Tough Summer Bite

ttb31183 · Post by **ttb31183** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 1:29 pm

A few days ago I went out to Lake Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. It's an excellent lake and one that always takes 20+ pounds to win a tournament. We wouldn't have had 20lbs with 30 fish that day though. The fish were biting, but the big ones were nowhere to be found.

We decided to try to fish some offshore spots for smallmouth and everywhere we went we would get bit immediately but nothing of size. The 8-12 inch smallmouth were everywhere and spitting up baitfish when they were brought up. Not sure what we were doing wrong but it was a tough summer bite.

The only sight of big fish was when a school of 3-4lb smallmouth came swimming in behind an S-Waver. We fished around and around that hump trying to get them to come back up but it never happened. The positive is we were mapping while we tried to locate the fish again, so that hump should get much better detail soon!

My buddy did catch an "ok" one towards the end of the day. It was still a fun day on one of the prettiest lakes you will ever fish. I definitely recommend a trip to CDA.

Larry Hemphill · Post by **Larry Hemphill** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:26 pm

I have friends who live near Coeur d'Alene (Post Falls). I have never fished the lake but have been all over it by boat. It seems to me it would take years to properly learn that huge lake. One would have to learn the weather patterns for a lake that big too. Big wind could be a problem. I have been able to fish several of the lakes north of Coeur, but only in the summer when to bass weren't too big. I also got to fish the Spokane River for bass - lots of smallies. Love northern Idaho, though I haven't been there in the winter!

ttb31183 · Post by **ttb31183** » Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:22 am

Larry Hemphill wrote:I have friends who live near Coeur d'Alene (Post Falls). I have never fished the lake but have been all over it by boat. It seems to me it would take years to properly learn that huge lake. One would have to learn the weather patterns for a lake that big too. Big wind could be a problem. I have been able to fish several of the lakes north of Coeur, but only in the summer when to bass weren't too big. I also got to fish the Spokane River for bass - lots of smallies. Love northern Idaho, though I haven't been there in the winter!

It really is an amazing fishery. It can be tricky to learn and you are right about taking time to figure it out.There are tons of good fisheries up here that I tend to spend a little time at each instead of committing to one. Most of my success on CDA has come on the south end of the lake and this day we tried to stick to the north end to learn it better.