Horseshoe Lake (Pend O'Reille county)

[Brisco]

I've been hitting this lake once or twice a year with limited success. Every time I have tried in years past it has been slow, lots of fish on the sonar, and the few I were catching were small. I kept thinking to myself... next year the fish will be bigger and I'll come back. Eventually, one year, this out of the way little lake is gonna hit. Apparently that was TODAY. I think I have even done other reports on this lake on this site about how the fish were small but I bet next year...


I started fishing around 645am There was a ton of pine pollen on the water in the morning (see pic) which made for some weird yellow tinted water in my live well but whadya do? I trolled one lead core set up and one downrigger. I had 3 colors out on the lead core and had the downrigger at 40'. I had 10, 10" kokanee by 11am. They were just nailing all silver wedding rings with a bit of worm on them. In the process I managed to catch two nice, fat rainbows that were about 14" each and I also snagged one monster mackinaw that was about 19". I didn't even know there were macks in this lake. That thing was handful on my ultralight kokanee gear but it sure was fun!

[downriggeral]

Hi Brisco - That's bigger than they have been in years. We have a lot on the lake that a joins the WDFW parking lot. Sometimes we camp and fish for the kokes. They put the macs in there 30 years ago. We had a really good kokanee fishery till they did that. Thanks for the report - Alan
PS Fished Loon today and caught a dozen ten to 11 inches. Red wedding ring, Shasta UV/red sling blade three colors lead tipped with worm.

[Brisco]

Hey downriggeral. I was out on Loon again Saturday. There was some nut job in a boat doing high speed circles firing a handgun into the water out there. I only caught 2 but I was only there an hour because of the wacko.

[downriggeral]

Hi Brisco - What part of the lake was the wacko on? We did not get there till 9:30. I have a white Starcraft with a grey top and white E-tec power. Stop and say hello if you see me.
Alan

[Brisco]

He was pretty much dead center. I left around 10. I will be there Saturday in the red lund in my pic. I'll look for ya.

[downriggeral]

Hi Brisco I'll be fishing the next 5 days out of Kettle Falls for walleye so won't see you this Saturday.
Tight lines - Alan