Fishing Report

Ice fishing

Not all ice has melted at Eastern Washington’s popular fishing waters, but most lakes either are ice-free or there’s a lot of water showing.

Many of North Idaho’s lakes, especially those north of Sandpoint, still have ice covers. Anglers were fishing through the ice at Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint, at Hayden Lake and several small lakes last weekend.

Barring a prolonged cold spell - unlikely this time of year - the ice fishing season for this winter is about over. Most anglers already have put away their ice augers, sleds and ice crampons.

March 1 lakes

The Fish and Wildlife Department finally has been able to release hatchery trout into southeast Washington waters. The plantings last weekend are a month late as the result of road restrictions, Madonna Luers, spokeswoman for the Spokane regional office, said.

Most of the ponds and lakes were planted with catchable-size rainbows, but Riparia Pond in Whitman County received 1,000 rainbows and 2,000 brown trout.

Other releases, all rainbows: Asotin County - Golf Course Pond, 6,000; West Evans Pond, 6,000; and Silcott Pond, 4,000. Walla Walla County - Quarry Pond, 20,000. Franklin County - Dalton Lake, 7,500. Columbia County - Orchard Pond and Dam Pond, 1,000 each.

Anglers are fishing in open water on the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, at Warden Lake south of the Lind Coulee, Lenore Lake southwest of Coulee City, and the lakes southwest of Ephrata.

Randy Hill, biologist for the refuge, said anglers were fishing in open water at most of the lakes earlier this week. Only Lower Hampton was ice-free for the March 1 opener.

If cormorants and other predator birds didn’t eat most of the small trout when they were released last spring, fishing could be good at the 10 lakes in the Pillar-Widgeon chain and in Upper and Lower Hampton lakes. If the fishing is extremely slow the next week or so, anglers will assume the survival rate after the plantings was poor.

The few trout caught last week were large, running 12 to 15 inches.

As of Tuesday, neither the Fish and Wildlife Department nor refuge officials had checked anglers at Quail, a fly fishing-only, catchand-release lake in the southeast part of the refuge.

Fishing was slow last week at the Hampton lakes and at Warden Lake. Cormorants could have eaten a large number of the trout released into Warden, but anglers will wait for a week or so before drawing any conclusions.

Lenore Lake’s ice cover is gradually melting. Jim Randall of Coulee City said the lake could be about half ice-free this weekend.

Wildlife agents arrested several poachers at the south end of Lenore last weekend. The poachers were netting big Lahontan cutthroat.

Winter lakes

Anglers have only 16 more days to fish Fourth of July and Hog Canyon lakes, which will close March 31. They’ll try to make up for lost days when the ice was too thin or rotten for safe ice fishing or too thin to break with rocks so they could dunk their bait.

Both lakes should have larger than normal trout populations for this time of year. Anglers have been unable to fish the lakes at least half the season.

Hog Canyon’s rainbows are 9 to 17 inches long, with most in the 11- to 13-inch range. Fourth of July is the place to go to catch big rainbows. In fact, most anglers have to leave the lake with only two fish because they couldn’t catch fish under 14 inches. The limit is five a day, but no more than two can be over 14 inches.

Spiny rayed species

Anglers have been catching big perch through the ice at Lake Pend Oreille, Ross Fister of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene said. Most fished through the ice near the condos south of Sandpoint last weekend.

Ice fishermen also have been catching perch at Pend Oreille Lake’s Bottle Bay, he said.

Ice is gone from Sprague Lake and anglers are trying to find perch, crappies and bluegill schools.

Lake Roosevelt

Walleye fishing is continuing excellent at Lake Roosevelt on the flats above the mouth of the Spokane River, guide John Carruth of Davenport said.

Carruth said he and a client, fishing jigs with curly tail grubs in 25 to 35 feet of water below Hunters, last weekend hooked numerous walleyes, including seven longer than 20 inches.

Trolling for rainbows and kokanee has been slow, he said. Anglers in 28 boats were checked at Keller with only 10 rainbows and no kokanee last weekend.

The lake was down to 1,260 feet, or 30 feet under full pool, Tuesday. Some ramps now are high and dry. Anglers should check the Bureau of Reclamation for the lake level before traveling to ramps that are above the water level when the lake is below 1,270 feet.

Chinook salmon

Trolling for immature chinook salmon at Lake Coeur d’Alene can be good one day and poor the next. For example, numerous anglers hooked 6- to 8-pounders Saturday, but nearly all anglers got skunked Sunday.

Most fishermen have been trolling east of the Boothes Park launching ramp, some nearly to the east end of the lake. Nearly all the salmon have been caught near the surface on helmeted smelt, but a few have been caught on Frisky Jenny flies and such plugs as the Lyman.

The water is off color. Visibility was less than 2 feet Sunday, possibly one of the reasons the fishing was so slow.

Northern pike

Hayden produced a record northern pike for the lake last weekend, Fister said. A man pulled a 27-pounder through the ice.

Fister said numerous smaller pike were taken by ice fishermen during the weekend. Most weighed 8 to 10 pounds.

The ice may be unsafe for ice fishing this weekend.

Clark Fork River

The Clark Fork below Missoula finally has dropped and cleared, making possible trout fishing. Some fly fishers tried their luck last weekend.

Insects that will hatch early include Baetis and March brown mayflies and Skwalla stoneflies. However, hatches will be sparse for a week or so.

Steelhead

Fishing was excellent along the Grande Ronde River from Bogan’s into Oregon last weekend and early this week, Jay Poe of Jay’s Gone Fishing said. However, a rainstorm hit the drainage Monday and the river could be out of shape this weekend. The river has been high and slightly off color.

Poe said fishing has been slow along the Snake above Clarkston.

If they’re in fishable condition, the Tucannon and Touchet could provide good fishing this weekend.

Fishing was fairly good along parts of the Clearwater River and slow along the Salmon during the week ended Sunday, the Idaho Fish and Game Department reported.

Anglers averaged 14 hours per fish along the upper Clearwater and 18 hours along the South Fork.

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