Category: Sports & Outdoors

By Kristie Campbell In Week 9 of the Camas Prairie Leagues, gusty winds across the northwest created extra challenges for all participants and teams. In Bonners Ferry, when the wind […]

By Michelle Sweet   TEAM-WORK Applejacks (Elaine Wheeler sub for Alice Van Gundy, Francine Harwood, Shauna Anderson) Got high scratch game 407, high scratch series 1168, and third high handicap […]

Coming off of their fourth appearance in a row to the Idaho High School state basketball tournament, the Bonners Ferry High School basketball program is already gearing up for the […]

What a winter season we have had this year, one that honestly seems to be boiled like an owl. I sit along this creek watching American dippers jump into the […]

By Katie Banning As Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis once said, “You lost…Only the Race.” The Badgers may have lost tonight, but they have also won so much. They have […]

Will we have three back-to-back state titles? We are only one game away from finding out and the Badgers are ready to take on the Cole Valley Chargers for the […]

By Katie Banning Taylor Dodd, Ethan Matthews, Rocky Monroe, Colt Barras, Gaige Johnson, Eivind Falck, Robert Kelsey and Aiden Dodd along with the coaching staff of the Bonners Ferry High […]

By Pat Hart Almost 30 years ago West Fork cabin burned. The cabin sat in a Selkirk high elevation meadow, facing Joe Peak. It had been built in 1931 as […]

According to godiggers.com, “The NCAA Division II Frontier Conference’s men’s basketball coaches voted three Montana Tech players to the all-conference teams, the league office announced Thursday evening. Senior Hayden Diekhans […]

Like clockwork, a couple months go by and here I am again to talk about public lands. This time I am here to talk about Stevan Pearce, President Trump’s pick […]

Well, winter has come for a bit. Snow flurries, dumpings, maybe even a part of a blizzard struck us this last week and I am absolutely ecstatic about it. This […]

“I’m very proud of our boys for coming out from the start and playing hard.” Head coach, Greg Kissee says, “They didn’t let up and played well as a team.” […]

By Darrell Kerby Bonners Ferry has always been a town that punches above its weight, and nowhere is that more evident than in its proud youth boxing tradition. For decades, […]

Eight Bonners Ferry High School Badger wrestlers were in attendance at the 4A district meet on the Lakeland Hawks turf in Rathdrum this weekend and all eight Badger wrestlers earned […]

This past weekend, I spent just about too much time sitting on my butt behind a table with a few fly fishers who I could only describe as “my elders.” […]

In 2025, Bonners Ferry’s own Brody Rice and Thomas Bateman, both committed to play basketball for the Treasure Valley Community College Chukars in Ontario, Oregon. Now, let’s get that party […]

  This weekend, Friday through Sunday, February 13-15th, is the 33rd Boundary County Gun & Horn Show down at the Boundary County Fairgrounds , hosted by the Kootenai Valley Sportsman […]

On Wednesday, February 11 two young men will be honored for their time on the mat as their season as high school wrestlers comes to a close. Gaige Johnson and […]

By Ron and Kristie Campbell Bonners Ferry Gun Club In the Spokesman-Review Trapshoot, Bonners Ferry dropped back to 10th place in Division III for Week 5. The top scorers for […]

There I was again: strapped to the gills in warm clothing, a rigged 4 wt fly rod, a hip pack full of flies and tippet and cheap handwarmers that don’t […]

The seventh and eighth grade Badger girls traveled to Priest River today to compete in the 2025/2026 season end district tournament. The eighth grade girls took the “W” against the […]

It was a great day to be a middle school Badger! On Wednesday, the Boundary Count Middle School girls faced off against the Timberlake Lady Tigers on the Tigers court […]

The Chukars are sure lucky to have had Brody Rice and Thomas Bateman on their roster last week as they narrowly escaped defeat by three points and squeaked out an […]

Hana and Hallie Hartman, daughters of Kip and Ginny Hartman of Bonners Ferry, have both committed to Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah, to continue their athletic careers throwing […]

Idaho Fish and Game has staff dedicated to raising awareness, providing education and support and resolving conflict in local communities relative to bears (grizzly and black) in the Panhandle, with […]

  I had the opportunity this week to have a conversation with – and somewhat interview – local bamboo fly rod craftsman Lester Pinkerton. You may know him as a […]

As a guy who really loves the snowy season and had big plans of snowshoeing in and fishing my favorite holes this year, this winter is absolutely the pits. Where […]

After a long day yesterday to and from Lewiston, the Badgers loaded up their trusty steed before sunrise this morning and hit the road to Kalispell, Montana to take on […]

The Treasure Valley Chukars opened up conference play this week with a show down against the Columbia Basin Hawks on Wednesday night. Bonners Ferry’s own Brody Rice, son of Andy […]

By Michelle Sweet TEAM-WORK Trix (Marie Sumpter, Bonnie Grove, Liz Cada) TOOK it ALL!! Scratch game 389, scratch series 116, handicap game 673, AND handicap series 1968. Nice work ladies! […]

Badger wrestling did not disappoint at the Backwoods Brawl Invitational in Priest River this weekend. As one of ten teams, the Badgers took home three first place trophies, one second […]

As a blue lining and high country fly fisher, a whole bundle of my knowledge about the creeks and mountain lakes comes from firsthand experience. It’s not that I haven’t […]

Jesse Dunham, Bonners Ferry High School graduate and 2017 Idaho Baseball Hall of Fame Player of the year, has been named Sandpoint High School’s head baseball coach for the 2026 […]

That’s a wrap! The 2025 wrestling season for the Bonners Ferry Wrestling Club is in the books and what a chapter it was! Although there will be a few in […]

On December 13, Bonners Ferry’s own Brody Rice, son of Andy and Kelsey Rice, made the starting lineup for the Treasure Valley Community College Chukars for the tight matchup against […]

After the flood events that have taken place in Troy, Libby and the surrounding areas, I am organizing a quick food drive in Boundary County to donate to the Libby Food Bank. I will be taking whatever is gathered down to Libby next Friday, December 19. You can bring non-perishable foods (canned, dry and such) to Bonners Books, 7195 Main Street in Bonners Ferry, or leave it on my front porch at 7297 Birch Street, down behind the hospital, at any time.

By Katie Banning 2025 Bonners Ferry High School graduate Helene Rae, daughter of Bonners Ferry’s Brian and Teresa Rae, impressed the masses at her first collegiate meet at the College […]

The baton has been handed off and the new coaching staff for the Bonners Ferry Badgers has hit the ground running. Greg Kissee was named Bonners Ferry boys basketball’s head […]

Bonners Ferry Middle School took 20 wrestlers to the Jerry Lamb District Tournament in Priest River Saturday and finished third overall out of seven schools, just missing out on second […]

Christmas is right around the corner and honestly, it snuck up on me as fast as it probably did you. It is time for egg nog (which shouldn’t be out […]

I know I have a lot of readers who are not fly fishers in the least bit, but that should not turn them off from reading many of the fly fishing books out there…I very much enjoy the extensive library of fly fishing books that I have acquired, read, and read again and again throughout my years is that they aren’t just about fishing. While on the surface, that is objectively what they are about, they tend to err on the side of natural philosophy like a book from Annie Dillard or Edward Abbey does.

By Katie Banning Alexys Mierke was a force to be reckoned with this season on the soccer field. As a senior and mid-fielder, Alexys dominated for the Badgers. She led […]

As humans, we all have this dog; the animal inside of us with an insatiable hunger for doing something until we cannot do it anymore … When it comes to fly fishing – and sure, other hobbies, but I am not writing about those – that hunger is stretched from ideas that can be inoculated quite easily to others that are harder to kick. Not all of them are unhealthy, and really most aren’t, but the addiction can hit hard if you are not ready for it.

 I do still prefer to spend much of the cold time of year under the leaden winter sky rather than in the warmth and comfort of the home. Sometimes it is active as I snowshoe through the Selkirks, take the child out sledding on the hills that I grew up sliding down, or sitting streamside to watch the birds, make my coffee, and watch the snow falling from the boughs and sunshine dapple through the needles. It is a much better life to live if you live it en plein air, and sometimes the rougher weather is just what you need to remember where you stand in the Anthropocene; Lilliputian and nigh non-existent outside of ourselves, our families, and our community. 

I know fishers who look down on a bobber and a worm but turn around to nymph river runs with an indicator. Do what you enjoy, and never let someone tell you that one way of doing something is better than the other. If I listened to that when I wanted to catch fish, I would still be slinging a rooster tail up and down the county. But I would rather be casting a hudson caddis along a seam and watching my fly (most of the time) while listening to the river rumble and the birds sing. That’s fishing to me, and I know it isn’t for everyone.

Bonners Ferry Wrestling Club was honored to host the first tournament of the year for the North Idaho Wrestling League with over 600 hundred wrestlers competing. The Bonners Ferry wrestlers […]

The Badger Youth Football team was invited to participate in the in the Inland Northwest 8th Grade Football Playoffs this weekend in Spokane. The Badgers played a successful season in […]

The Badger boys cross country team and Kylie Calderone are headed to state! 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Lewiston! GO, BADGERS!

Let loud, get proud! This Friday night, under the lights at 7 p.m., your 6 – 2 Bonners Ferry Badgers will take on their long-standing rival, the 1 – 7 […]

In a state like Idaho (and this would affect Idaho greatly) I grew up being told that the federal government controls too much and that in such a conservative place, […]

The Badger volleyball squad is at home tonight at 7 p.m. vs Clark Fork, and it’s senior night for the only senior on the team, Adleemae Robles! Be there to […]

The Moyie was out of question due to 1) I wanted to catch a trout and 2) the wind was going to be ripping in the canyon where I had planned to go. The Kootenai in town is slow this time of year and the wind really would have played my line hard. So I opted for a nearby creek in hopes to escape the pesky wind and put a couple trout in my net.

The Boundary County Volleyball Association is looking for people to join us for league this winter! Participants can sign up as a team of six or as free agents and […]

After chronic wasting disease was detected in three white-tailed deer near Bonners Ferry, a portion of Unit 1 was designated as a CWD management zone effective Oct. 1. During the […]

I used to wear a pair of my father’s old thick Hodgmen neoprene waders during my winter fishing trips up the Moyie river until I fell through the ice in January 2023 and tore a big hole in them on a river rock below. Now, I own a pair of cheap-o hip waders that work very well if I need them, which in reality is not that often.

Congratulations to the next Badger Hall of Fame inductee for the Class of 2025. Dr. Roland Houston Hall, or as his family and early childhood friends affectionately called him, “Toad,” […]

The Bonners Ferry Badger Athletic Hall of Fame is excited to introduce two of the six individuals and team who will be inducted in the hall’s Class of 2025; Kathy […]

Bonners Ferry Badger senior Ethan Cowell was at the head of the pack this weekend finishing in at 18:43 at the Bonners Ferry Cross Country Invitational. Five schools with 52 […]

It’s a sight you will never forget. The rhythmic sound of moving water, the crisp fall air and the vibrant red fish filling the creek will all leave you with […]

Young fly fishers, whether by age or how green they are in the neck, seem to like traveling to other rivers and streams, continuously trying new things like a kid […]

As life moves on, and summer drifts past us once again, our time at the river becomes less about each cast and more about becoming a part of the current ourselves. We rush past new landscapes, find ourselves stagnant in the slow waters only to take up speed again as we encounter rocks and boulders in our way, wildlife that laps up a bit of our soul, and share a feeling that there is an end to this all but we might as well enjoy the flow for a bit longer.

It is a nice feeling to wake up each day knowing that I do not live in a fishing destination necessarily, but I am surrounded by decent fishing and many […]

Hunters in 2025 will have mandatory testing for chronic wasting disease for deer in seven hunting units, including the addition of Unit 63A north of Idaho Falls, which was added […]

Many things drag us out into the wilderness: the daily barrage of incomprehensible political decisions, the copious amounts of brain-rot produced by the inevitable screen watching and scrolling that has […]

Sheer beauty comes from all places while you are fly fishing: the bluebirds song against the drone of a rolling creek, the ripples caused by emerging insects and the subsequent trout nose breaking the surface to feed, the analeptic response from feeling the tug of a trout at the end of your line. Or, sometimes the waters decide to paint a picture for you, a snapshot of nature that you, and only you, are usually there to witness.

The issue comes with the amount of mending one has to do to keep a good drift. It is the Kootenai, and with that comes an incredible power of cross currents, undercurrents, back drift, and spots of stillness. But if you have a good line and a bit of mending knowledge, it is manageable and rewarding.

The average person just sees a bug. A fly fisher can see the caddis or the mayfly, the salmon fly and stonefly. They see a running current; at the same time a frightening, powerful phenomenon and a thing of beauty. A fly fisher sees the way the water curls over a large rock, the trout nearby waiting for the next course to their meal behind it. The fly fisher sees the water in a different way; it is a whole different experience. A better experience.

Boundary Community Hospital (BCH), in partnership with Boundary County School District 101, is proud to offer free sports physicals for Boundary County students from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, July […]

… now I wanted to play catch and release rather than kill and grill. This drove my father crazy. He fished and hunted to put food on the table, and now his only son of four kids wants to let that beautiful 18-inch rainbow he caught on a stonefly imitation go back into the water rather than into his and his family’s stomachs.

Maybe the Moyie is what you could call a Pabst Blue Ribbon river: by myth, it won the award for “America’s Best” in the past–hypothetically at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition for the PBR–but in reality no one really knows if that is the truth or not. All we know is that they are both cheap, fun, will give you a slight buzz if you really try, and are made mostly of water.

In a place like the Moyie River, I want the only trash in there to be the quality of fishing. It makes getting skunked a heck of a lot more enjoyable when I don’t have to clean up the area every single time I am out there.

What lurks under these beautiful clear waters are what I consider one of the best (if not the best) fish to catch in this wonderful country of ours: the Westslope Cutthroat Trout.

Seven members of the Duke’s Claybusters Bonners Ferry High School trapshooting team heading south this weekend to the Boise Gun Club in Kuna, Idaho, to compete in the Idaho State […]

In my mind, and the minds of many other anglers, there is always a trout rising in the back of our head.

The Special Olympics Idaho Summer Games are just around the corner. On June 6 and 7 in Nampa, the games will commence and three of the Bonners Ferry Mountaineers; Dylan […]

My son Olaf spent all of last summer wading in the creeks, climbing over boulders, helping to net fish, and running full bore from nests of angry yellow jackets with me but he had not yet tried his hand in fishing with a fly rod.

As Gingrich wrote, “a trout is a moment of beauty only to those that seek it” … I hope we can keep our minds in the right place and keep our public lands public…we must make our voices heard if we want to save our public lands. For you, for me, for our families, our children, and our children’s children.

Members of Bonners Ferry Gun Club and the Bonners Ferry High School Claybusters traveled to a 2 day ATA trap shoot in Libby. We had two days of fantastic trapshooting. […]

By Badger Sports Reporter, Piper Banning The Badgers traveled to Boise for the track and field state championship this weekend and brought home some hardware. The 4A state champion for […]

By Badger Sports Reporter, Piper Banning For the first time in school history, Bonners Ferry High School has a tennis team. Though it be a team of just two this […]

There is movement of the water, the decaying dead things, the fish that feed our obsession, the change of sediment, the deer that drinks not fifty yards from me with its feet dug deep into the muddy bottom of the Kootenai. And under the slow moving foam, in the uncleared and slightly brown waters, are trout waiting as patiently as I am.

Idaho’s Free Fishing Day is a day to set for June 14, 2025. On June 14, there will be no need to have a fishing license, but all other rules […]

That’s a wrap. Bonners Ferry High School Golf has come to an end for the 2025 season. Badger state goer, Eli Blackmore earned a 6th place individual medal, scoring 77 […]

For the first time in school history, Bonners Ferry High School has a tennis team. It took two young people with a desire and drive to play high school tennis […]

… what has mainly stayed the same as it was 30 years ago is nature. Our surroundings. Objectively the best part of this area; a wholly unique and beautiful part of the country at large. And the best part of that nature is in the waters.

As a working family man, I can’t always get out when I want to (especially when I run out of good excuses). However, there are still things I can do in the meantime to soften the blow of not having my feet in the river.

Boundary County Sheriff Travis Stolley has announce two upcoming off highway vehicle (OHV) classes to be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 17,  and Saturday, June 7, both […]

Tuesday’s Trouble women’s bowling league sent eight players to the Idaho State Championships. The event was held on three separate weekends and in two cities to accommodate all bowlers. The […]

Helene Rae and her best friend Kim Lucas signed to their respective colleges last week. Helene Rae will be attending the College of Idaho in Caldwell as a track athlete […]

My reunion with one of my oldest, and dearest, friends began as one should: a few blue cans, a juicy tri-tip that had been in a smoker all day, and a bit of small talk.

“… the river changes towards beauty. It remains the same in our eyes but the water that rolls past your ankles is somewhere far, far down the river within a minute. It makes one question the minutiae of everyday life away from the river, how we humans conduct ourselves whether face to face or through a phone screen. And it makes one wonder why we have lost our way as rivers ourselves.”

On Saturday, March 1, The Historic Pearl Theater in downtown Bonners Ferry put on a showing of the IF4, or International Fly Fishing Film Festival, which I attended with some […]

There you are, watching your size 14 CDC caddis dead float perfectly with the foam in the current over what you know is at least a 12” west slope cutthroat. […]