The b'LAWg - Dave Law's Fish Stories - Spokane, North Idaho News & Weather KHQ.com

I spent yesterday Northern Pike fishing on a 15 mile stretch of the Pend Oreille River from south of Usk, through Cusick, and north toward Ruby. There were a few empty trailers at the Cusick boat launch and the boats on the river appeared to be doing the same thing we were…trying to find the fish. It was a stellar day (meteorologically speaking) as the photo attests to, but the net remained empty. Now, the river is running high and is up almost 5 feet above last week according to gauges. Heck, the sloughs/coves have been overrun and flow like the river channel itself. Observations & Tips: While motoring along the channel, I detected very few fish on the fish finder. The water temperature was a cool. 55°on the surface and dropped to 51° in the channel at 25ft. Under the current (pun) river conditions, I'll bet the fish have scattered into all that submerged brush and hunkered down in the meantime, or perhaps migrated south toward Newport/Albeni Falls Dam (no recent reports on this...do you have one?). Someone remind me to bring some herring or sardines next time.