Reminder: Anglers are limited to only 2 largemouth on the Pend Oreille and they must be over 16" to be legal. However, this is a very critical time of year for future of the fishery and it is recommended to practice catch & release to allow for a good spawn. Especially on this particular body of water where mortality rates are drastically hurting the population.

   The smallmouth are getting grouped up on main river points and feeding well too. We have been catching  them on lipless and diving crank baits in perch patterns as well as tube baits. For crank baits, we're using medium action rods spooled with 12 lb fluorocarbon. You need a soft action rod that has a lot of give in the tip to help prevent pulling the hooks free when these bruisers start shaking their head and making lightning quick runs. So far, there are a lot of bites up to 3 lbs, but the giants have still remained elusive. I suspect they are still holding back off the ledges in deep water. We haven't succeeded in locating them, but they can't be too far. I did hook and loose 2 last trip that felt like what we were looking for. One of which was truly a good one. That's the way it goes with big smallmouth and treble hooks though. They are experts at getting that crank bait out of their mouths!