I had the good fortune of being sent to Spokane Washington for some field work, and took a couple days at the end of my trip to get some fishing in. I fished the north fork of the Coeur D, Alene river above Coeur D'Alene Idaho.

I did a bit of attempting to match the local hatches, but those fish were pretty tough, and my technique wasn't totally up to par. I did equally well using my Texas techniques (beadhead olive wooly bugger, sz 10 :D). I did find myself in the midst of a mayfly hatch on Friday evening and had a great time matching the hatch with sz 16 BWOs.

i dont know what to be more jealous over, the fish or the just trip in general

Very cool pics....

I cannot imagine fishing in such beautiful scenery as that. I have always wanted to go fishing in the NW like that. Nice fish by the way. The pictures are stunning. How beautiful is that??? Wow.

Please feel free to post more stuff like this. Well done and thanks for sharing.

I grew up in northern Wyoming (Buffalo) in similar country. Spent much of my youth in Utah, Colorado, and AZ, so I'm familiar with it. I was quite despondent when I moved from Denver to Houston, after 13 years I sort of got used to Texas and forgot what that country was like. It's a bit depressing actually, being here, and wishing I was there.

How about some more pics and rambling diatribes about the trip? No, that would be too much like a silly blog. But maybe...ok I will.

Besides, I don't know that anything I could do could compete with the quality of the posts you put up. Some amazing pics you've got.

Since I was solo, taking pictures with me in the photos was a bit tricky. But, I have a nice camera with a cool feature. It allows me to take photo at timed intervals for a set amount of time, so I was set to take a photo every 10 seconds for a 3 minute period. I'd set the camera on a rock, push the button, and then go fish and hope for some decent photos. I think they turned out pretty cool as time lapse series. Only some of the photos in each series are really photo worthy, but taken together they're pretty cool.

Once the camera fell off the rock into the water (shockproof and waterproof) and I spent 15 minutes trying to find it again. Always left something to mark the spot after that.

Prior to the trip I had emailed the Silver Bow fly shop in Spokane about patterns to tie up and the fishing conditions. They were very helpful, but I decided against tying anything up and figured I'd just go to the shop and pick up whatever they recommended. The shop was only a few blocks from my hotel and they set me up with the flies I needed, gave me some advice, and took out a map to show me where I needed to go.

Nothing against Chris' shop here in town, but this place was a true fly shop, with a fireplace and old dogs lounging around, just amazing ambiance. It's too bad they didn't stay open late and server beer, I'd have had a new home away from home.

The Spokane River ran right behind my hotel and I fished it in the evenings after work (spinning gear, not fly gear). I was pretty disappointed that such a beautiful river didn't have many fish in it. I guess it's had issues with fish kills in the past and has some issues with heavy metals from mining. I managed to catch a couple little smallmouths, which are invasive.

The fly du' jour at this time was a sz 16 or 18 BWO to match the mayfly hatches going on. This also meant 7x tippet, which I have but failed to bring. I really got into fly fishing after moving to Texas, so I'm a bit unfamiliar with 7x fishing, in spite of using the lightest gear I can possibly get away with. It made things quite challenging with my crappy vision, a slight breeze, and fishing in to the evening.

I was also told that nymphing with an indicator was the preferred method of catching fish, a technique I'm entirely unfamiliar with also. I gave it my best shot and seemed to continuously foul up the dropper nymph with the other one. I also have a serious mental hang up with understanding how those fish can see those tiny sz 18 nymphs, been fishing for bass in Texas for too long.

So, after some fishless hours, I had to resort back to my confidence baits. The first fish I saw of the trip were sitting in a 10' deep pool in a very small creek. After the first couple casts they were sufficiently spooked. Figuring it couldn't hurt, I tied on a big olive conehead woolly bugger to get down to the right depth, sure enough one of those guys charged it. And so I caught my first fish, totally going against the local wisdom.

This particular hole was nice, it's where a feeder creek entered into the north fork. As I made a stealth approach through some bushes I could see cruising fish. I made a decent cast through an opening in the brush and saw a nice fish come grab my wooly bugger I still had on. Raised the rod and the fly parted with almost no pressure, heartbreaking really. A few more casts resulted in some pretty flashes but no hookups. I moved down into the stream where I could see fish taking something on top with some regularity. I tied on an orange Goddard Caddis sold to me by the fly shop and had some fish hitting it on top, with only one hook up unfortunately.

Thanks for the kind words and glad you've enjoyed them. I'm not trying to compete but simply like to share the place and fish I'm blessed enough to experience. And yes, I'm truly grateful. Besides, I'd like to think I'm adding variety to this forum.

Its just nice to see another flinger appreciating this sort of fishing. Again, thank you and just let me know if you'd like to share some trout water with me up north. It does get much better up close and personal, specially with our own tied flies as we match the hatch. Visit to the fly shop is optional. Who doesn't like to visit "real fly shop" anyway?

Did you come across other interesting wildlife in this trip?

Again, well done. I got beer.

That looks like a one helluva side trip Brushi. I love the green of those Idaho rivers. Great photos.

Good TR indeed. Nice country.

Feel ya there, I was born on the Western slope of CO, then spent all of my years until high school in Powell(WY).

Part of my job was doing an ecological assessment along the Spokane River at my job site, saw coyote and osprey, found massive crawdads in the river, lots of cottontail rabbits. Along the CDA I was visited by a what I believe was a mink on the cliff face across the creek, it was too small for a martin.

The beautiful country did cause me to act a bit irrational. Once I got the rental car on Thursday afternoon I was a mad man racing to the fishing and back each day. I didn't realize how far away the creek was from Spokane. Both days was just running as fast and as hard as I could, fish hard until dark, run to Cabela's for some gear, Walmart for jerky and trailmix, hotel by 9. The guy at Cabela's told me that the fishing is no good until it warms up, so don't worry about getting there early. I told him "tomorrow is the one day in my life I'm going to get to fish that creek, I'll be there when the sun comes up!".

An hour or so before sunset on Friday night I was on a perfect/picturesque pool when the mayfly hatch started. Everything was perfect, except for hanging up a few backcasts in the willows (that is extremely unforgiving with 7x). I was laying those little BWOs out there with the real things, getting the drift just right. It was seriously the quintessential fly fishing moment everyone dreams about. I didn't get nearly the number of takes I would have expected, and only hooked up on one I think, but it was still entirely magical.

As for this sort of fishing, it is really the tops in my book. After leaving the west I never really converted over to real bass fishing, I don't use heavy gear, still can't cast a baitcaster worth a damn. Fishing a tiny creek for 8-10" brookies, or lunker 14" browns is where it's at. Nirvana I think is fishing beaver ponds in a high mountain meadow.