Fishing Report
Spiny rays
The region’s competitive walleye anglers will be on Lake Roosevelt north of Daisy, Wash., this weekend for the Governor’s Cup tournament.
Guide John Carruth of Davenport said 50 teams had registered for the annual two-day affair by early this week. The tournament sponsor, the Kettle Falls Wildlife Club, is hoping more than 100 two-man teams will participate.
Entry fee is $260 per team. Purse amounts will depend upon the number of team entries. Carruth said numerous anglers who will enter fished in the Kettle Falls area last weekend. They caught lots of walleyes ranging from 8 to more than 20 inches long.
Lake Roosevelt is expected to be stable during the tournament. It was 10 feet under full pool early this week.
Carruth said trollers caught a few big kokanee above Grand Coulee Dam last weekend. Kokanee and rainbow fishing has been slow the last few months.
Sprague Lake was the place to catch walleyes, bluegills and crappies last weekend in Eastern Washington.
Mike Mielke, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, said fishermen caught numerous walleyes, including many “keepers” and lots of small fish they had to release. Fishing for bluegills and crappies also was good, but the best fishing was in the late evenings.
Mielke said anglers should do well on the crappies and bluegills until the next full moon, during which the fish will be spawning.
Fishermen caught some walleyes last weekend at Moses and Soda lakes and the Potholes Reservoir.
This is spawning time for bass in the region. Water temperatures are ideal for it. Once the bass leave their spawning beds, catching them won’t be as easy as when the spawning fish defend their “nests.”
The Snake River and its tributaries are still too high and off-color for good smallmouth bass fishing, Jay Poe of Hells Canyon Sports at Clarkston said. Some anglers, fishing from shore, have hooked smallmouths and catfish near the mouth of the Grande Ronde River and in Chief Timothy State park.
Trout, Idaho
Most of North Idaho’s major trout streams are still too high and murky for good fishing, but the Coeur d’Alene River and its North Fork are clear and providing fair to good fishing.
The Little North Fork is in the best condition. Although it’s still high, it has dropped low enough for anglers to do a little wading. Some are floating the stream in pontoon boats, rafts and canoes.
Priest Lake continues to churn out limits of small mackinaw trout, reported Steve Smith of Coeur d’Alene’s Fins & Feathers shop. Once in a while, an angler hooks a laker in the 15-pound-plus range, but nearly all trollers take home 2- to 5-pounders.
Fishing has been fair at best for the rainbows in Lake Pend Oreille.
Green Drake mayflies were starting to hatch along the Henry’s Fork in the Last Chance area earlier this week and may be out in good numbers this weekend, a spokesman for Henry’s Fork Anglers said.
The Green Drake hatch attracts fly fishers from throughout the world the last couple of weeks of June.
People who fished the Harriman State Park section of Henry’s Fork when it opened Sunday had excellent fishing. The fly shop spokesman said the fly fishers hooked some big rainbows on Pale Morning Dun and caddisfly imitations.
Trout, Washington
Surface temperatures of lakes are in the 60s and trout are staying in shallow water for only brief periods to feed on midges, damselflies, dragonflies and mayflies.
As the temperatures move into the 70s and the lakes stratify, the best fishing will be in deep water. Trollers will have to get down to the cool water. Still-fishermen probably will have the best luck.
This is the time of year when many of the region’s anglers take their annual trips to Canada, Montana and Alaska. Many of the lowland British Columbia lakes are producing good fishing for Kamloops and Gerard strains of rainbows. Most of Montana’s blue-ribbon trout streams still are high and muddy. Numerous Spokane area anglers have been fishing for chinook salmon in Alaska the last couple of weeks.
Some of the small cutthroat lakes in Pend Oreille, Stevens and Ferry counties have been yielding fair to good fishing. Among the better producers have been Marshall and Browns.
Fishing pressure has dropped dramatically at such trout lakes as Williams, Badger, Fishtrap and West Medical. The lakes still have enough trout for persistent anglers to take home limits.
Fishing has been slow at most of the selective fishery and fly fishing-only lakes in the region. It’s possible, however, to hook and release good numbers of rainbows at Amber, Lenice, Nunnally and Chopaka.
Salmon
Salmon fishing has slowed at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Smith reported.
Most anglers are still trolling lures near the surface in Wolf Lodge Bay and out from Arrow Point. Spoons and plugs are the most productive.
The short coastal chinook salmon season opened Monday and will close at the end of the month. The Fish and Wildlife Department has predicted anglers who troll out of Sekiu and Pillar Point likely will do well.
Tides were exceptionally high this week, forcing anglers to use a lot of lead to get their bait down to the salmon. Lower tides will make fishing easier the rest of the season. Anglers must use barbless hooks and release all coho salmon.
Trout, Montana
Salmonflies are hatching along most streams in the Missoula area, but the best fishing is along upper Rock Creek and the upper Bitterroot, Ray Beaulieu, a guide for the Grizzly Hackle Fly Shop at Missoula, said.
Rock Creek is high and off-color but is fishable, he said. The big salmonflies are out along the entire creek, but fly fishers have been casting patterns above the Dalles, 22 miles above the mouth.
The Bitterroot, high and clear, is probably the most productive river in the Missoula area, he said. The Clark Fork is high and muddy. The Blackfoot is also high, but is starting to clear.
Northern pike
When Lake Coeur d’Alene dropped a few feet, pike moved away from the places where anglers have been hooking them and are now in 6 to 8 feet of water. Fishing has been slow, Smith said.
Kokanee
Lake Coeur d’Alene and Koocanusa Reservoir have been the most productive waters to fish for kokanee the last 10 days.
Smith said few anglers have been catching 25-fish limits of the 10-inch kokanee, but they’ve been catching enough for a meal or two.
You don’t have to troll for them at Lake Coeur d’Alene, he said. Some anglers, casting spinning lures baited with maggots and white corn, have been hooking kokanee from shore off Mineral Point in Wolf Lodge Bay.
A spokesman for the Koocanusa Resort said fishermen have been catching limits of 9- to 10-inch kokanee in the lower end of the reservoir. A limit is 20 fish.
It’s difficult to take a 10-fish limit of the 12- to 14-inch kokanee at Lake Mary Ronan, Gary Thomas of Camp Tuffit reported. The lake is turning over, he said, and the kokanee are scattered.
Most productive method for catching the fish is trolling, he said. Still-fishermen have been unable to find schools of kokanee.
Only a few rainbows and cutthroat have been caught at Lake Mary Ronan, he said.
Fishing continues slow at Loon Lake, but the kokanee are the biggest in the Inland Northwest. Average size probably is 18 inches. Experienced trollers are catching only one or two each time they fish.
Shad
At least one Spokane couple did exceptionally well near Bonneville last weekend. When Mielke took time off from operating the Sprague Lake Resort, he and his wife, Chris, hooked numerous shad. “I never worked so hard,” he said. “I was either trying not to slide off a rock into the (Columbia) River, netting one of the many fish that Chris caught or replacing shad darts for both of us.
“Fishermen caught lots of shad on Saturday, but fishing was slow Sunday because there was no current and very few fish. “I got damn good at balancing on a rock and netting shad.”
Mielke said he and his wife canned the shad they took home.
Shad fishing should be excellent near Bonneville and other lower Columbia River dams this weekend. Nearly 1 million shad have climbed the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam the last few weeks.
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