Pend Oreille River Smallmouth

[ruthven78]

Well since there isnt a place to put reports for the Pend Oreille River, I thought I would put it here. I was catching some nice smallmouth at the Metaline, WA boat launch. Most ranged from 8" to 13" and I did catch one about 16"...so sadly I released a lot of them to go spawn and make more. I kept three to give to grandpa to eat, the sizes were 8", 9", and 10". I was using just a worm and bullet weight. I would cast out, let it tumble down the current and then reel in a little....let my line sit loose, if no bites in a about 20 seconds, I would reel in a little more, let it sit with the line loose, and repeat. It didnt take long for them to hit and I probably hooked one every other cast though some of them got off before getting them to shore. They were all hard fighters too, especially the 16" one, it bent my pole pretty good....had to play it awhile before getting it to shore. Below is a shot of the 16" one I caught before I released it.

[Paul & Sammi]

"Well since there isnt a place to put reports for the Pend Oreille River, I thought I would put it here."

You're right. There are no reports on the Pend Oreille River or a place to post them. You should post a suggestion to add this river in the website request topic in the forum. It seems there is some decent small mouth fishing there.

[Mike Carey]

I'll remind Aaron know about this. Would Pend OReille county be most appropriate?

[ruthven78]

yes actually Pend Oreille County is the only county in Washington that the river runs through. It enters the state at Newport, WA and then runs north up over the Canadian border, then dumps into the Columbia River up on the Canadian side. I sent a "bug report" about the river awhile back and have been checking occasionally to see if it gets added.

BTW, went back to the same spot yesterday and caught a 7" and 10" small mouth relatively quick and easy...then nothing after that. I'd say the water was down about 9 feet...pretty low which usually makes for crappy fishing. And someone...who actually lives less than a block from the launch....left their jeep with trailer still in the water on the side of the launch. What a jerk! THe water was so low that using the launch would be tricky since most trailer tires would go past the end of the launch, so instead of letting other people use the side of the launch this guy leaves his jeep wrangler parked there the entire time he is out in the water. If I was a evil mean person I would have released his parking brake lol...since he left his windows rolled down....its a good thing Im not an evil mean person........

I think this hole is getting about fished out since when I walked the shore farther upstread I saw about 10 carcasses in the water. Im hoping these werent all from one person since we can only retain 5 bass. They were all small mouth, decent size, and it was very evident they were the leftovers after being filleted. I think that people should at least dispose of the remains in areas where people dont regularly swim.....pretty nasty.