Lake Pend Orielle Idaho, where the Gerard Rainbows grow!

Lake Pend Orielle, LPO, (pronounced: ponderay) is an hour south of the Canadian border in the Idaho panhandle north of Coeur d Alene ID. Early in the previous century these Gerard Rainbows were brought in from Kootenay Lake, British Columbia and have thrived in LPO growing on a diet of kokanee. As the water cools into the middle 50’s in October these rainbows, and the kokanee they feed on, come to the surface of the lake and can be caught there until late spring when the water warms again.

Everything about this fishery is ocean scale, from the deep vee hulls on the boats, to the rods & reels, to the fish in a lake that is 40 miles long and up to 8 miles wide. The lake is 1500’ deep and is so large that the US Navy has a submarine base on the lake. The best part of this fishery is the willingness of these big trout to eat trolling flies.

The traditional flies used on LPO were bucktail flies about 3 to 3.5 inched long. In 2018 I was contacted by two local Idaho anglers who had ordered a few of my tandem Arctic Fox flies. They thought a longer fly that would imitate a 5 to 6 inch kokanee would be the ticket to catching these trout and they were right. I was invited to fish with Matt Oliver and Craig O’Neal in November 2019 for the first time. That trip I caught my personal best rainbow, an 18 pounder, released back to the lake.

When the fish are up in the cold water season the most popular technique is to fish a planer board off each side of the boat about 150’ out. Then run 5 rods off each planer board line and another pair off the stern, sometimes on downriggers. The planer boards are most effective when there is a serious chop on the water to make the boards jump and surge. This animates the flies while trolling 2.5 to 4.0 mph.

The flies I produce that have proven most effective on LPO are the tandem Arctic Fox in UV White, Kokanee (black/white), Tui Chub and the Redside Minnow, both of which have an olive green back. In the past couple of seasons my Salmon Series Tube Flies have been producing fish. The Black/White, The Purple Haze (UV White), and the Green/White have all caught fish.

Catching these massive rainbows is not an easy task. There are many anglers who enter the derbies and do not hook a single fish worthy of being weighed in. In part it is a matter of paying your dues with many days on the water. Also, you must be ready to question your basic assumptions and be ready to change your approach, your lines, flies, speed, direction, how many lines you do or do not put out. This lake does not give up its secrets easily. The biggest hint I can give is these trout eat kokanee.

This winter of 2025-26 I will continue tying and testing my newest kokanee imitating tandem trolling flies. I am working on the theory that a translucent fly comprised of lightly dressed synthetic materials will be a more accurate representation of a kokanee. When I am satisfied with the pattern I will feature it on the front page of my website.

The following gallery has images sent by my customers of fish they have taken from Lake Pend Orielle.