North Idaho Memories: Fernan fishing in 1949

After experiencing the fly-fishing frenzy on the Coeur d'Alene River these past years, it occurs to me that there might be some interest in the early fly-fishing I experienced before the "cutthroat preservation era," and perhaps some nostalgia in this aged Idaho native.  

The Old Mill Stream

I was 16, growing out of the Boy Scout troop, getting ready for high school graduation.

I hadn't discovered much about girls yet, and my grandfather gave me a dollar every time I brought him a mess of perch from either Fernan Lake or the river off the bank down by the old hobo camp where the expanse of university buildings now stands.

On one trip, my buddy, Hibbard, and I, with my $2 telescoping iron rod and his uncle's bamboo fly rod, were catching perch at the west end of Fernan Lake. No freeway then, just the two-lane U.S. Highway 10 bridging the outlet stream that poured into Lake Coeur d'Alene some half a mile through the Rutledge Mill property. It was early May, and the stream was running full force from Fernan. It created a sizeable pond off the highway, before its crescendo down past the mill into the lake.

We decided to see if there were perch in the pond, when we saw rises! Black ants were in flight, landing periodically on our arms, on the water. Trout were taking these things. Hibbard had his uncle's fly rod. He found a Royal Coachman fly in his uncle's fly box he carried and managed to get it 10 feet off the shore and landed a 16-inch cutthroat trout.

The hell with perch! Let's catch some of these; we took off down the stream bank toward the mill, seeing rises everywhere the water created a deep enough pool. I put a fly on my monofilament line with my casting reel — couldn't get it 5 feet off the bank. The rises were prolific, large cuts slowly feeding, 20 or 30 feet out. Hibbard hooked at least five fish, while some millworkers watched from the bank on their lunch hour.

The hatch finally ended. I headed to Airhart's second-hand store in midtown to get me a fly rod. I found a used Montague and a Perrine automatic reel with level fly line for 20 bucks — my month's Press route earnings. Back next day, learned by trial and error to get that fly out 20 yards to the rises, managed to awe the millworkers that noon hour with at least four or five 16-inch cutthroats. Got in about two more days of that marvelous fishing unknownst to the general fishing populace. In a week's time, this spawning run of cuts from large lake to small lake perhaps even through to the Kelly's Creek that fed Fernan was over. The large lake had risen, and the Old Mill Stream reversed its direction and became almost without current and seemed to fill up with perch and sunfish.

But for about three years, before going off to college, we boys hit the Mill Stream spawning run every May 1, opening day of lake fishing season for the short-lived black ant hatch.

No more Old Mill Stream. It's now the golf course trickle, blocked off by fences and freeway, lunchtime millworkers replaced by high-toned golfers, the only rise-rings are those made by errant golf balls.

— Ron Boothe, Kingston

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Send your North Idaho memories and photos to Devin Weeks, dweeks@cdapress.com. Please provide information with any photos you send: Who is in them, when and where were they taken and a brief description of what is happening in the photo. Pieces should be no more than 500 words. Please include the names of those submitting the memories and how long North Idaho has been or was your home.

Longtime residents have a treasure trove of stories about the way things used to be. We hope you'll share those gems with us.

    These cutthroat trout ran from Lake Coeur d'Alene through the "mill stream" past Rutledge Mill into Fernan Lake.
  

    Two boys are seen fishing off the dock during the Fishing Derby at Fernan Lake in 1956.