Fishing Report

Steelhead

Enough steelhead have climbed the ladders at Bonneville Dam the last few weeks to encourage early bird anglers to start fishing the lower Columbia River tributaries.

More than 20,000 steelhead have been counted at Bonneville and several thousand are moving fast up the Columbia.

Many, however, go up Oregon’s Deschutes River for a few weeks before dropping back to the Columbia and resuming their migration up the river.

If you plan to fish the Deschutes, be prepared for hot weather. The Deschutes canyon sometimes can be cooking in 100-degree temperature. And stay in the lower 20 miles of the river.

Washington’s Klickitat, one of the most popular steelhead streams each fall, usually is milky as the result of glacial melt during the hot summer months. However, the river clears following a day or so of cool, cloudy weather.

Only a few steelhead are in the Columbia in the Ringold Springs area or in the lower Snake, causing slow fishing.

Check the fishing regulations carefully. Many streams are closed to catch-and-keep fishing until later.

Kokanee

Many anglers who usually fish for trout are now trolling and stillfishing for kokanee at lakes and reservoirs in the region.

If you want to be sure of catching enough of the landlocked sockeye salmon for a few meals, troll at Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene or Montana’s Koocanusa Reservoir. They’re probably the best producers of kokanee in the region now.

The 18-inch kokanee in Loon Lake finally are showing signs of schooling at night; however, stillfishing remains slow.

Three Spokane anglers caught eight of the 18-inchers a few nights ago. However, they fished from 9 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. to hook the fish.

Kokanee fishing may never be hot at Loon this year. Indications are the kokanee population is considerably lower than those of the last few years.

Trollers have been averaging two to five kokanee a day. But because the fish are so large, most anglers are satisfied.

Anglers are using four to five colors of leaded line to get down to the fish.

It’s easy to catch a limit of kokanee at Lake Coeur d’Alene, anglers say. The 8- to 9-inchers are so numerous some fishermen have been taking 25-fish limits in a couple of hours.

Fishing has been fair at Lake Pend Oreille for 9- to 10-inch kokanee. Best fishing has been near Whiskey Rock and in the “slide” area.

Kokanee in Koocanusa Reservoir are running 10 to 12 inches and fishing has been good, with most experienced trollers taking 20-fish limits in a half-day’s fishing. Many Spokane-area fishermen have been spending two days at the reservoir so they can take home 40 kokanee.

Some still-fishermen are taking 10-fish limits of 15-inch kokanee at Lake Mary Ronan, Mark Thomas of Camp Tuffit said.

Anglers willing to experiment are doing well, he said. Many of the oldtimers won’t change their methods, but some of the young anglers are experimenting, fishing at certain depths and using different colors of glow hooks. The experimenters, Thomas said, are doing better than the veterans.

Trout, Washington

Although temperatures have soared into the 90s in Eastern Washington, some anglers have been catching all the fish they want to eat.

For example, when I stopped at a boat launch at Sprague Lake a few days ago, a couple and their daughter were getting ready to load their boat into a pickup truck. I asked how fishing had been. The man said they had caught a halfdozen “small” rainbows. He held up a stringer of fat 12- to 14-inchers.

Trollers are continuing to take limits of 10- to 14-inch rainbows at Lake Roosevelt. Most of the fish they’re catching were released from net pens several weeks ago. So far, fishermen have caught few carryover trout and very few kokanee.

Some anglers are doing well along such streams as the Grande Ronde, Wenaha, Methow, parts of the Kettle and small creeks. However, many large streams, such as the Snake, are still higher than usual for this time of year and fishing is slow.

Fishing pressure has been light at most Eastern Washington lakes. A few, though, are yielding good-sized trout. One of the better producers has been the Potholes Reservoir.

Trout, Idaho

Most trout fishermen have been fishing the state’s blue-ribbon trout streams. The Coeur d’Alene, St. Joe, Lochsa and Selway rivers and Kelly Creek are providing excellent fishing for cutthroat.

Because of the difficulty of getting to the upper St. Joe from the lower river, the catch-andrelease area hasn’t been quite as crowded as usual so far this year.

Trollers are continuing to hook lots of small mackinaw trout at Priest Lake. Most popular areas are off Kalispell Island, along “Mack Alley” and in the Cape Horn area.

Trout, Montana

Anglers are fishing Rock Creek again. The road that parallels the famed trout stream was closed after a leak was found at a dam several miles up the river. It was reopened Sunday.

Ed Trively of Streamside Anglers said caddisflies, pale morning duns and some golden stoneflies are hatching along the stream. Many fly fishers are using bead head nymphs and Woolly Buggers.

The lower Clark Fork finally is producing good fishing, Trively said. The river in the St. RegisSuperior area has been high and off color most of this spring and summer.

Pale morning dun mayflies and caddisflies are the major insects along the river, he said. Among the flies that fly fishers are using are Light Cahills, No. 14 and No. 16 caddisfly imitations, bead head Prince nymphs and No. 10 and No. 12 Royal Stimulators.

Fishing has been slow along the Bitterroot, he said. Gray and Green Drake mayflies are hatching sporadically.

The Missouri River in the Craig area is running at 5,300 cubic feet per second, ideal for floating and fly fishing, a spokesman for Montana River Outfitters reported.

Pale morning duns are hatching during mornings and caddisflies in the evenings. Besides imitations of those insects, fly fishers are hooking rainbows and browns on bead head pheasant tail nymphs and ant and beetle patterns.

Spiny rays

Hundreds of anglers are trolling and jigging for walleyes at several lakes and reservoirs in Eastern Washington.

Fishermen are continuing to hook lots of walleyes, most of them sub-legal, at Sprague Lake and the Potholes Reservoir. Lake Roosevelt has been yielding numerous walleyes, a few of them large.

Although there’s an algae bloom at Sprague, it isn’t dense enough to stop crappies and bluegills from biting. A few fishermen have found enough of the species for fair to good fishing. Incidentally, the bluegills still haven’t spawned.

The Snake River, which has been extremely high this spring and early summer, is now low enough for fair smallmouth bass fishing.

Anglers are catching crappies at Hayden, Hauser, Swan and Anderson lakes, but fishing has been spotty.

Salmon

Trollers are catching a few 18- to 19-pound chinooks at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Ross Fister of the Fins & Feathers Shop said. Most of the salmon are 12 to 14 pounds.

The salmon are down 45 to 50 feet deep, he said. Anglers are using helmeted herring, Pro King lures and flutter spoons. Fishing has been good one day and poor the next.

Incidentally, 30,000 sockeye salmon are moving up the Columbia River. More than 22,000 have been counted at Priest Rapids Dam.

Anglers will get another weekend to cast for sockeye salmon on Lake Washington.

The bonus sockeye season will reopen today on the Seattle-area lake and will run through Monday.

The daily limit has been increased to two fish. This first sockeye season since 1988 may end for good an hour after sunset on Monday.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates that 450,000 sockeye have entered the lake from the Puget Sound, 100,000 more than what is needed for spawning in the Cedar River.

Shad

The shad run has peaked, but there are still enough below Ice Harbor Dam for fair to good fishing at times.

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