“Old sturgeon don’t die – they just fade away,” said Sue Ireland, fish and wildlife program manager for the Kootenai Tribe. Another tank holds the medium-sized fish raised at the hatchery since birth, including a striking all-white sturgeon, a ghost of a prehistoric past.īred from captured wild sturgeon, the young sturgeon may represent the last hope biologists have of preventing extinction of the species. The white sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in North America, has not successfully reproduced in the Kootenai River since Libby Dam was completed in Montana in 1974, reducing the river velocity and trapping critical nutrients upstream.ĭownstream, however, pools at a hatchery run by the Kootenai Indian Tribe teem with thousands of year-old sturgeon, inch-long miniature replicas of the two armor-plated wild adults in another tank, each measuring 6 to 7 feet long. Yet, experts estimate perhaps only 10 of the baby sturgeon hatched from those millions of eggs survive. BOISE - Each year, endangered white sturgeon lay millions of fertilized eggs on the silty bed of the Kootenai River where it curls across the top of Idaho. Share your fish stories, adventures, tips and tricks with him at or visit. Jordan Rodriguez has been fishing Idaho waters since he was a teen. 29 at the Hilton Garden Inn Boise Spectrum. For more tips on catching crappie, check out my next fishing class, Panfish School, on Sept. Jigs are the most common lures, but don’t overlook small crankbaits and spinnerbaits, particularly if the fish are hanging out closer to the surface. Crappie travel in large groups, so locating a school usually means catching enough for a fish fry. Strike and other parts of the Snake River system. CRAPPIEĬrappie can be a year-round species if you know where to look for them, and late summer has been productive for anglers at C.J. And if you haven’t made it up to the mountains this summer, this might be your last call! It’s getting chilly at higher elevations, but there’s still good fishing to be had. Strike, Lake Cascade and other reservoirs, usually by trolling with spinners, Rapalas or pop gear tipped with corn. It’s best to avoid wading (which can disturb nests) and practice catch-and-release on browns (it’s the law on the Owyhee, which also requires an Oregon license).īoat anglers are catching rainbows on Arrowrock, C.J. If there are brown trout around (they live in the Boise, Owyhee and Wood River drainages), be aware fall is their spawning time. In rivers and streams, try flipping spinners, casting a dry fly with a nymph trailer or drifting bait through deep pools and riffles. Trout fishing continues to impress across our region as hungry fish, friendly flows and cooler water temps provide a winning combination. Fish with plastics, swimbaits and topwater lures around remaining weedy cover, or target them offshore with crankbaits, drop shots and Carolina rigs. My last trip to the Snake River produced my biggest bass of the year! Largemouth bass also remain on the chew. It’s not uncommon to catch large numbers of food-crazed smallies in these conditions-use crayfish patterned jigs, soft plastics and crankbaits around rocky structure and you should be in good shape. As water temperatures start to cool, warmwater fish like bass put on the feedbag as they prep for the lean winter months ahead. Fall is a great time to catch bass, particularly smallmouth on the Snake and Payette rivers.

Idaho fish and game sturgeon