Fishing Report

Trout, Idaho

Most of North Idaho’s popular cutthroat streams probably will be high, somewhat off color but fishable when they open for the season Saturday.

Even if they’re too murky for good fishing, Forest Service campgrounds will be full. Many campers won’t even bother fishing.

Spin fishing likely will be more productive than fly fishing during the Memorial Day weekend along the Coeur d’Alene, St. Joe, Selway and Lochsa rivers and Kelly Creek.

The Selway and Lochsa rivers and Kelly Creek were high and slightly off color earlier this week. However, biologist Ed Schriever of Lewiston said they were in fairly good condition for fishing.

“We still have a considerable snow pack in the drainages,” he said, “and the streams could become unfishable by the weekend if the runoff increases as the result of warm weather.”

The Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe were high but clear enough for fair fishing earlier this week. The Coeur d’Alene should be in the best fishable condition this weekend.

Idaho’s nationally known Henry’s Lake is expected to provide some of the best trout fishing in 10 years. The lake in the West Yellowstone area has an unusually large populations of huge rainbowcutthroat hybrids and cutthroat, according to officials of the Idaho Fish and Game Department.

Best fishing will start in about two weeks, when damselflies and other insects start hatching.

Trout, Washington

Many streams will open for the season Thursday and officials of the Department of Fish and Wildlife are advising anglers to familiarize themselves with the differences between trout and chinook salmon.

Most rivers are closed to fishing for salmon and, therefore, anglers must release those they hook. That means they must be able to distinguish between trout and salmon so that they can release the salmon unharmed.

Regional FWD spokeswoman Madonna Luers noted young salmon look a lot like trout. The quickest way to tell the difference is to look at the tail. Salmon have deeply forked tails and trout have blunt or squared-off tails.

Several tributaries to the Columbia and Snake rivers should be relatively clear and fishable for the opener.

Damselflies and dragonflies are hatching at numerous Eastern Washington lakes, including Dry Falls, Lenice and Nunnally. They join the chironomids and Callibaetis mayflies that trout have been feeding on.

Hundreds of fly and spin fishermen will hit Grimes Lake in Douglas County when it opens June 1. Biologist Ken Williams said fishing should be good, despite the fact some of the big Lahontan cutthroat left the lake during a severe flood in February.

Average size should be 19 to 20 inches long, Williams said.

The parking area at the lake is high and dry.

Anglers can start keeping Lahontans they catch at Lenore Lake Thursday.

Incidentally, trout fishing now is best early and late in the day at many lakes.

Kokanee

The Lake Mary Ronan opener last weekend was the best in several years, Mark Thomas of Camp Tuffit reported. Fishing was so good many trollers released 11-inchers so they could keep limits of kokanee that averaged more than 13 inches.

Thomas said the 4-year-old kokanee average 12 1/2 inches; the 3-year-olds are 11 inches.

The kokanee were scattered all over the lake, making trolling more productive than still-fishing. However, a few still-fishermen reported they had no trouble catching 4-year-old kokanee.

Anglers caught a few rainbows and cutthroat.

“The lake is 10 degrees colder than it was on opening weekend last year,” he said.

Fishermen will start fishing for perch in late July, he said. Many perch, planted illegally two or three years ago, are 10 to 11 inches long.

Kokanee fishing slowed dramatically last weekend at Loon Lake, Joe Haley of the Granite Point Resort said. The fishing was so tough not even the experts could catch limits. The fish are 12 to 13 inches long.

Anglers are continuing to catch 25-fish limits of 8- to 9-inch kokanee at Spirit Lake in a couple of hours. Jeff Smith of the Fins & Feathers Shop said most anglers are jigging maggot or corn-baited glow hooks 5 inches behind bead chain spinners.

Kokanee fishing is the best it’s been in years behind Dworshak Dam, biologist Ed Schriever of Lewiston said. The population is at an all-time high, he added.

Trollers have been catching 25-fish limits of 8 1/2-inchers in two hours between the dam and Dent.

Spiny-rayed species

If you want to catch a few goodsized bluegills, fish fairly shallow water at Sprague Lake during evenings. Mike Mielke, operator of the Sprague Lake Resort, said some anglers have been catching 7- to 9-inchers on flies and small spinning lures.

The bluegills usually move into deep water in mid-day, especially on sunny days, and are hard to find. When the sun sets, though, they move into the shallows.

Mielke said anglers are catching lots of keeper-sized walleyes by drifting or slowly trolling jigs and other lures. So far, he said, the walleye fishing is the best it’s been in a couple of years.

Bass and walleye fishing could be good at numerous Columbia Basin lakes. The bass are near or on their spawning beds.

The Potholes Reservoir is expected to attract numerous walleye anglers this weekend. Fishing has been excellent the last couple of weeks, with fishermen taking scores of 18- to 25-inchers.

Smith said bass fishing is good in nearly all North Idaho lakes. Any spinnerbait, he said, will take bass.

Chinook salmon

Best spots to catch chinook salmon are Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene and Washington’s Lake Chelan.

Smith, who fished the chinook tournament at Chelan last week, said the best fishing is at Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Jim Evans of Wenatchee pocketed $4,000 for catching the largest chinook at the Chelan tournament. It weighed 15 pounds, 3 ounces.

“Chelan is hard to fish,” Smith said. “It’s necessary to troll at 200 feet to catch the chinooks. At Coeur d’Alene now, the chinooks are only 20 to 25 feet deep.”

Several chinooks in the 12- to 17-pound class have been caught at Lake Coeur d’Alene the last week.