Northwest Fishing Reports

Driving up next week from Texas! Big time Bass fisherman. will be in spokane for a week. would love to hang a muskie or two
Do you use wire liter? what lbs. test? i use 15lbs. big game down here. love the top water bite! Fish lake Fork 2 times a week.
what lake should i target?
Thanks
Big Tex

Hayden Lake would be a good choice. You don't need wire just heavy fluorocarbon. like 30+lb test

BigTex2982 wrote:Driving up next week from Texas! Big time Bass fisherman. will be in spokane for a week. would love to hang a muskie or two
Do you use wire liter? what lbs. test? i use 15lbs. big game down here. love the top water bite! Fish lake Fork 2 times a week.
what lake should i target?
Thanks
Big Tex

We do not have "Muskie" in the Pacific Northwest, but we do have Northern Pike and we also have the Hybrid between Northern Pike and Muskie, the "Tiger Muskie". Must of us call the Tiger Muskie either Tigers or Muskie.

In Spokane County, we have Tigers in Newman Lake and in Silver Lake. I DO suggest wire leader, or 130 # Flourocarbon. Sure, you may be able to get away with less, but we do have fish in the mid to high 40" range and they can cut smaller line pretty easily. As for gear, I suggest your swimbait rod, with your flippin reel and line (say perhaps 50 pound briad). Again, you can do with less, but you risk breaking off lures on the cast or in the weeds.

I suggest a large spinnerbait, or a big bucktail spinner. For topwater, try a superspook. If I were to suggest three choices, it would be a Cow Girl Spinner, a River2Sea S-Waver (in the larger size), and the superspook. You might have something like these already, but you can see what I am talking about on line. Remember that the water is getting warmer so the fish will be going deeper during the day.

Washington is trying to kill all Northern Pike, but Idaho has the Pike in Hayden and Coeur d' Alene. The big CDA has some big fish in it, but the lake is huge and is not easy to learn in just one trip - but the chain lakes are good choices.

I hope this helps, good luck.

Good advice Angler. I will say if hes fishing bass on Silver. Theres some toads in there. Caught them with big bladed bucks for muskies. Well. Crankbaits and bulldawgs and rapalas and frogs and so on and so on,. Just use a leader like Angler said. And a good knot ..uhm Kendall..you know what i'm talkin about. lol Knots are good. Hayden Lake, fished it not sure how many muskies are in there anymore. They haven't been planted since 07' I think. So if you do get one please release it ? Its not just Washington wanting to kill the northerns. The Kalispell is on a mission to remember. Check with the Yankin Jaw guy guide. Hes a good dude. If you want Northerns its always been on the record to go to Idaho anyway ! See ya, Todd

Don't you guys mean Hauser Lake in Idaho...not Hayden lake for tiger muskies in Idaho? If there is another lake that has tiger in them called Hayden, please do tell...

I'm sure they mean Hauser as Hayden does not have tigers. Hayden does has quite a few pike though. The last year they stocked Hauser was 2007 and they stocked only 1500 (approximately) between 2005, 2006, and 2007 combined. Bad news is there are not many left ...good news is the ones that are left are toads. Hit Hauser quite a bit this spring and pretty disappointed in the number of fish seen so far. Unless the warm weather brings about a significant increase in activity, I'm afraid Hauser may be on its last leg. Usually the bass guys I know at least see them but they haven't seen much this year either. Hoping Idaho decides to start stocking again soon!

muskyhunter wrote:Good advice Angler. I will say if hes fishing bass on Silver. Theres some toads in there. Caught them with big bladed bucks for muskies. Well. Crankbaits and bulldawgs and rapalas and frogs and so on and so on,. Just use a leader like Angler said. And a good knot ..uhm Kendall..you know what i'm talkin about. lol Knots are good. Hayden Lake, fished it not sure how many muskies are in there anymore. They haven't been planted since 07' I think. So if you do get one please release it ? Its not just Washington wanting to kill the northerns. The Kalispell is on a mission to remember. Check with the Yankin Jaw guy guide. Hes a good dude. If you want Northerns its always been on the record to go to Idaho anyway ! See ya, Todd

AHHH...I meant Hauser. My mistake. Sorry bout that. Hayden has a ton of Northerns in it! If there were any muskies planted I agree. Probably not many left but those fish should be around 40 inches. Later guys..

If there are Tigers left in Hauser, they should be near or over 50". Tigers have a life span of 8 or more years, if released, so perhaps..... Keep in mind that the big key is that Tigers are put into lakes to thin out the panfish and trash fish. Hauser doesn't have the overpopulation it once had, so, for now, I would be suprised to see them put more back in for now.