Spring fishing in Idaho? Be ready for everything from snow and ice to unexpected bites

Spring fishing in Idaho bears a striking similarity to the weather — it’s wacky, it’s fickle, and just when you think you have it figured out, you’re wrong!

But spring fishing has its perks, too. Opportunities abound to catch some of the biggest fish of the year. You just have to be willing to brave the cold ... and dodge the storms ... and deal with every curveball in Mother Nature’s arsenal. My spring adventures have been a roller coaster ride, but they’ve served as a great reminder that when it comes to spring fishing, it pays to be ready for anything!

Cold weather, big fish

I hung up my ice fishing gear mid-March and took my first open-water jaunt on the Boise River, hunting big brown trout just a couple weeks before spring runoff.

Wading the river in 40 degrees has its advantages — on a sunny afternoon, right in the middle of town, my buddy Jon and I had the water to ourselves.

Jon caught a couple nice fish at our first spot, including a 19-inch brown. It took two hours and a location change before I got a bite, but it was worth the wait.

The moment I set the hook on my ultralight rod, I suspected this was the monster brown I’d been looking for. Four minutes into the fight, the fish confirmed it with an epic leap. It was a GIANT!!

Eventually, we netted a gorgeous brown that measured just shy of two feet long and weighed over five pounds. On this chilly day, the workmanlike effort and frozen extremities paid off.

My next outing took me to the Hagerman Valley, one of my favorite spring fishing spots. We got blasted with 20 mph winds all day, but again, the effort paid off — this time with a nice stringer of trout for the frying pan, plus two big sturgeon. On the worst weather days, the biggest fish are often willing to play.

An unexpected bite

For my maiden boat voyage of 2023, I hit C.J. Strike in search of early-season crappie. Conditions seemed promising as I surveyed some good holes with buddies Skyler and Randal, but the schools of crappie we found were either small or hunkered down super deep.

The water temp read 49 degrees, so I played a hunch and tossed a red crankbait toward the rocky shoreline. WHAM! A tank of a smallmouth bass walloped my first cast!

“Change of plan, boys!” I announced. “Let’s chase some bass!”

Our crankbait bite produced more than a dozen nice smallies, a bonus largemouth and a bunch of overeager rainbow trout. Sometimes in fishing, you stumble into a good thing. I was glad to have followed my No. 1 rule when fishing C.J. Strike — always bring a bass rod!

Blazing a trail

Next on the agenda was kokanee salmon trolling with Jon and my buddy Casey, a kokanee fanatic who supplied us with some of his handmade lures. They worked like a charm, too — we put together a nice morning catching chunky kokanee, with occasional trout mixed in.

It was a classic Idaho spring outing. In the space of four hours, we saw sunny skies, dark clouds, chilly winds and pesky showers of Dippin’ Dots snow.

Having caught dinner, we called it a day around noon. But as we motored ashore, we saw the wind had pushed a 200-yard sheet of ice right in front of the boat ramp!

I idled up to the iceberg and poked a hole in it with the handle of my landing net. Having confirmed it was soft and thin, I slowly throttled forward and the sheet gave way in front of us, leaving a path of floating ice chunks in our wake.

“What did I say about ice fishing season?” I chuckled. “It’s not over till it’s over!”

One day soon, our wacky spring will be over, too, and we’ll settle into some more predictable weather. Until then, stay ready for anything out there, and tight lines!

Jordan Rodriguez has been fishing Idaho waters since he was a teen. Share your fish stories, adventures and questions with him at tightlinesboise@gmail.com, or visit www.tightlines208.com for the latest local fishing reports and upcoming class offerings.

This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 4:00 AM.