Alan Liere’s fishing-hunting report for May 2

Fly fishing

The St. Joe is kicking out a few fish and more water is becoming fishable each day. The North Fork Coeur d’Alene is not dropping as fast, but a nymph rig with a stone/worm combination or a flashy streamer should be good for a few strikes.

Dave Grove of Captain Dave’s Guide Service reports a good day of fly fishing this week for small pike on Long Lake. Info: 939-6727

Silver Bow Fly Shop’s annual Spokane River Benefit and International Fly Fishing Film Festival Night is May 9 at the Garland Theater. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the show begins at 7. Tickets are $15, available at Silver Bow, online or at the door.

Trout and kokanee

Because of the wind (and in some places snow and rain), last Saturday wasn’t the most pleasant opening day in eastern and northern Washington and a lot of anglers wrapped it up early. The good news is the weak turnout left a lot of fish available for later on. A lot of opening day trout were over 18 inches in length, including a 20-inch brown at Waitts Lake in Stevens County and a 19-inch eastern brook at Fish Lake in Spokane County. Many of the brookies in Fish Lake ran 12-15 inches and most of the trout in Waitts were 12-14 inches. A brief summary of success at popular area lakes looks like this:

In Ferry County, Diamond Lake anglers averaged 1.6 rainbow each, including four derby fish; In Stevens County, Cedar Lake produced an average of 2.7 rainbow per angler, Midgett had 1.8, Starvation had 2.7, Rocky had 1.9 and Waitts had 2.5.

In Spokane County, as predicted, Badger was the most productive with an average of 2.8 trout per anglers, many of those cutthroat. Clear Lake produced only 0.9 trout per angler, Fish Lake produced 1.7, Fishtrap 1.8 and West Medical 1.1.

In Grant County, Vic Meyer Lake produced only 0.8 fish per angler, but Blue Lake produced 2.8, Deep produced 2.0 and Warden produced 1.6.

Wapato Lake in Chelan County was as good as expected, yielding an average of 4.5 rainbow for the 64 anglers checked. In Douglas County, Jameson produced an average of 3.4 rainbow for 40 anglers, and 26 Pearrygin anglers averaged 1.6 fish each.

Loon Lake kokanee anglers braved wind and cold this week, but said the fish were spread out and the bite inconsistent. A friend who trolled the lake on Monday said he caught six fish in six hours, all running between 10 and 11 inches.

Another opening negatively affected by the cold, windy Saturday was the annual Lake Pend Oreille Trout Derby. It picked up steam on Sunday, however, and anglers weighed in a few large fish, including a 9.3-pound German brown trout. The derby continues through Sunday.

Anglers trolling Rapalas just above the basalt island on Billy Clapp Lake report excellent trout fishing for 15-16-inch rainbow. There are also kokanee in the lake.

Sprague Lake is giving trollers the usual long periods of time when nothing happens followed by a frantic bite that sees 3-6-pound rainbow make sizzling runs and become airborne.

In Idaho Panhandle waters, approximately 50,000 catchable-sized fish will be stocked in May as the weather gets warmer and more anglers hit the water. Hatchery crews will be planting 10 to12-inch rainbow trout at over 26 locations. See the IDFG fish stocking page for statewide information about where fish are released. For further details contact the Panhandle Regional Office at (208) 769-1414.I

Steelhead and salmon

The summer salmon fishing closure on the Columbia River comes as no surprise, but anglers are optimistically keeping watch on the escapement over Priest Rapids Dam. Hopefully, like last year, there will eventually be enough chinook to reopen the river at the Brewster Pool in time for the derby.

Spiny ray

Eloika Lake was still giving up limits of 9-11-inch crappie over the weekend. An unconfirmed report indicated pockets of fish up to 14 inches. The best fishing is across the lake and slightly north from Jerry’s Landing in an area known as “Crappie Point,” but the east shoreline has also been good.

The Spokane Arm of Lake Roosevelt has been erratic for walleye. The fish are mostly small and coming from 20 to 60 feet of water, though one group of three said they caught three ‘eyes over 4 pounds. Early has been best.

Soda Lake in Grant County has provided fair walleye fishing recently. Overall length has been better than the ‘eyes at Roosevelt, but they are skinny. Moses Lake walleye and smallmouth are biting again, but the walleye are in the post-spawn period and somewhat temperamental.

The largemouth bite is heating up in the Potholes sand dunes. Senkos thrown to the flooded willows are finding some big fish.

Other species

Anglers fishing the rock walls in the Hunters area are still finding fair numbers of burbot big enough to cut a decent fillet. The bite has been throughout the day.

Hunting

The Farragut public shooting range in Idaho will open for the year on Friday. Hours of operation are Friday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $5 per shooter, per day.

Application period for Idaho big game controlled hunts runs through June 5. Resident Idaho hunters pay a $6.25 application fee, and nonresident applications are $14.75. Apply online, at any license vendor, at Fish and Game offices, or by phone at (800) 554-8685.

Hunters can submit special hunt applications up to May 22 for fall deer, elk, mountain goat, moose, bighorn sheep, and turkey seasons in Washington. Hunters who receive special permits qualify to hunt beyond the times and places authorized by a general hunting license. Buy applications and licenses from license vendors statewide or on WDFW’s website at fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov/.