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Lake Pend Oreille Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Idaho's inland sea: 1,150 feet deep, home of monster rainbows and resurgent kokanee.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
55 / 59 F
Wind
SSW 7 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Lake Pend Oreille is in transition: bait on the move and predators following. Today brings a mixed sky, wind SSW around 7 mph, steady pressure near 1015 hPa and a high of 59. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:23 AM-11:23 AM and 9:55 PM-11:55 PM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perchGood

Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

Tomorrow: Cooler at 54 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Idaho requires a fishing licence from age 14, from $35.50 for residents. What a Idaho licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with IDFG before you keep anything. The season dates for Idaho, read off the agency, are on the Idaho seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp55 F
High / Low59 / 43 F
WindSSW 7-7 mph
Pressure1014.7 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain43% cloud, 72%
Sunrise / Sunset07:17 / 17:41
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Lake Pend Oreille this week

The best day on Lake Pend Oreille this week looks like Wednesday Oct 28, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Wednesday, Oct 28 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:23 AM-11:23 AM and 9:55 PM-11:55 PM
Minor period
3:49 AM-4:49 AM
Sun
07:17 to 17:41
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 13 mph
Rain chance
72%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Lake Pend Oreille: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perch illustration

Yellow perch

Caught all year, including under the ice through winter

Yellow perch are schooling panfish of the Great Lakes and northern lakes, and Michigan DNR calls them the game fish most often caught in that state. Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

When to come: the Lake Pend Oreille calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
Smallmouth bass
Northern pike
Yellow perch
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Lake Pend Oreille today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Walleye led the card at excellent. High of 64 F, wind to 11 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Walleye led the card at good. High of 61 F, wind to 6 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 63 F, wind to 9 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Idaho requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Lake trout: no limit, harvest encouraged. Rainbow rules by season: check IDFG.

Access

Garfield Bay, Glengary, Sandpoint City Beach, Hope ramps.

About this water

94,600 acres, Bonner/Kootenai counties, ID. Glacial giant: 1,158 ft deep, 111 miles of shore.

Fishing Lake Pend Oreille: the full guide

The deep north

Pend Oreille is the fifth-deepest lake in America: Gerrard-strain rainbows grow past 20 pounds chasing kokanee (the world-record 37-pounder came here), mackinaw prowl the depths, and the recovered kokanee fishery fills summer coolers. Big-water trolling with a view that outcompetes the fish.

Rainbow royalty

Pend Oreille built its name on Kamloops-strain rainbows past 20 lb chasing kokanee across the big basin: winter surface trolling (bucktail flies at daybreak) remains the trophy tradition. The derby culture peaks Thanksgiving-through-February when the giants ride the top 20 feet.

A 1,150-foot lake

The fifth-deepest lake in the nation fishes in layers: kokanee fleets at 40-80 ft in summer; lake trout (harvest encouraged: no limit) in the 100-250 band; cutthroat and smallmouth on every rocky drop. The Clark Fork delta and Green Monarchs concentrate the drama.

Common questions

Why is lake trout harvest unlimited here?

To protect the kokanee-Kamloops economy: lakers crashed it once. Anglers are the management tool: take a cooler of them home guilt-free.

Seasons of the big water

Pend Oreille organizes by thermal calendar: spring scatters cutthroat and smallmouth along warming shorelines; summer stratifies the giant basin into kokanee bands and laker depths; fall pulls big rainbows shallow behind spawning kokanee (the trophy season); winter's stable cold concentrates everything into predictable columns. The lake rewards anglers who think vertically: pick the layer before the location.

What is the Green Monarchs area?

A dramatic underwater cliff line on the southeast shore dropping hundreds of feet: bait stacks against it and the lake's biggest predators patrol the wall. It is the classic big-fish troll.

Is fishing good at Lake Pend Oreille right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Priest Lake35 miNoxon Rapids Reservoir39 miCoeur d Alene Lake46 miKootenai River55 miSaint Joe River62 miLake Roosevelt92 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 48.1583, -116.4402 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.