ADVENTURE
Bass Fishing ON LAKE COEUR D’ALENE
By JASON WILMOTH
W ith the first cast, I won - dered whether my fishing plans would be success- ful. The lake was glassy calm, the sun was rising over the mountains above Beauty Bay on Lake Coeur d’Alene. This early spring day looked so prom- ising I’d even brought shorts, which I had to dig out from the depths of my closet. Everything was primed for an awesome day of fishing, except for one minor fact: I am not a fisherman. Jesse Kroetch and I had been talk- ing for several months about this adventure. I wanted to write a sto- ry about fishing, and Jesse wanted to share his love of fishing for small - mouth bass on Lake Coeur d’Alene. We watched as spring progressed and the water began to warm. Finally, we settled on a date. I would be Jesse’s first client of the bass fishing season. After meeting Jesse at the boat launch, we stowed gear and made our way across the lake to our destina-
I know very little about fishing as most people understand it, so on that first cast on Lake Coeur d Alene, I was very much out of my element. How- ever, I enjoy learning new things. I also enjoy watching someone who is in their element and passionate about what they do. Jesse, who works with CastCadia Outfitters, is clearly passionate about fishing. He talked me through what he called “technical bass fishing,” techniques such as fishing with a lure that mimicked a crawfish crawl - ing along the rocky bottom. Initially, I struggled to get the feel for the lure as I dragged it across the lake bottom, not sure of what I was feeling until the moment I felt exactly what Jesse had explained. A smallmouth hit the lure hard. Surprised, I made an attempt at set- ting the hook and began reeling in. As it neared the boat, I was excited to see that the bass was fairly large,
tion, an area Jesse believed was just “comin on.” I pulled my hood tight and tucked into the wind that was just on the verge of being cold. As the boat came off-plane and slowed into the area where we would fish, I was thankful for the respite. In my early 30s, I worked for several years as a water quality and fisheries technician, where I had the opportu- nity to be part of a Pacific White Stur - geon project on the Columbia River. I spent three summers working on ev- ery aspect of the project, from data collection, deploying egg mats, catch- ing sturgeon on set lines and trans- porting viable sturgeon to a tribal hatchery for spawning. At the same time, I worked on several other proj- ects where I electro-fished local creeks and lakes, conducting trout surveys and tracking invasive common carp. I could identify nearly every species of fish we have in the Inland North - west, but I have almost never fished with a pole.
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