Pend Oreille Trip 2004

On the 8th of Nov., Jim Bringhurst, John Werwie and I headed off to one of my favorite spots on the planet! Lake Pend Oreille in the panhandle of Northern Idaho is home to the biggest rainbows in the world... The world record rainbow caught back in the late 40's went just over 37 lb.

I have been going up there since the late 80's to fish for this unique strain of rainbows known as Gerrad Kamloops Rainbow. This strain was originally introduced from Kootenai Lake in B.C. Canada back in the early 40's.These two lakes are the only places that I know of where a 10 LB. rainbow trout could be called a "shaker."

This years trip was great as compared to the beating we took last year. With winds of 50 mph one day last year, and higher than normal winds all week, we struggled to catch just 7 trout for the week. The biggest was a modest 7-8 LB. Rainbow that Jim caught. One of my worst trips in 15 years. This year, by contrast, was excellent by any standard. We hooked and released over 50 Kams with 5 of those over 10 Lb. The biggest 2 were between 14-15 Lb.

Fellow "Brownbaggers" Gordon and Ed Hahn from San Jose, Ca., happened to be up the at the same time. They arrived a week earlier than we did and fished until a few days before we left. You could say that they were no less than thrilled with their results. I don't remember total fish numbers but they did land 18 and 22 Lb. monsters along with a few others over 10 Lb. Congrats to the "Hahn Boys!"

This turned out to be one of the best fall seasons on the Pond in recent memory. The Halloween Derby produced a 25 Lb. trophy "patch fish" for the first time in 4 years and the K&K Fall Derby had the 2 top fish exceeding 22 LB. All I can say is that I can't wait until next year!

Regards, Rick