Bass Fishing in Idaho

[MartinD]

Moving up to Idaho next year, was wanting to know more about the fishing, lakes, tournaments, bass clubs etc.

I want to know as much as possible.
Thanks, Martin D

[ash]

Martin Write to Terry Battisti http://tboutdoors.com/index_home.html

He is a California transplant to Idaho and a hellva stick. When my grandmother passed I took a trip out to Idaho and a gentleman was kind enough to take me out to the Snake River right above Hells Canyon... it was a Small Mouth slug fest. I have never cought so many smallies in my life and good ones too. There is also Brown Lee which is just outside of Boise and is a good largemouth lake. There is great trout etc... But the Snake river for smallies was just incredible!

[Elken]

What part of Idaho are you moving to? There are clubs and fishing opportunities in most parts of the state. You can go to The Idaho Bass Federation's website to view info about some of the TBF club's in the state. http://www.idahobassfed.com/
In the southern part of the state, most of the best smallmouth fishing is on impoundments on the Snake River: Milner, C.J. Strike, Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon Reservoirs. There are some pretty decent largemouth in Lake Lowell, C.J. Strike Reservoir and Owyhee Reservoir (in Oregon, but close to Idaho).
The are club tournaments and open tournaments, Federation Qualifiers and two bass circuits. One circuit is Superior Bass: they are a Pro/Am circuit that fishes two-day tournaments: http://www.superior.idahobassfed.com/ The second circuit is Premier Bass. They are a team circuit that fishes one-day tournaments: http://www.premier.idahobassfed.com/
You can contact me if you have any other questions: sday@speedyquick.net

[Marc]

You also have ABA team tournaments in Idaho.

[SloppySeconds]

Most of the other posts pretty much nailed it already, but there's some bass fishing in Northern Idaho too. Boise is pretty much ground-zero for Idaho bass fishing, except that you do have other norther spots like Dworshack (state record smallies) and all the big lakes up by Coeurdalene have smalllies too, but the season is shorter up there. Eastern Idaho has zero bass fishing to speak of. Compared to CA, the season is much shorter here, with winter being pretty chilly for bass. It seems to be a March to October season and mostly smallmouth. There are some largemouth opportunities, but they are pretty limited. But, like others have mentioned, the tournament scene is pretty active, so you shouldn't have any problems getting involved with that.

[Terry Battisti]

Hey MartinD,

Elken did a good job of describing the bass fishery in Boise. Let me give you a little idea what it's like in the rest of the state.

South-Eastern Idaho (Idaho Falls to Twin Falls): The Snake River and it's impoundments down stream of Idaho Falls are good. We're talking places like American Falls Reservoir, Massacre Rocks, Wolcott Res and Milner Res are all great fisheries. American Falls and Massacre Rocks consistently put out 17-pound limits of smallies and I know of a number of tournaments where it took over 20 pounds to win an event at these places. Wolcott is downstream from Massacre Rocks and is phenomenal for smallies. If you don't have 19-pounds, you probably won't win an event and I know of a 24lb limit that won one event last year. Milner is just a bass factory and probably the hardest hit of these places. But, week after week it takes 15-pounds to win there and in some cases more.

South Eastern Idaho is also primarily smallmouth only except for a few smaller lakes that have some largies in them. None of the places just mentioned have any largemouth in them except for American Falls and you may catch one a year there.

Western Idaho (Twin Falls to just north of Boise): Like SloppySeconds said, Boise is the hub of bass fishing in Idaho. Again, the Snake River and it's impoundments offer the most opportunities but there is also the Boise River impoundments. Snake River impoundments include some of the following: CJ Strike Res (LM and SM), Brownlee Res (LM and SM), Oxbow (Primarily SM), and Hells Canyon (SM). The Boise River impoundments include Anderson Ranch Res and Lucky Peak as the best.

Then there is Lake Lowell in Nampa, Owyhee (Oregon), Little Payette and Cascade Res. All of these lakes have good smallie fishing and some of them have exceptional LM fishing. In fact, 7-pound LM are not uncommon at CJ and Owyhee.

Northern Idaho (Lewiston to the Canadian Border): In my opinion, this is the best bass fishing in the state. I lived there for 4 years and fished all the lakes I am about to mention. For a world-class smallie fishery you have Dworshak Res out of Lewiston. This place has produced the last two state Records and the current record is 9.5-pounds. 4-6 pound fish are common and no one fishes it due to it being off the beaten path.

Coeur d'Alene Lake. This is the best lake in the state. 25-pounds to win almost any tourney there at any time of the year. This is a classic natural northern largemouth lake. The upper reaches of the lake are primarily shallow and look like a lake you'd find in the south. The lower part of the lake looks like a typical western reservoir. Both smallies and LM are there but LM are what wins the tourneys there. 5lb smallies are common but finding a limit of them is tough. There are also 9 lakes off the CDA river and three more in the southern part of the lake off the St Joe river. The lake itself is about 35,000 acres and the oxbows probably add another 20,000 acres.

CDA area lakes: Other lakes within 15 miles of CDA are Hayden (awesome sm and LM), Fernan, Twin Lakes and Spirit Lake. All of these lakes have both sm and LM.

Pend Orielle: Both the PO river and PO lake have great bass fishing. Both LM and SM but LM or more prevalent in the river.

The Snake River from Lewiston down river and into Washington offer great smallie fishing. This is a fishery that takes 15lbs to win any tourney. In the spring, I have seen it take 19 pounds to win.

I hope this gives you an idea of what the bass fishing is like here. No matter what part of the state you're going to, there are clubs. There are also ABA circuits set up in N. Idaho and Boise plus the other Boise-area circuits that Elken stated.

But, this place sucks and there aren't any bass here. I have no clue why anyone would want to move here unless you're a trout fisherman.

Oh, another negative about this place. There are no launch lines and launch fees are near non-existent. Plus, you don't ever have to fight long launch lines or boat traffic.

Terry

[JstBass]

How is the Smallmouth fishing on Rerie?

[Mike Thomas]

Ririe Reservoir Has some pretty decent smallmouth fishing through the warmer months, Used to live not far from there. If you're into blasting ground squirrels and rock chucks the whole area out behind the reservoir around Birch creek is a great place to burn through a few cases of ammo The Snake River in the central and western part of the state is a great fishery with the chance to catch some large river smallies.

[Gary Dobyns]

[quote="ash"]Martin Write to Terry Battisti http://tboutdoors.com/index_home.html

He is a California transplant to Idaho and a hellva stick. [/quote]

Ash are you sure we know the same Terry Battisti?? I was going to sneak up and slap him here....but he's already posted

As you can see Terry is a great source of info and a great guy. ( I hate being nice to him )

What these guys didn't say is they have great fishing but they have a bunch of STUD anglers too. It's a great area to live, I spend some time there in the fall hunting and it always amazes me how many bass boats I see on the road. They have a GREAT federation ( one of the best, period ), and the guys are friendly. It's hard for me to leave when I'm visiting. You're going to like it there.