Current of change in two rivers

North Idaho stream anglers have new reasons to look beyond the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe.

The Moyie and Kootenai rivers are perking up.

The Moyie River is North Idaho’s most recent addition to the year-round fishing list, giving anglers a chance to take advantage of stonefly hatches and other spring fishing opportunities, said Joe DuPont, Idaho Fish and Game Department fisheries biologist.

Surveys the past two years indicate anglers catch and kill only about 6 percent of the stream’s rainbows. “A year-round season shouldn’t hurt the fishery,” he said.

Some of the Moyie’s best floating is in April, before the river swells with runoff. By late July, the river can be too low to float.

Habitat structures built into the river seem to be helping the fishery, he said. “The rainbows typically are 9 to 14 inches long, but we’ve seen some up to 20 inches during electro-shocking surveys,” he said.

In addition to holding rainbows, the Moyie is one of the few bigger streams in the region that holds brook trout. “Usually brook trout are limited to the small tributaries of our rivers,” he said.

Daily catch limits for these rivers are two rainbows or 25 brook trout. On the Kootenai, rainbows must be at least 16 inches long to be kept.

The big news on the Kootenai is a 2-year-old water fertilization project that’s boosting the stream’s productivity.

“Studies indicate a big difference in insect density and fish growth in the stretch downstream from the Idaho line,” DuPont said. “Fishermen ought to start seeing some pretty good hatches of caddis and other bugs.”