Alan Liere’s weekly fish and game report for March 31

Wed., March 30, 2016

By Alan Liere spokesmanliere@yahoo.com

Tip of the week

Kokanee can be fickle. For best fishing success, locate the school and put your lure right at or slightly above them and don't be afraid to vary the speed widely. If you go over the same school several times at different speeds without a hit, you’re better off to go find more cooperative fish.

Braggin’ rights

The Spokane Bass Club held their first tournament of the year last Saturday on Newman Lake. Participants reported tough fishing, but nevertheless, some big bass – both largemouth and smallmouth – were weighed in. Bob Trukositz won the tournament with a limit weighing 11.64 pounds. He fished slowly along emerging lily pads. Second place was John Thrasher, who had two fish weighing 9.27 pounds – including the big bass of the event at 4.66 pounds.

Overheard

The halibut catch in Puget Sound has exceeded the area harvest quota for the past four years. In response, this year’s halibut season in Marine Areas 6-10 in central Puget Sound will be reduced to eight days from 11 days last year. That fishery will run concurrently with the one in Marine Area 5 (Sekiu), where the season has been limited to eight days since 2013.

Heads up

–The Banks Lake Triple Fish event will run April 23-24 out of Coulee Playland Resort on Banks Lake. The goal of participants is to weigh in a rainbow trout, a smallmouth bass and a walleye on both days. There will be daily prizes for each species of big fish and a grand prize of an inflatable boat and motor. For details, go to Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce and click on events.

–The Last Resort on the Wooten Wildlife Area is hosting a youth turkey event on Sunday at 9 a.m. Participants ages of 4-16 will have an opportunity to shoot bows, shotguns and BB guns and listen to speakers from the Wild Turkey Federation and WDFW. Registration is on site. Info: (509) 843-1556.

–Steelhead and trout fishing on the upper Columbia River from Rock Island Dam upstream to 400 feet 400 feet below Chief Joseph Dam will close one hour after sunset on Thursday. This closure includes the Wenatchee, Icicle, Entiat, Okanogan, and Similkameen rivers. The season is closed to minimize impacts to spawning steelhead.

The Washington winter lakes – Fourth of July, Hog Canyon, Hatch and Williams close after Thursday. Don’t forget to buy a new fishing license for the upcoming season as the old ones are not good after Thursday.

Fly fishing

On the North Fork Coeur d’Alene and the St. Joe, dry fly action picks up in the afternoon. Silver Bow Fly shop says the trout are moving away from the banks into areas with a little more current and structure. The nemoura stones have started to hatch, which is usually enough to get the cutthroat looking for any small dark stonefly.

Area lakes are also fishing well. The blood worm and chironomid fishing has been good on Amber and leeches and chironomids are working at slowly-improving Medical Lake. Sprague Lake triploids are fat, eating well, and difficult to catch on some days. Oddly, there have been no steelhead reports. Coffeepot Lake would be the best of all if it wasn’t so difficult to get a floating device to the water.

Bug activity is picking up on the Montana rivers. March Browns, BWO’s, and skwalas are starting to get fish up to the surface at mid day.

Steelhead and salmon

Boggan’s Oasis on the Grande Ronde reports that steelhead fishing is excellent and the fish are surprisingly bright. Water is dropping and visibility is three feet. The season runs through April this year. The winner of Boggan’s steelhead derby was Chris Richards of La Grande, Oregon with a fish weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces.

Steelhead fishing in Idaho is winding down but fish are still being caught on the North and South Fork Clearwater as well as the main river. The Salmon River is also still yielding fish.

Fishing is not red-hot for chinook on Lake Coeur d’Alene, but the keepers are beautiful ocean-bright fish. There has been some success recently in Windy Bay.

Chinook fishing is picking up on the Columbia River in the Portland area. Flashers and herring have been most effective.

Trout and kokanee

Long Lake rainbow of about 14 inches have been kind to both trollers and bank fishermen in the vicinity of Tum Tum. With the water so low, it is difficult to find a place to launch on the big reservoir. It would be possible to slide a small boat to the water at Tum Tum, but getting it back up the bank may be a deal breaker.

Sprague Lake bank fishermen aren’t having much luck, but friends trolling a No. 7 Flicker Shad last week caught six triploids of 17-20 inches.

An early bite just above the Yacht Club on Lake Chelan is putting kokanee in the nets. They range from 10-14 inches.

Keller Ferry kokanee are also early biters. Hootchies and Apexes have both been good. The water was a little murky last week. Expect fish running 17-22 inches. Elsewhere on Lake Roosevelt, anglers are marking a lot of fish but not catching as many.

Several lakes in the Idaho Panhandle will be stocked with 10- to 12-inch rainbow trout the week of April 11-15. Included are: Lower Twin, Fernan, Round, Kelso and Hayden.

Several trout lakes in the Columbia Wildlife Refuge in the Columbia Basin open on Saturday. Fishing is expected to be very good at North and South Teal and Dry Falls, where there are some big carryovers. Upper and Lower Hampton, as well as Sago, Hourglass and Widgeon, were rehabilitated last year and yearling fish will be 11-13 inches.

Spiny ray

Potholes walleye are on the move so you may have to relocate several times before you find them. Reports indicate the Lind Coulee and Crab Creek have been good at times.

There have been more bass than trout anglers on Sprague Lake recently and the largemouth are beginning to cooperate. The public dock is in.

Anglers jigging Lake Roosevelt for walleye are having sporadic success. Most are fishing the Spokane Arm, but the bigger fish have been caught in the main lake.

A friend who fished Barker Flats on Banks Lake recently said his boat accounted for eight walleye of 16-18 inches as well as a few jumbo perch. All were caught in 25-35 feet of water. He said when they moved to deeper water they also caught walleye but they were small.

Coeur d’Alene and Hayden are warming up a little, and so is the northern pike bite. Another week of warmer weather should really get things going.

The public launch on Eloika Lake is getting some use recently for anglers targeting bass and crappie. So far the action has been slow but there are a few decent largemouth coming in. Jerry’s Landing opens for business on Friday.

Other species

No one appears to be really targeting them, but some big burbot have been caught at Banks Lake recently by anglers chasing walleye. Perhaps the presence of burbot explains the large blips on fish locators over deep water.

Hunting

Turkey populations are stable or growing in most parts of Idaho, pushing the tolerance of private landowners. The Panhandle and Clearwater regions will be best and permission to hunt private property should be easier to get. Youth turkey hunters (10-17 years old) get an early shot at turkeys during Idaho’s general season youth turkey hunt April 8-14. They must be accompanied by an adult. The Washington youth hunt runs on Saturday and Sunday and the general season in both states begins April 15.

Idaho hunters can apply for controlled hunts for moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat from April 1-30. Applications can be completed with a credit card by telephone or over the Internet. Telephone applications may be made at (800) 554-8685. Internet users may apply at the the Fish and Game website.

Contact Alan Liere via email at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com