Silver Bow Fly Shop

The Joe cascades through the Idaho Panhandle for over eighty miles, a larger drainage into Lake Coeur d’Alene, and floating pressure on it stays light. Westslope cutthroat run twelve to sixteen inches on average with plenty going bigger. It is open year round, best from March to October, though floating can begin in late February once the river thaws and flows come good. Early season brings blue-winged olives, March browns, skwala stones and salmonflies; summer brings pale morning duns, green drakes, golden stones, yellow sallies and caddis, with hopper and dropper work; later come mahogany duns, blue-winged olives and October caddis. Dry fly fishing is spectacular through most of the season. A full day float is $750 for one or two anglers, plus Idaho sales tax.

On the Spokane River, the main water this shop guides through the summer, the trade is an urban trout fishery that runs right through town and still sees little pressure. Trips are floats only, the shop reasoning that the river holds too many fishy spots to cover from the bank, and the drift runs a seven mile section with views not reachable from shore access. Anglers catch primarily wild redband rainbows, averaging fourteen to sixteen inches with a real shot at a fish over eighteen. When the river reopens after the spawning closure the caddis hatches are at their peak, thick enough that the shop describes clouds of them above the bushes and trees in the evening. Source: https://www.silverbowflyshop.com/spokane-river-guided-fly-fishing/ (verified 2026-09-17).