Tepee Creek Revisited

Dennis sent me a bunch of photos from our trip up the Coeur d'Alene river into the Tepee Creek area. Looking back is always fun.

Bridget & Dean, student and teacher.

Small creek fishing, da best!

Don't move! 10, 9, 8, 7...

Dennis took a million night photos around the fire.

Leaded Line?

Gotta love fishing!

Fishing, why is it such a complex sport? Darren had his leaded line out four colors with maggots, I had one line out 80 ft. with 1 oz of weight on and my second line was down 20 ft., both with corn.  We were trolling at 1.4 knots. Then I changed it up and went with maggots and started catching on the weighted line.  Darren kept catching them on his leaded line, but I couldn't quite figure out how deep he was.  Both of us had a bunch of hits and lots of those hits translated into fish to the boat close enough to see them or out of the water and off the hook.  I caught some more on the weighted set up, so I change off the down rigger to a second weighted set up. Darren kept hitting fish but he was three colors back.  What the heck? The wind made it a bit difficult, we would get the fish right to the boat and they would come out of the water and bounce off the motor or gunnel and be gone.

These are the ones that didn't evade us.

That's the fun of fishing for Kokanee.  You move slowly through the water, try and figure out what depth the fish are, what they are hitting on and then, because of their soft mouths, you gently try to get them in the boat. We were able to boat about 19 in the time we had on the water.  Not bad, but boy if we had been able to catch every one we had on the hook, we would have limited out easily.

Like I said we fought some gusty winds all day.  The sun was out and there were times when the lake was smooth, but the majority of the time the wind ruled. But what can you say, fishing is good no matter if the catching is a bit off. 

I think I will get me another rod and set it up with leaded line.  No wonder guys that fish have 20 or more rods.  I've only got six snag units and five fly fishing rigs.  A man has got to be ready!

Weekend Up The River

We packed up the camper and when Linda walked out the door at Fernan, Kobi and I were there to pick he up.  We drove down to Huckleberry Campground on the St. Joe and set up camp for the weekend.

We had a quick dinner on Friday night and played a game of cribbage. We were both very tired after the week and by 8:30 PM we were ready to hit the sack.

Saturday Linda got up and ran with Kobi and I puttered around and when they got back we had a great breakfast.  After eating and cleaning up I got my fishing gear together and headed out to hook some cutthroat.  I fished the riffle by the campground and caught six fish.  Three good sized ones and three a bit smaller but nice fish.  I walked down river and fished several runs.  I was using a Squalla with a Stone Fly dropper.  At the end of a run I changed my rig to a Stimulator with a Beadhead Hare's Ear Nymph.  About three casts later I hooked a big one on the nymph.  The Cut was over 18 inches and had a hooked jaw, it looked amazing!  I turned hig loose and headed back to the camper.

We cooked a Dutch oven dinner of calzone and crumb cake. Both dishes came out great and we ate and played cribbage till time for bed.  Next morning Lind got up and we noticed that the trailer folks next door had left.  There at their camp spot was a box of wood.  Linda ran over and grabbed it.  She immediately started a morning fire.  Morning fires are one of Linda's favorite camping things.  She sits, drinks her hot chocolate and reads.  She could stay there forever! 

We packed up and were home by 12:30 PM, when we hit Coeur d'Alene we went to Fred Meyer and grabbed our weekly groceries. The trip was a wonderful get away and we really enjoyed everything about it.  Next time I may remember to bring the camera so I have some photos to post.

Just Another Day In Paradise

This morning we got up, had our coffee, packed a lunch and walked out to the Jeep for a drive to the top of Red Horse Mountain. We had heard that there was a real good view from there and we hoped to see some game as an added bonus.  Just as we were about to leave our neighbor knocked on the door and said "There is a moose just down the street!"  We grabbed the camera and ran out to the front yard.  There he was, walking right in front of our house.  He hung around for a while and browsed on the neighborhood greens.  Then he must have got thirsty and he wandered toward the river.

Linda and I loaded Kobi in the Jeep and we drove out to Beauty Bay and up the forest service road #453, the same on we followed less than a month ago.  Then when we hit the saddle we turned left on to road #430   which led south east and once we found the road to the top of Red Horse Mountain we cranked the Jeep in low and climbed to the top at 4398 ft. We took some pictures and then came back down where we turned right and proceeded to follow forest service road #614.  We dropped off the ridge on road #539 that came out on the Kaillarney Lake road.

We drove over to the Coeur d'Alene River and let Kobi jump into the water.  That dog will jump off anything for a stick or a ball.  Once he was wet we drove to the Rose Lake trail head for the Trail of the Coeur d"Alene's Bike Trail where had lunch.

With lunch over we drove back to Coeur d'Alene and Linda did some shopping down town.  Kobi and I sat 
on the street and watched the comings and goings of the down town crowd. We drove home and put things away, we both laughed about driving all that way through the mountains and saw the moose in our front yard. Yes, we do live in paradise.

Continuing on through the weekend I got up early on Saturday morning and went out fishing for Blueback on Lake Coeur d'Alene.  I hitched the boat up to the Jeep and drove out to Booth Park where I launched.  I fished for about five hours, caught some Blueback and one small bass.  I worked on getting familiar with the down riggers.  By the end of my session I got so that I could get everything set and down to the depth I wanted with out a single snag.