Fishing Report

Trout, Idaho

At least two of Idaho’s major trout streams are low and clear enough to provide fair to good fishing. They are the Coeur d’Alene River and the Henry’s Fork. Other streams, such as the St. Joe, Selway and Lochsa, are too high for good fishing.

The main stem of the Coeur d’Alene finally is low enough for anglers to fish. However, fly fishers who fished the stream a few days ago said they caught only a few cutthroat.

Many mature cutthroat usually move up the Coeur d’Alene this time of year. The Little North Fork provided fair fishing last weekend.

Although the St. Joe River has cleared, it’s higher than normal for this time of year. Anglers, primarily spin fishermen, have caught some cutthroat. The stream may be low and clear enough during the Fourth of July weekend for fair to good fly fishing.

Several North Idaho lakes are yielding trout. One of the best, as usual, is Priest Lake, which continues to produce limits of small mackinaw trout for trollers. Many smaller lakes, including Hauser, Mirror, the Twins, Kelso and Fernan, are giving up 10- to 14-inch trout.

The first good hatch of the Green Drake mayflies took place Sunday along the Henry’s Fork in the Last Chance, Idaho, area, a spokesman for Henry’s Fork Anglers reported.

The big mayflies provide outstanding fishing for fly fishers for a two-week period. Also hatching are Pale Morning Dun mayflies and caddisflies.

Trout, Washington

It’s getting tough to catch a limit of trout at region lakes. Water temperatures are in the high 60s and many lakes are murky with algae blooms.

Best fishing is in the evenings. Those who troll deep or still-fish in 20 to 30 feet of water are hooking enough trout to fill a frying pan at Fishtrap, Williams, Badger and West Medical in the Spokane area and at numerous small lakes in Pend Oreille, Stevens and Ferry counties.

Bill McElroy, a Spokane fly fisherman, said the 12- to 16-inch rainbows in Amber Lake, a selective fishery water, are usually active only in the evenings now. He fishes the lake a couple of times a week.

Some anglers reported hooking rainbows to 18 inches at Bayley, a fly fishing-only lake in the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge. The lake is still extremely high.

Spin and fly fishermen are hooking an occasional trout at Dry Falls, Lenore, Grimes, and Lenice and Nunnally lakes in the Basin, but the fishing often is tough during mid-day hours.

Spiny rays

Bob and Michelle Jacobson of Moses Lake are $7,938 richer. They won first place in the Governor’s Cup walleye tournament sponsored by the Kettle Falls Walleye Club along Lake Roosevelt last weekend.

The Jacobsons caught walleyes weighing 33.8 pounds during the two-day event. They also won a walleye tourney at Moses Lake earlier this month.

Damon Bircher and Alan Stanard of Kettle Falls were second place, earning $4,486, and Steve Marshall and Pat Pebles of Davenport took third place and pocketed $2,403.

The Governor’s Cup, awarded to the out-of-state team with the largest catch, went to Arkansas visitors James Waller and Wayne Plucker.

Guide John Carruth of Davenport said 91 two-person teams entered the tournament. Fishing was difficult because of high winds at times, but the contestants found the walleyes in shallow water.

Anglers caught numerous walleyes more than 20 inches long, Carruth said.

Mike Mielke of Sprague Lake Resort said he believes the winds force bait fish into shallow water. Fishermen caught walleyes, which apparently were after the bait fish, in water as low as 2 feet deep.

On Sunday, he said, the wind wasn’t as big a problem as it was Saturday. Anglers, using bottom bouncers and floating worm harnesses, caught numerous walleyes, some more than 18 inches long.

Mielke said crappie fishing has been slow as the result of unsettled weather.

Bass fishing has been excellent at numerous North Idaho lakes, Steve Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop said. Best fishing is at the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River. However, bass have been hitting lures and bait at numerous other lakes in the Panhandle.

Crappie fishing has been fair to good at Hayden and the Twins.

The Snake River is still and off-color, but anglers, fishing in eddies below Clarkston, have caught some smallmouth bass, Jay Poe, owner of Hells Canyon Sports at Clarkston, said.

Salmon

Fishermen still stand a chance of catching chinook salmon in one of the Snake River tributaries, the Idaho Fish and Game Department reported. The Little Salmon will be open until July 6 unless its harvest quota is met before that date.

Fishing on the Little Salmon near Riggins began slow, but is expected to be fairly good the latter part of the season.

Biologists expected a spring chinook count at Lower Granite Dam of 20,000 to 25,000. The final count was 33,800.

Persistent trollers are hooking a few chinook salmon at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Smith said. However, the fishing has been slow.

Kokanee

Koocanusa Reservoir and Lake Coeur d’Alene may be the best spots to fish for kokanee this weekend. Anglers haven’t been taking limits, but they’ve been doing better at those two places than at Loon, Mary Ronan and Pend Oreille.

Kokanee are 10 inches at both Koocanusa and Coeur d’Alene. The limit is 20 at Koocanusa and 25 at Coeur d’Alene.

Joe Haley of Granite Point Resort said expert trollers have been hooking one to three huge kokanee early each day. The kokanee, many 18 inches long, are going deep. Trollers have been putting out three to four colors of leaded line to reach the fish.

Haley said fishermen have caught rainbows and mackinaw trout. Larry Koller of Pomeroy caught an 18-pound Mack on Saturday and Matt Factor of Spokane boated a 14-pounder. A 7-pound rainbow, as well as smaller rainbows, were caught during the weekend.

Trout, Montana

Rock Creek is the most productive trout stream in the Missoula area, Ray Beaulieu, a guide for Grizzly Hackle at Missoula, reported.

He and his son floated the river last weekend and hooked and released nearly 100 trout on salmonfly imitations. The river is high and clear.

The Bitterroot is clearing, but is still too dangerous to float, he said. The hatch of the Green Drake mayflies is about ended and the yellow stoneflies and caddisflies are starting to hatch.

He suggested fly fishers toss a brown or black Woolly Bugger against a shoreline and retrieve it.

The Clark Fork is still too high and off-color for good fishing. It was running at 27,100 cubic feet per second earlier this week, far too much for even marginal fishing.

The Missouri River below Holter Dam was running at about 23,000 cfs earlier this week, but was dropping fast. Guide Arnie Gidlow said the flow could be down to 12,000 cfs by the Fourth of July weekend. If it’s running at that rate, fly fishers can hook trout on bead head flies and streamers. For good dry fly fishing, the flow should be below 9,000 cfs.

Northern pike

Pike fishermen have been doing exceptionally well the last couple of weeks at Lake Coeur d’Alene and the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River, Smith said.

Largest pike reported taken was caught by Mark Lundberg, 8, of Coeur d’Alene, he said. Smith was guiding the boy when he caught a 24-pound-plus pike on a Rapala.

The pike are in most bays of Lake Coeur d’Alene. Anglers rarely catch pike more than 4 pounds at the chain lakes.

Shad

The shad run up the Columbia River is peaking. However, anglers still can hook the fish above and below Bonneville Dam and below John Day Dam. In a week or so, enough shad will be below Lower Granite on the Snake for fair fishing at times.

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