With Ice fishing clearly in the rearview mirror, it is time to look ahead to some exciting Spring fisheries.

With the weather warming up and water temperatures rising, fish are starting to wake up from their winter slumber. The first opportunity worth mentioning is some Boise River trout fishing. There is a small window of opportunity as the temperature outside has not risen enough to lead to massive snow melt yet. This means there are some great fishing while the reservoirs fill and before the rivers blowout with spring runoff. This also holds true for any of the other river systems headed up by a reservoir.

The second but equally exciting opportunity is the Spring Kokanee fishing! I usually use the start of April as my sign to put the batteries back in the boat and head out to Arrowrock Reservoir or Anderson Ranch for the start of Kokanee season. Kokanee will start off a little deeper and begin to shallow up in the upcoming months leading into the spawning season. Once the spawn finishes and water temperatures rise enough, they will dive back down and you will once again be stuck on a downrigger and have little chance from shore. For now, bust out those dodgers, pop-gear, and wedding rings if you have a boat or break out a slip bobber and some cocktail shrimp if your going from shore.

Another early season fishery that is worth checking out is CJ Strike. This reservoir on the Snake River offers a variety of early season fishing opportunities including Trout, Perch, and crappie. One of my favorite early season fishing spots for Trout is right below the CJ Strike Dam at Scout Park. Fishing from the bank here can result in multiple 16”+ fish days and the occasional limit of them. The bass can be a little slow waking up but perch and catfish shouldn’t be to hard to find in the month of April. Normally, I wait until about May to target the crappie but once it gets going it can be a pretty short but bountiful season. That said it seems like we are having a cold start to the year and I wouldn’t be surprised if everything was a little sluggish waking up this year.