Fishing Report
Walleyes
The walleye will take center stage this weekend in Eastern Washington.
Scores of two-person teams will take part in a walleye tournament at Lake Roosevelt and scores of recreational anglers will try their luck at several other lakes and reservoirs in the region.
Guide John Carruth of Davenport and his brother, Guy Carruth of Fairhaven, Vt., will be among the more than 200 who will participate in the second annual Washington Governor’s Cub Walleye Tournament. They were last year’s winners, taking home more than $4,500.
More than 90 teams had entered the tournament by mid-week.
Fishing for the popular member of the perch family is peaking.
Mike Mielke, owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, said fishermen are catching lots of 18- to 24-inch walleyes at the lake.
Bluegills are still in fairly deep water, he said. One of the most effective techniques for catching them is to jig straight down in 12 to 15 feet of water.
Walleye fishing has been excellent at the Potholes Reservoir and Soda Lake.
The largest walleyes have been coming from the Crab Creek channel and around Goose Island. Many keepers have been hitting lures in the west arm of the sand dune islands. The smallest fish are coming from Lind Coulee.
The sleeper spots are Long and Crescent lakes.
Kokanee
Night fishing for the 12- to 14-inch kokanee in Loon Lake is picking up and a few veteran anglers have been taking limits from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Joe Haley of Granite Point Resort said night fishing has been fair. Action should pick up as the water temperatures rise and the lake stratifies.
Don Ostlund, who fished at night last weekend, said he has seen fewer kokanee on his screen than during the last few years.
Haley said some trollers, especially those who know how to fish Loon, have been doing well at times, especially in the mornings.
He suggested anglers let out three to four colors of leaded line ahead of OOO or OOOO dodgers or 2-bladed Jack Lloyds and troll slowly.
The weather was so bad at Lake Mary Ronan early this week that few anglers went out. The few who fished had no trouble hooking the 13- to 14-inch kokanee.
Trout, Idaho
It’ll be another week before the big Green Drake mayflies are out in force along the Henry’s Fork, a spokesman for Henry’s Fork Anglers at Last Chance said.
A few Green Drakes have been seen on the river, but the trout are still feeding on Pale Morning Duns and caddisflies.
Fly fishers did exceptionally well on big trout when the Harriman ranch section of the river opened last week.
The Coeur d’Alene River is in almost perfect condition for fishing. It’s still a little high, but it’s clear and bugs are hatching.
The water’s still cold and the mayflies and caddisflies don’t hatch until afternoon. Pale Morning Dun mayflies and small caddisflies have been hatching.
The St. Joe is still high, but anglers have been hooking good numbers of cutthroat. Fly fishers are doing well in the catch-andrelease section of the upper river. Most of the cutthroat they’ve been hooking, though, have been small.
The Lochsa and Selway are high, fast and clear.
The big rainbows in Lake Pend Oreille seem to have lockjaw, but the mackinaws are on the prowl. Trollers, fishing near the bottom around the islands in the north and 150 to 200 feet in the south have been catching macks to 20 pounds.
Trout, Washington
Such lakes as Clear, West Medical, Silver, Williams and Badger haven’t been getting much publicity lately, but they’re still yielding fair to good fishing.
Clear and Silver are the places to go to catch good-sized brown trout, as well as a few rainbows. Fish the north end of Clear.
The rainbows in West Medical aren’t big, but they’re growing fast and some anglers have been catching limits.
Trout populations in both Williams and Badger, scheduled for rehabilitation this fall, apparently are small.
Lenore and Grimes in the Columbia Basin are the lakes to fish for big Lahontan cutthroat.
Trout, Montana
Small mayflies are hatching along the Kootenai River below Lake Koocanusa.
Pale Morning Duns, Blue-wing Olives and Little Blue Quills have been hatching. Fly fishers should use Nos. 14 and 16 Parachute Adams, No. 16 Olive Sparkle Dun, Nos. 14 and 16 Pale Morning Dun and No. 16 Royal Wulff.
He suggested fly fishers interested in catching kokanee below the dam use midge patterns.
The West Fork of the Bitterroot and Rock Creek are the best trout producers in the Missoula area, a Streamside Anglers spokesman said. The Clark Fork and the main stem of the Bitterroot are too high for good fishing.
The salmonfly hatch on Rock Creek is just about over and fly fishers are seeing Golden Stone flies, as well as Pale Morning Duns and caddisflies.
Fly fishers have been catching good numbers of big rainbows along the Madison River between Quake Lake and Ennis, Craig Matthews of Blue Ribbon Flies at West Yellowstone reported.
The river is still high but fishable, he said, and fly fishers, using big nymphs and streamers, have been hooking lots of large rainbows, surprising since reports that the “whirling disease” killed 90 percent of the rainbows there.
Pale Morning Duns and caddisflies are hatching along the Madison and Firehole in Yellowstone Park, Little Yellow Stones along the Gibbon.
Chinook salmon
Trollers continue to take chinooks to more than 17 pounds at Lake Coeur d’Alene. The salmon are 30 to 60 feet deep. Most productive areas have been in Squaw Bay off Tubbs Hill and Arrow Point and in Powder Horn Bay in the south.
Spokane anglers took the top three prizes at last weekend’s chinook derby. Wayne Turner caught the biggest salmon - 19 pounds, 2 ounces - for $1,000. Others: Alan Foster, Spokane, second, 17-2; Ray Cracher, Spokane, third, 15-13; and Josh Stokes, Coeur d’Alene, fourth, 15-8.
Shad
The Bonneville and John Day areas are the best places. About 90,000 shad have climbed the fish ladders at McNary Dam, but relatively few have moved up the Snake River to Ice Harbor Dam.