Trout Fishing in Northern Idaho

[fisherven]

So, I've got a couple of friends I've been taking around fishing up around Northern Idaho where we go to school during the Fall and Spring. They haven't had much experience so we've been hitting places like Spring Valley and Elk Res. but I'd like to find a place nearby where we might find some trout that are a little bit bigger. I'm used to fishing around American Falls where you easily pick up 14-16" trout fairly often. Anybody recommend a good area around the Moscow, Pullman or Lewiston areas that we might be able to get into some bigger trout without getting into the Steelhead (I like to go after these but neither of my friends are willing to fork up the extra $ for the permit to go....) Let me know.
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[flyguy66]

When I went to school at U of I my buddies and I made regular trips up to the St. Joe river near St. Maries and the Lochsa river near orofino. Both are awesome cutthroat rivers. Not sure if you fly fish or spin/bait fish up those two rivers have good numbers of medium sized fish and some bigger fish. Great places to camp as well. Hope this helps!

Cole
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[iliketofish]

I went to the U of I too. You gotta drive a bit to find good trout fishing there. St. Joe (and a couple of its tributaries......) and Lochsa are both good as mentioned. The Selway is awesome too. The north fork Clearwater is my personal favorite though. You can catch cutts and bulls clear from where it dumps in to Dworshak Res all the way up to close to the Montana border.
Good luck and let us know how you do!
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[fisherven]

Awesome, thank you! I've just started fishing the Clearwater this weekend. I've only landed a large Sucker fish so far but I've only really put in a few hours of fishing so far too so here's hoping for better catches in the future. I haven't tried St. Joe or Lochsa yet so maybe I'll have to take a drive and give those a go too. Thanks for the input!
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[flyfisher117]

I quite going to SpringValley last fall I had more fun trying to NOT catch fish than I did catching them. Fish every cast was no challenge at all, even on the fly rod.

Went out last weekend and didn't even get a hit.


I haven't found much for trout thats very close, if your buddies don't want to spend the $12 on the Steelie Permit I doubt they will want to spend the gas money to go where theres trout. But I did have a pretty good time with the fly rod up on the South Fork of the Clearwater. Deffinately steelhead territory but still lots of other little fish.

Im still going to school here at UI if you even need a steelhead fishing buddy let me know. Ill be going quite often and have a buddy or two that want to start
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[fisherven]

Oh, cool! I've never fished fly, I've always fished spin/bait but might have to learn how to fly fish at some point. It looks like a lot of fun!

And yeah, that would be fun. Are you involved in the Fishing Club on campus? I just learned about it this year and am hoping to get involved.
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[flyfisher117]

You can still catch fish quite well with a spinning rod, but even little fish are a blast on a 3wt fly rod.

I just learned about the fishing club last spring. Im going to try and join it and do as much as I can with it but I don't know yet, first my spare money has to go to the trap club, then well see.
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[fisherven]

Haha! I can understand those priorities.
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