Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Alan Liere’s weekly fish and game report

Alan Liere

Fly fishing

Area rivers are rising, so your best bet now for trout will be the spring creeks, or lakes such as Amber, Coffeepot, Rock and Sprague. There are a few pockets on the Coeur d’Alene River that will hold fish, however, and the St. Joe has remains somewhat fishable.

Another fly-fishing target now could be crappie in lakes like Eloika, Silver, Newman, Fernan and Hayden. Crappie begin moving into shallow water when the water temperature hits 50 degrees, and spawn when the temperature gets into the 60s.

The Clark Fork has been above 10,000 cfs recently and the water is milky. You can still catch fish by going deep in the holding water with weighted nymphs in the morning, then fishing dry with a skwala imitation in the afternoon.

Trout and kokanee

The water at Coffeepot Lake is way up and the boat launch is in great shape. Anglers are catching rainbow over 18 inches, and the largemouth fishing is picking up. Rock Lake is full of debris at the inlet, but trout anglers are taking good numbers of 14-inchers from shore at the outlet. Those with boats are doing well along the cliffs on the right side. Launching is much easier now than it was this winter.

Lake Roosevelt has risen but kokanee fishing remains good. You may have to go a little deeper to find the bite. Successful anglers are finding kokes near Hansen Harbor trolling pink hootchies behind a flasher. The trout bite has been steady but not fast.

Chelan Lake kokanee have been a little elusive recently. It has been best very early, but a lot of the fish are running no more than 13 inches.

Several waters in the Idaho Panhandle will be stocked with 10-12-inch rainbow trout the week of April 18-22. These are Robinson, Post Falls Park Pond, Antelope, Bonner, Brush, Jewel, Granite and Fernan.

Salmon and steelhead

The North and South Fork Clearwater as well as the Salmon River are still giving up steelhead at the rate of less than nine hours a fish. The Grande Ronde River is seeing the results of quickly melting snow and is currently running at about 7,000 cfs.

Spiny ray

Eloika Lake has been booting out some big catches of 9-10-inch crappie. Fish small curly-tails. White or yellow are good colors.

A friend who fished Lake Coeur d’Alene last week said he was able to raise a few 5-pound pike and a largemouth, all in 6 feet of water. He said water temperatures ranged from 46-58 degrees in the main lake.

The walleye bite at Banks Lake is good but has been pretty much over by 10:30 a.m. Barker Flats is the most popular place to start, but it can get crowded. Perch are hitting there also, and while the walleye appear to have spawned, the perch are still carrying their eggs. Potholes walleye are still in the spawning process and fishing has been slow, but some nice smallmouth are jumping on soft plastics along the riprap.

Anglers are finding walleye in a number of Lake Roosevelt locations. Kettle Falls has been good, as has the water up and downstream of Porcupine Bay and around the Hunters launch.

Largemouth bass are awakening in many area lakes. Good reports came in this week from Newman, Eloika and Silver. The smallmouth bite is going great-guns on the Snake.

Other species

Charter-boat anglers out of Westport report catching a few halibut and lots of ling cod and black rock bass. A bonus to any charter trip this time of year at Westport is the likelihood of seeing whales.

Hunting

Turkey season opens Friday in both Washington and Idaho. The outlook is excellent as populations are high and flocks are breaking up.

Idaho’s general spring black bear hunting season begins Friday in much of the state. Hunters are reminded that rules changes on placement of bait made last August are now in affect. No bait site can be located within 200 feet of any permanent water source or within 200 yards of any maintained trail or any established roadway that is open to the general public for motorized traffic and capable of being traveled by full-sized automobiles. Updates to the 2016 black bear season and rule information are available online at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission recently approved a new baiting rule for deer meant to curb its excesses rather than limit the practice. They also reduced the number of extended hunting days for young, senior, and disabled hunters from 14 days to four days for white-tailed deer in northeastern Washington. This was in response to an outbreak last summer of blue-tongue disease in the area’s deer herd that killed a lot of animals.

Contact Alan Liere via email at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com