Hunting & Fishing

OPEN SEASON

Thousands of anglers will turn out Saturday for the opening of Washington’s general fishing season, but the region’s lakes aren’t apt to be nearly as crowded as they’ve been in past years.

Primary reason: Most popular lakes, especially those in the Spokane region, are filled with spinyrayed and other species and no longer are heavily planted with trout. And several, including Silver and Clear, are open year-round.

Only two lakes in the Spokane

area are likely to draw big crowds - Fishtrap and Amber.

Indications are the yearling trout in Fishtrap are more than 10 inches long, and there are enough carryover fish to provide frosting.

Amber is a selective-fishery lake and the daily limit is only two trout 14 inches or longer. Bait is banned. It apparently holds good numbers of trout in the keeper range.

Incidentally, although Amber’s level is up to normal, the Fish and Wildlife Department decided to leave the big boulders blocking the launch ramp in place as a safety measure. Anglers will have to handcarry boats around the boulders.

All the fish in West Medical died last August because of low oxygen levels. The department replanted the lake with jumbo fry after oxygen levels increased, and put more fish into the popular lake this spring.

Williams and Badger lakes are full of smallmouth bass and hold relatively few trout.

Most other lakes in the Spokane region have been planted with jumbo fry or legal-sized trout.

A few hundred anglers will troll for mackinaw trout at Loon and Deer lakes. Some will try for planted rainbows and kokanee.

Speaking of kokanee, Loon and Chapman are expected to be the best producers in the region this year. As usual, specially managed lakes in the Spokane region will attract many anglers. Bayley, southeast of Colville, probably will be overrun with fly fishers hoping to catch huge brook and rainbow trout. McDowell is infested with tench, and fishing may be slow.

Because of the heavy rains earlier this year, many lakes are up to normal levels after several years of being extremely low. Most of the landlocked lakes, however, are still on the low side.

Selective-fishery lakes and flyfishing waters in the Columbia Basin may attract more anglers than all other lakes combined.

Fisheries biologists expect that Dry Falls, Lenice, Nunnally, Merry, Lenore and Rocky Ford will be jammed with anglers. All but Rocky Ford are selective fishery waters.

Test fishing indicated Dry Falls, which is a foot or so higher than last year, holds large numbers of footlong rainbows and fair numbers of carryover rainbows and browns.

Lenice, Nunnally and Merry are home to growing populations of sunfish, but they’re still expected to provide excellent fishing for rainbows and browns averaging more than 14 inches long.

Fishing has been good at Rocky Ford Creek, a fly-fishing-only spring creek. Warm days have resulted in increased bug hatches, and fly fishers have been hooking rainbows in the 18- to 24-inch range.

Blue and Park lakes will attract many fishermen, even though the department has indicated fishing won’t be nearly as good as in past years.

Jameson, northwest of Coulee City, holds large numbers of rainbows averaging 11 inches, but anglers may have trouble launching boats Saturday because of flooding.

Many anglers will head for Okanogan County, where at least a dozen lakes will provide good-toexcellent fishing for trout in the 8- to 11-inch range. Among the best should be Alta, Big Twin, Blue, Conconully lake and reservoir, Fish, Patterson and Pearrygin.

This should be one of Sidley’s best years. The lake near the U.S.Canada border holds rainbows that average more than 14 inches. It is a high lake, and the best time to fish it will be in late May and June.

The selective fishery and flyfishing-only lakes are expected to attract hundreds of anglers. Ell, a selective-fishery lake, holds rainbows averaging 14 inches. Aeneas and Chopaka, fly-fishingonly lakes, should produce rainbows more than 12 inches long.

LAKE ROOSEVELT

Trolling for big kokanee was terrific at times last week in the Spring Canyon area.

Some talked of the best fishing of the year, using a variety of baited lures and flies in shallow water.

However, some good fishermen reported poor fishing for kokanee.

LAKE PEND OREILLE

The Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club’s annual spring K&K challenge derby will get under way Monday and end the following Sunday. The club is offering $30,000 in prizes and K&K cash.

The theme this year is “Catch and Release” and the club will award a pin to those who release 20-poundor-larger rainbows.

Nearly all of Idaho’s lakes are open year-round. Besides Pend Oreille, one other exception in the Panhandle is Jewel, which also will open Monday. It’s a specially managed lake where the daily limit is two trout 14 inches or longer.

TROUT, MONTANA

If the streams in the Missoula area are still in good shape, fly fishing could be excellent this weekend. March Brown, Gray Drake and Bluewinged Olive mayflies, as well as several stonefly and caddisfly species, have been hatching along the Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers and Rock Creek.

Spokane area fly fishers reported this week that they’ve had excellent fishing along the streams. They also said the word’s out that the fishing is good. Fishing pressure has been unusually heavy, especially along the Clark Fork, with fly fishers from throughout the West floating the streams.

FISHING, IDAHO

Want to catch a chinook salmon? Troll a flutter spoon 15 feet under the surface at 3 mph at one of several spots at Lake Coeur d’Alene and you’ll catch salmon, said Jeff Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene.

The salmon won’t be big, but they’ll be tasty, he said. The average size being caught now is 3 pounds; however, you have a chance to take one weighing 10 to 15 pounds.

Smith also said cutthroat trout, some weighing 4 pounds, are starting to gather along the shoreline of Lake Coeur d’Alene to feed on hatching insects. The best fishing will be in mid-May.

This is crappie time in North Idaho, Smith said. Crappie fishing is good to excellent at the lakes near the Coeur d’Alene River and at Hayden and Hauser lakes.

There’ll be a pike tournament at Lake Coeur d’Alene and the chain lakes this weekend, with cash prizes going to winners.