Fins & Feathers

Coeur d’Alene Lake covers about thirty thousand acres with more than a hundred miles of shoreline on the main lake, and a day there can target one species or several: bass and northern pike through the season, kokanee or chinook salmon when the timing is right. Priest Lake, twenty-three thousand acres and some eighty miles of shoreline nestled in the mountains, is sold as a full day only and is fished for mackinaw, where ten-pound fish are not uncommon and the Idaho state record of 57.5 pounds was taken in 1971. Mackinaw are worked near the bottom, trolling with downriggers or lead line and jigging. A half day is four hours and a full day eight, priced for one to four anglers with a supplement beyond that and a maximum of six guests aboard; children under fourteen fish free with an adult.