Fishing

Thanksgiving week in the Sandpoint area offers a combination you will not find anywhere else: a fall fishing derby with more than four decades of tradition, and the tentative start of Schweitzer's ski season the day after the holiday. It is a week built for people who refuse to choose between a rod and a pair of skis.

October is when Lake Pend Oreille's walleye start to roam. Recent tagged-fish data shows that walleye cover more ground in early fall than at any other time of year, spreading out across the lake but reliably turning up in the same handful of places year after year. For fall anglers, the map is clear.