Fishing Report
Spiny-ray fishing
With plenty of keeper-size walleyes available in several Eastern Washington lakes and reservoirs, more anglers are going after the toothy fish.
Sprague Lake isn’t as popular with walleye anglers as Lake Roosevelt and the Potholes Reservoir, but it’s attracting good numbers of fishermen.
Fishing for walleyes has been good lately, Mike Mielke, operator of the Sprague Lake Resort, said. There apparently are enough walleyes 18 inches and longer in the lake to satisfy anglers.
Mielke said some anglers have been finding schools of 6- to 10-inch bluegills during evenings.
The bluegills stay on the bottom in about 10 feet of water until about the time the sun sets. Then they move to the shoreline to spawn.
Fishermen have been catching crappies up to 9 inches.
Walleye fishing has been good at Lake Roosevelt, guide John Carruth of Davenport said. Most productive areas are in the large bays and off primary points.
The fishing was so good over the weekend, he said, that his clients hooked five walleyes over 20 inches long. The walleyes had been feeding on 4- to 5-inch perch.
Carruth said quarter- and -ounce round head or Slow Poke jigs baited with nightcrawler have been effective from 8 to 20 feet.
Walleye fishing has been good the last week at the Potholes Reservoir, but not nearly as fast as it was a few weeks ago, Mike Meseberg of Mar-Don Resort said.
Meseberg said smallmouth bass fishing has been good along the face of the O’Sullivan Dam at the reservoir. However, largemouth fishing has been generally slow.
Fishermen are catching perch at Soda and Long lakes, he said.
It’s still possible to catch goodsized pike in shallow bays around Coeur d’Alene Lake, Jeff Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene said. He suggested buzz baits or rubber lizards in evenings.
Kokanee
Loon Lake is churning out 10-fish limits of kokanee that average about 13 inches. Anglers who know the lake and how to catch kokanee have been doing well, Joe Haley of the Granite Point Resort said.
The best time to troll for the landlocked sockeye salmon, he said, is from 4 a.m. until 8 a.m., when water skiers and jet-boaters start churning up the water.
Trollers rarely do well during mid-day hours.
Haley said experts are now letting out four colors of leaded line ahead of dodgers of multiple-bladed flashers. They bait their lures with white corn and maggots.
Still-fishing at night has been good, Haley said. The hottest spot on the lake has been at the “Sockeye hole,” just north of Granite Point Resort.
Still fishermen have been catching 10- to 12-inch kokanee at night at Chapman Lake.
Kokanee fishing continues to be excellent at Lake Mary Ronan, Gary Thomas of Camp Tuffit said. Most anglers willing to put in several hours of fishing, he said, are taking 10-fish limits averaging 14 inches. Smallest kokanee anglers are keeping are about 12 inches.
Kokanee fishing has been so good at Koocanusa Lake that trollers have been catching 20-fish limits in about 3-1/2 hours, Nevin Zugg of the Koocanusa Resort said. The kokanee are 10-13 inches long.
“Some fishermen come over for three or four days and then leave after fishing two days because they have their possession limit of 40 fish,” he said.
Kokanee fishing also has been excellent at Coeur d’Alene Lake and Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho.
Trout, Washington
If you didn’t fish for trout during the cool, stormy period the last few days, you missed some good fishing.
Water temperatures dropped, bugs hatched and trout went on a feeding spree at some lakes. Anglers reported fair to good fishing at lakes managed for trout.
For example, fishing was excellent at Bayley and McDowell lakes, fly fishing-only lakes on the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge, and at Dry Falls Lake, a selective fishery lake near Coulee City. Chironomids hatched and fly fishers hooked several big trout apiece on chironomid patterns.
Trollers have been hooking good numbers of rainbows, as well as kokanee, at Lake Roosevelt, Carruth said. One productive area has been between Whitestone and Swailla Basin.
Many small lakes in northeast Washington are yielding small trout, including Marshall, Yocum, the Skookums and the lakes in the Little Pend Oreille chain.
Trout, Idaho
Periodic rainstorms have kept some of North Idaho’s major trout streams too high for good fishing.
The St. Joe, Lochsa and Selway rivers this week were higher than usual. The Coeur d’Alene was in good shape, but fishing was slow.
The St. Joe below the mouth of Gold Creek is still high. Fly fishers reported that the water was flowing so fast just above Prospector Creek that they had difficulty getting dragfree floats on dry flies.
The river was much lower above the mouth of Gold Creek, but fishermen were hesitant last week to drive up the road to Spruce Tree campground because a road crew was still resurfacing the road, slowing traffic.
The Forest Service said resurfacing of the 11-mile section between the Gold Creek mouth and Red Ives completed this week and that there no longer would be long road closures.
The main Clearwater River was high and muddy earlier this week as the result of rainstorms. The Lochsa and Selway were too high for good fishing.
Lake Pend Oreille is still the place to go to catch big mackinaws, Smith said. Although rainbow fishing has been slow to fair, anglers who target macks have been boating some to more than 20 pounds. Many small lakes in Idaho’s Panhandle, including Brush and Smith, have been yielding pansized trout.
The Green Drake and Brown Drake hatches on the Henry’s Fork are over and fly fishers are using imitations of Pale Morning Dun mayflies and caddisflies.
Trout, Montana
Most of the blue ribbon trout streams in the Missoula area were too high at mid-week for good fishing. Frequent rainstorms have kept the Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers and Rock Creek high.
The best time to fish the Missouri River north of Helena is when the water flow is 4,400 to 4,600 cubic feet per second. The Bureau of Reclamation reported this week that the flow was 12,000 cfs, much too high for good fishing.
The salmonfly hatch along the Madison above Ennis is over, but trout are still taking salmonfly imitations.
Shad
About 14,000 shad have climbed the fish ladders at Ice Harbor Dam and nearly 6,000 have gone over Lower Monumental. It’s possible that anglers can still catch shad just below Ice Harbor.
Tuna
Albacore tuna are about 75 miles out of Westport. Anglers on The Outer Limits, a charter boat in the Coho Charters fleet, caught 18- to 30-pounders on anchovies last weekend. Info: 1-800-572-0177.