Weekly hunting and fishing report

Fly fishing

Sunday is the opener in the Quincy Wildlife Area. Lenice and Nunnally didn’t get much attention last season and could be very good this year. There are big rainbow and some browns in these lakes. Dusty Lake has also been popular over the years with fly fishermen looking for large rainbow, browns and tiger trout. It is a walk-in lake.

Just west of Dusty and Burke lakes in the Quincy Wildlife Area are several small (2- to 5-acre) hike-in lakes that should appeal to fly fishermen although they are not selective gear fisheries. These are Crystal, Cup, Upper and Lower Spring and Cliff. All have some large trout. Region 2 fish biologist Chad Jackson suggests that to do justice to these lakes, a fisherman should spend a long day and try them all.

The North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene has dropped but is still moving pretty fast. Anglers are finding cutthroats with streamers or double nymph rigs along the banks.

The best fishing on the St. Joe is on the lower river below Marble. The fish are in pods, so don’t stand in one place too long. Flashy streamers or nymphs will find them.

Salmon and steelhead

Steelhead fishing on the Clearwater has been excellent. Clearwater guides predict it will stay good for at least two more weeks.

The Grande Ronde is still a little high for fly fishing for steelhead, but the river is fishable by other methods. There are a lot of fish concentrated in the stretches above Boggan’s Oasis. The Snake, too, is high, but gear fishermen are finding steelhead.

An additional section of the Wenatchee River from the Icicle River to 400 feet below Tumwater Dam opened February 21 for hatchery steelhead, but a section of the Methow River upstream of Heckendorn Park to the Highway 20 Bridge in Winthrop closes on Sunday.

Areas of the Okanogan River that will close to steelhead angling one hour after sunset Sunday include: the stretch from the first power line crossing downstream of the Highway 155 Bridge in Omak to the mouth of Omak Creek; Okanogan River from the Tonasket Bridge downstream to the Tonasket Lagoons Park boat launch.

Trout and kokanee

Sprague Lake trout usually don’t start feeding actively until the day warms up, so there is no need to get up early. Anglers continue to catch rainbow to 24 inches and steelhead 12-14 inches.

Kokanee of about 12 inches have been fairly cooperative on Lake Chelan recently, but Lake Roosevelt kokes have been scarce. Trolling for trout, too, has dropped off. On Chelan, anglers are finding kokanee deep trolling mini squids and flies in orange and pink pulled behind Mack’s Double Ds and UV dodgers. Put a few pieces of shoepeg corn on the hooks.

Three friends and I fished from shore on Lake Roosevelt last week. The fish were moving into a bay near Hanson Harbor in pods, and if you could get back into the water quickly after the first bite, you could often take several fish in a short time. The present erratic nature of Lake Roosevelt trout fishing is evidenced by the fact four anglers, all using the same orange dough bait and all fishing in the same general area had different results. One friend caught his limit in 20 minutes but it took me three hours and the other two friends finally quit an hour later with six.

A number of Washington lakes open to fishing on Sunday. The Tucannon Lakes in southeasten Washington are just off the Tucannon River a few minutes away from the Wooten Wildlife Area. Its seven lakes – Beaver, Big Four, Blue, Deer, Rainbow, Spring, and Watson – were due to be stocked with catchables and a few jumbos before the opener.

Two other lakes opening Sunday will be Deer Lake in Stevens County and Liberty in Spokane County. Expect rainbow, brookies and mackinaw from Deer and some big brown or rainbow trout in the shallows from Liberty. Liberty should be stocked with some catchable-sized rainbows by the opener.

Also open on Sunday will be Medical, Coffeepot, Downs and Amber. Downs has bass, perch and crappie as well as 5,000 newly stocked trout. Medical Lake, a selective gear lake, was stocked with 2,500 rainbow fry last May, and will be stocked with 2,000 put-grow-and-take brown trout this spring. There is a minimum size of 14 inches with a daily limit of two.

Amber Lake was stocked with 5,000 rainbow fry and 1,000 cutthroat fry last May, which will enter the fishery this season. It opens for catch-and-release only fishing on Sunday and then shifts to a two-trout-per-day harvest season April 25th.  Selective gear rules apply. Amber has some big carryovers. Coffeepot Lake received 5,000 put-grow-and-take rainbows last spring, and should receive another 5,000 this year. Selective gear rules are in effect, plus an 18-inch minimum size and one-fish daily catch limit.  Due to low water conditions, Bureau of Land Management has closed the boat launch area at Coffeepot Lake to prevent boat trailers from getting stuck in the mud. 

The rest of the March 1 opening waters are in central Washington’s Columbia Basin, mostly in Grant County. All are listed under “Special Rules - Eastside Lakes” in the fishing regs. Upper, Lower and East Caliche south of Quincy, Burke Lake, and lakes in the Pillar-Widgeon chain will open Sunday. Upper Caliche will probably fish best, but all have 11- to 13-inch rainbow and some as large as 20 inches. Don’t overlook Martha or Dusty. Many of these lakes have large carryovers. Lenice and Nunnally (both with a one-fish limit) also open Sunday. They are expected to provide good trout fishing.

Spiny ray

The walleye bite remains very strong at Banks Lake. Fish are holding in 35-50 feet and are munching down on the Mack’s Lure Spindrift Walleye Rig tipped with a whole crawler. Slow trolling with 2-ounce bottom bouncers has been the key. Walleye are also showing again at Rufus Woods, and some big rainbow are hitting, too.

Lake Roosevelt walleye fishermen are not having great success recently in the main lake, but fishing has been hot in Porcupine Bay for small fish. Some anglers, however, report catching limits of 16-inch fish in 40 feet of water.

Potholes and the Lind Coulee have been disappointing walleye fishermen lately, but the perch bite at times is phenomenal for oversized fish.