Fly fishing

The whole North Fork Coeur d’Alene is fishing lights out. Flows are perfect and the lower half of the river is still floatable. Big dry flies are effective during the morning and afternoon. PMDs and caddis patterns are working best in the evening.

The St. Joe has dropped to around 3,400 cfs at Calder and the dry fly fishing has taken off. Fish the edges with golden stones and yellow sallies, but don’t be afraid to try a mix of green and grey drakes, caddis and PMDs. Streamers and nymphs worked deep will always bring strikes.

The Clark Fork is fishable but still high and only about 2 feet of visibility. Big dry flies fished near shore and in seams might produce. Caddis are showing starting around 7 p.m. Employees of the Orvis Fly Shop in Coeur d’Alene are touting a fly called “the 20-incher”– a deep water nymph. Info: (888) 347-4223.

Elsewhere, the St. Regis is in prime condition and getting low enough to fish. The Bitterroot and Rock Creek have become fishable. Hatches are the same as other area rivers. On the Missouri, hopper fishing is beginning. The flow below Holter is about 11,200 with decent hatches of PMDs, caddis and terrestrials.

The Yakima River generally has an early-morning caddis hatch and trout are quite active until about 10:30 a.m. Once the sun comes out in full force, fishing shuts down.

Trout and kokanee

Coeur d’Alene kokanee anglers are having their best luck at the south end of the lake in bays such as Powderhorn and Rockford. The average fish is around 10 inches with quite a few 6-inch “shakers” being hooked. Three friends, who had poor luck last week, graphed fish all over the lake this week. Of the 32 fish landed, one was 14 inches.

Night fishing at Loon Lake will most likely remain good the rest of the summer. The fish are in 28-32 feet of water with most of the fishing taking place directly across the lake from the island. The bite has begun early, beginning most nights around 8 with limits by 9:30. Sweeten your white or green Glo Hook with two maggots. Chapman Lake in southwest Spokane County has also produced good kokanee catches.

Kokanee fishing on Dworshak Reservoir has been good near Dent. Anglers are trolling slowly and relatively shallow with weighted line or 1-3 ounce weights with standard spinning gear baited with maggots, mealworms or white corn.

In Montana, Koocanusa kokanee are deeper and not biting particularly well. Lake Mary Ronan fishing is excellent for 12-inchers.

Rainbow and cutthroat trout are still good bets early and late in the day at Amber, Badger and Williams lakes. Other good trout fishing relatively close to Spokane can be found at Clear, Medical, West Medical, Fishtrap and Rock lakes.

Anglers dangling worms near the rock slope in the back corner of Fish Lake are catching quite a few 10-inch tiger trout. Tiger trout are also showing more frequently at Loon Lake.

Rufus Woods Reservoir is still an excellent destination for triploid rainbow. Cast flies or spinners and spoons at shoreline points and structures, or try trolling with old standbys such as Flatfish or Needlefish. With the water warming, get close to the bottom.

Salmon and steelhead

Chinook fishing on the upper Salmon River is expected to improve over the next week. Numbers of salmon being trapped at the Sawtooth Hatchery are on the rise, indicating more fish have journeyed upstream. Dropping water levels will also improve angler success.

Chinook success in the Wenatchee vicinity is low, but anglers still fishing the Icicle River are getting a good number of spring salmon. The big eddy right off the launch below Wanapum Dam is producing the best catches on the upper Columbia.

Starting Wednesday, an additional section of the Columbia will be open for fishing, from Wells Dam upstream to the Highway 173 Bridge in Brewster.

Prime time is near for hatchery steelhead fishing below Bonneville Dam, said WDFW biologist Joe Hymer.

“The catch is increasing and shifting to upriver fish, which are a little smaller but bright as a chrome hubcap,” he said.

Salmon fishing has been fair off Ilwaco and Westport. Farther north at La Push and Neah Bay, angler effort has been low and those going out are averaging less than one fish for every two people.

Spiny ray

Bass fishing has been excellent on the Pend Oreille River from Newport north, and anglers throwing spinnerbaits and plugs also report catching lots of pike to 8 pounds. The mouth of Tacoma Creek has been excellent for pike.

Eloika Lake bass have moved into deeper water at midlake, but anglers are catching them on spinnerbaits and Senkos across the lake from Jerry’s Landing. Because of the late spring, the weeds are not matting the surface, and a lot of crappie are taken in the evening on white or yellow flies. Good catches of perch are also being made.

Bass in other area lakes are also moving out of the shallows. Fishing has been good at Dworshak Reservoir, Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Hauser and the chain lakes in Idaho; and Newman, Downs, Deer and Long lakes in Washington. Buzz or spinnerbaits in green or white, thrown into the weeds and retrieved fast, are working well in most waters for largemouth. Throw large tubes in fluorescent green or crawdad colors for smallmouth.

A few Moses Lake walleye anglers report excellent success trolling green wedding rings. They are also pulling in smallmouth with this technique. Moses Lake anglers are finding some good-sized largemouth by trolling dark plugs close to shore mornings and evenings. Potholes bass anglers are finding lots of smallmouth along the dam, and largemouth are still hitting in the dunes.

Good walleye fishing was reported over the weekend in the vicinity of Seven Bays. Fish of 10 and 8 pounds were caught and confirmed.

Small panfish are prevalent in Pend Oreille County’s Horseshoe Lake. Drift a worm from the launch to the falls and also in the far end of the lake to the right. Expect to catch perch, bluegill and sunfish.

I fished the Snake River near Heller Bar for bass and sturgeon Tuesday with guide Toby Wyatt of Reeltime Fishing. Although his boat had landed an 81/2–foot sturgeon that weekend, the best we could manage was a 4-footer. Bass fishing was fair for small fish, but we also caught some catfish and several $4 bounty pikeminnow. Info: (208) 790-2128

Other species

Shad counts on the Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam are tapering off. Through Sunday, just more than 2 million shad had been counted at the dam compared with 2.5 million last year.

Catfish anglers are starting to do well on the lower Snake. Try stink baits or nightcrawlers with scent.

(Outdoors editor Rich Landers contributed to this column.)