lake roosevelt fishing

[huntnphool]

Its a bottomless lake. I think its deepest spot is close to 1500'.

I can attest to that, I was there this past summer. We cruised the lake slowly just partying and drifted a good deal. At one point I thought my transducer stopped working, I wasnt getting a reading anymore. After jumping in the water and checking the ducer it appeared to be fine. I went throught the adjustments and was playing with the depth meter when all of a sudden it started working. I couldn't believe it we at 1400+ feet

 Lots of goats in the rocks around that lake too, we glassed them for quite a while.

[Whitetail Chaser]

I've fished Pend O'Reille a bit...knocked the paint off of many lures there.  In addition to Kamloops Trout, they also have a good sized population of Mackinaw.  For the Kams, you'll need either downriggers or planer boards (I like the new Sidewinder boards.  They're small, easy to use and effective).  There are several good fly patterns designed for the Kams.  I've had the best luck trolling for Kams when there's a pretty good chop on the lake.

For the Macs, I fish around the islands located at the north end of the lake but others do well in different parts of the lake.  Macs tend to stay right on the bottom, but I have found them suspended in Pend O'Reille at times. You will definitely need downriggers if you plan to troll for Macs.  If you don't have downriggers, you can dropshot them (jigging) but I've had better luck trolling.  Pend O'Reille is a big beautiful lake...just pay attention to the weather reports.  Storms tend to move in quickly and you can get yourself in trouble if you're not careful.

[TeacherMan]

Its a mini ocean. 

[Whitetail Chaser]

Exactly!  The only good way to ride out a storm on Lake Pend O'Reille is by watching it through a window as you're sitting on a bar stool at one of the local watering holes