch no count) on a big hammer near the launch. I did catch one la...

While you're listing the species, don't forget the sucker. Believe it or not, I've caught two on the 6 1/2" version. Both were hooked in the mouth. A versatile bait indeed. Don't fish them, though, I'd rather be the one to catch all those fish!