Where I have Fished: North Fork Coeur d'Alene River, ID

     So I went to buy a truck in Kellogg, Idaho at Dave Smith motors. It was time to retire the van, and I know the truck will help get into some more good fishing in the future. I wasn't going to waste the trip so figured I would make a weekend of it and try to go fish Northern Idaho. So my buddy Johnny and I headed out Friday after work. We pulled up Coeur d'Alene River Rd out of Kingston about 1am Saturday morning and headed up the road. Taking to the owner of Cast Away Fly Shop in Coeur d'Alene I was told to try an camp around Kit Price or Big Hank. This was were the North Fork Coeur d'Alene River (NFCd'A) was going to be in the best shape. The river was flowing pretty fast and the water was higher than usual but on it's way down. Compared to any of the other river in the area, the NFCd'A was suppose to be in the best shape of all of them. The upper portion of the river was still flowing pretty good and was about a foot high I learned after talking to a local but there was still pretty good clarity of about 5-7'. Kit Price and Devil's Elbow turned out to be closed due to re-piping the water system for the campground but there were plenty of places along the road for designated camping.
     When we woke up the following morning there appeared to be a pretty good hole right at camp but we wanted to see what was up river. As we started up the road, I decided to go get my truck instead. When all was said and done, we got back on the river about 3pm. This was ok because Joe from cast away told me the river probably wouldn't start turning until about 1pm. He also told me to try some sparkle duns, pmd's, ped's, parachute adams, and maybe a green drake or march brown if they came out. He mentioned that I probably should refrain from nymphing but could maybe give it a shot and that there was an off chance a stone-fly may work. I was advice to use a 4x or 5x tippet as well.
     The first place we fished was down river from Big Hank were there appeared to be a good hole. I of course tried nymphing because it is what I do and Johnny went with a sparkle elk hair caddis. I told Johnny to let the fly stay under a little after the drift. This was how he caught the first fish. The whole produced nothing more so I decided to go more up river. We thought we were at Big Hank but when we got to Big Hank we realized why we were told to fish there. I switched to a sparkle dun and we worked the east side of the river. There is some man made river structure; small rock piles extending a few feet in the river with logs coming out the bank between each one. These rocks caused an eddy to flow back over the logs with the river being higher. Johnny fished the currents edge and I hammered a drift over the logs. Eventually I managed my first fish and Johnny landed a second. Both were still pretty small, mine about 6" and Johnny's around 8". We decided to head back to were we planned to camp again and fish that hole.
     With the river level where it was at and the action we had so far I wasn't confident the hole would produce. Johnny and I agreed to be "Un-confidently Optimistic" about this last try of the day. This stretch of river had about 20 yards or waste deep water with a deep cut about 10yds wide on the opposite side. Johnny felt he had a fish bite within five minutes getting into the hole, maybe he did. I was fishing up river and straight out from me, working everything between our bank and the main cut. With how fast the river was moving I felt I had the best chance for a good presentation working all the way up to the cuts edge and even a couple feet. I had switched from my sparkle dun to a parchute adams towards the end of fishing Big Hank and put that back on to fish this hole. I landed a good cast about 10 feet short of the main cut and up came a fish to slurp the fly. By the strike I thought this fish to be a good fish, maybe 12" but nothing compared to what I landed. After a good fight we got the fish in and what emerged was about a 17" Cutthroat. This fish made the trip and made the river for me.

This would be a really good river to float or drift. You can get guided trips from Cast Away Fly Shop I think.

Summary:
Location: North Fork Coeur d'Alene River, near Kingston, ID, river flows to the 90, Kit Price is about 32 miles off the free way and Big Hank is about 40+ miles off I-90.
Time: 3pm - 8pm
Rod: 5 wt w/ floating line, 5 wt w/ sinking tip
Tackle: 8 black stone nymph, 18 olive prince,14 sparkle elk hair caddis, 14 tan elk hair caddis, 12 parachute adams; would try pmd's, ped's, green drakes, march browns, orange stones, and later in the year more nymphs.
Fish: 4
Species: Cuttthroat Trout
Biggest Fish: 17"
Smallest Fish: 6"
Rating: 8/10