FISHING -- Dworshak Reservoir, home of Idaho's 9.72-pound state-record smallmouth bass, was giving up 7- and 8-pound bass regularly last week, says Toby Wyatt of Reel Time Fishing.

"We landed 10 bass between 2.5 and 4.5 pounds (one Wednesday) along with many others," he said "This hot fishing will only last a few weeks.

Sean Wilson, Idaho Fish and Game Department fisheries biologist, agrees the fishing has been worth the trip.

"Bass fishing has been good the last two years, and this year is shaping up to be more of the same," he said. "Water temperatures have been cooler this spring, compared to the last two years, and larger fish moved into shallow water on the lower end of the reservoir by late April."

The fishing had been slower than normal early in May, but the fish caught were larger than average.

"Smallmouth we checked in April averaged over 15 inches long, with some over 18 inches," he said. "As the water continues to warm, the larger fish will move into deeper water and smaller fish will move up along the banks. As this happens, catch rates will pick up, but average size will go down. Water temperatures have been much cooler on the upper end of the reservoir, so these movements will be happening over the next few weeks."

Anglers fishing a tournament at the end of April did quite well, Wilson said. Most of the tournament anglers returned with limits of medium to large fish. 

A tournament angler caught a 8 pound, 6 ounce smallmouth which was tagged and released by IDFG biologists.

Kokanee fishing at Dworshak is picking up. "Last year there were more kokanee than typical, but of average size," he said. "This year there could be a typical number of kokanee, but of above average size."

This fishing season, we expect there will be approximately 210,000 two year old kokanee. This is very close to the average two year old fish abundance in Dworshak Reservoir since 2000. In addition, we could have about 3% of the two year old fish from last year carry over as three year old fish this year, which would be a little over 10,000. If this is the case, anglers could expect one fish in each limit of 25 to be a larger 3 year old fish.

However, at this point fisheries managers don't know how many kokanee were entrained (lost through the dam) this year. High entrainment would mean lower than average survival, and fewer fish than expected, Wilson said.

"We had heavy snowpack this winter which resulted in the Corps of Engineers releasing high volumes of water out of the dam this spring.... We won’t know for sure until our surveys in late July, but at this point it appears we’ll still have plenty of fish for a decent fishery.

"Most fish are already above the long-term average of 10 inches, and they should be just starting to grow for the year. We have already measured fish over 12 inches, including one that was brought to a check station that was 14 inches. With good growth, we could see fish averaging 12 inches by summer."