Fishing Report
Grimes Lake
This lake in Douglas County is expected to attract several hundred anglers when it opens for a short season Monday.
The selective-gear lake, seven miles south of Mansfield, holds 16-to 24-inch Lahontan cutthroat. As usual, some anglers, casting flies and lures, will hook and release more than 15 on opening day.
The limit is one a day. Bait is banned. Anglers can use electric motors. The lake will close to fishing Aug. 31.
Most productive fishing is opening day. From then on, fishing usually slows, particularly after the water temperature goes above 70 degrees and the cutthroat spend most of their time in deep water.
Washington streams
The Fish and Wildlife Department is advising anglers to read the regulations for 1998 before they fish streams. Numerous changes have been made for streams in southeast Washington.
The state’s streams open to fishing Monday.
Most of the changes were made to protect naturally produced steelhead and bull trout that are listed, or are proposed for listing, under the Endangered Species Act. Several small streams are closed and no longer will be stocked with hatchery fish in order to provide refuge areas for steelhead.
“Seasons on several local streams are changed to the statewide standard of June 1 through Oct. 31, with an 8-inch minimum size,” the department said. “This allows most steelhead smolts to leave the area before the season begins and allows resident trout to spawn once before being subject to harvest.”
Idaho streams
Rainstorms last week caused North Idaho’s popular cutthroat streams to rise and become murky. As a result, fishing wasn’t as good as anglers expected it to be.
“Fishermen caught fish along the Coeur d’Alene, but some of them were disappointed,” Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, said.
Cool, rainy weather held fishing pressure down, he said. Usually, campgrounds are full on a Memorial Day weekend. As the result of threatening weather, many campsites were available to latecomers.
If the Coeur d’Alene is clear, Smith said, this weekend could be a good time to fish the stream. Best fishing along the Coeur d’Alene, provided the river is clear and fairly low, is during the first two weeks of the season.
The river was running at only 2,000 cubic feet per second at Enaville early this week. The longtime mean flow for this time of year is 4,120 cfs.
The St. Joe is still high, but it’s lower than normal for this time of year. It was running at 6,400 cfs early this week, compared with a longtime mean flow of 7,800 cfs for this time of year.
The Selway and Lochsa rivers also are lower than they usually are in late May. The Selway was running at 10,800 cfs earlier this week, compared with a normal flow of 15,200 cfs.
The Lochsa was running at 8,700 cfs earlier this week, compared with a normal flow of 11,300.
Idaho trout lakes
Priest Lake is still the best spot for catching good-sized fish. Although most of the mackinaw trout are 3 to 7 pounds, anglers occasionally boat one that weighs more than 10 pounds.
Smith suggested anglers troll in 140 feet of water in the north end of the lake. Most popular areas are in Reeder Bay, along “Mack Alley” and from Baritoe to Four-Mile Island.
Fishing has been slow at Lake Pend Oreille for rainbows, he said. Of the smaller lakes, the most consistent producers have been Mirror, Kelso, Hauser and Cocolalla.
Washington trout lakes
Apparently because many would-be anglers didn’t like the weather forecasts, Eastern Washington’s lakes weren’t fished as hard during the Memorial Day weekend as Fish and Wildlife Department officials thought they would be.
Threatening weather kept pressure down at most lakes.
Most productive waters were the selective-gear and fly fishing-only lakes. Among the best producers were Amber, Chopaka, Blue, Ell, Dry Falls, Lenice and Nunnally.
Fly fishers hooked and released hundreds of 14- to 18-inch rainbows at Chopaka, the most popular fly fishing-only lake in the state. They used chironomid pupa, damselfly nymph and Callibaetis mayfly imitations. The damsels were just starting to hatch Memorial Day weekend.
Chopaka’s campground was jammed, but there were plenty of camping sites at Blue, a selective-gear lake 10 miles south of Loomis. Fly and spin fishermen hooked and released numerous 12- to 18-inch rainbows and a few 12- to 14-inch brown trout at Blue.
Amber produced good fishing for 10- to 17-inch rainbows.
Ell, a small lake in Aeneas Valley, was good for 14- to 20-inch rainbows.
Fishing wasn’t quite as good at Dry Falls, Lenice and Nunnally.
Such general fishing lakes as Williams, Badger, Fishtrap and the small cutthroat lakes in Pend Oreille and Stevens counties yielded limits to many anglers.
Spiny rays
Walleye and trout fishing was excellent at times at Sprague Lake last weekend, Mike Mielke, owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, said.
Several experienced anglers took home 20-inch-plus walleyes, he said. Most used standard walleye lures and techniques.
Numerous anglers caught five-fish limits of rainbows. The fish released several weeks ago are 11 to 12 inches long. The Fish and Wildlife Department released 1,500 15-inchers into the lake recently.
A few fishermen have been finding crappies and bluegills, he said. Best fishing is in the evenings, but the fish sometimes can be caught during mid-day hours.
Bass fishing has been good at numerous Columbia Basin lakes and reservoirs, including Moses and Banks lakes and the Potholes Reservoir.
Hayden is the best lake in North Idaho to catch big crappies, Smith said. He recommended anglers launch at Sportsmen’s Park in the north end of the lake, then fish around docks and boat houses.
“The water is clear and the crappies are spooky,” he said. “You have to move carefully and not too close to where there are fish. And you have to drop a tiny jig or fly softly on the water.”
Smith said upper Twin Lake and Rose Lake are also yielding crappies, most of which are small. Gamble and Perkins usually are among the last of the Panhandle lakes to start yielding crappies, but the fish usually are larger than those in most lakes.
Kokanee
If you want to catch 20-40 good-sized kokanee, Lake Koocanusa in northwest Montana is the place to fish.
Experienced fishermen have been boating 20 12- to 14-inch kokanee during a day’s trolling. Many fish for two days and take home 40 kokanee.
Fishing was excellent at Lake Mary Ronan during Memorial Day weekend despite rainy weather, according to Gary Thomas of Camp Tuffit. Many caught 10-fish limits. Most of the kokanee are 10 to 13 inches long.
Kokanee fishing slowed at Loon Lake during the holiday weekend, Joe Haley, manager of the Granite Point Resort, said. However, a few who trolled for mackinaws did well.
Anglers still aren’t taking 25-fish limits at Lake Coeur d’Alene, but they’re averaging 10 to 15 each, Smith said. The kokanee are 10-11 inches, large for Coeur d’Alene this time of year. The kokanee are 10- to 25-feet deep.
Pike
Now is the time to fish for northern pike at Lake Coeur d’Alene. Smith said most have spawned and are hitting lures in the shallow bays.
“Most of the pike that we’ve been catching weigh 3 to 10 pounds,” he said. “We expect more of the bigger fish to become active during the next couple of weeks.”
“When you find new weeds (in bays), such as cabbage weeds and dollar pads, you’ll find pike,” he said. “We’ve had good action on surface plugs and spinner baits.
Montana streams
Don’t underrate the Madison River’s fishing potential just because the whirling disease killed a high percentage of rainbows. Two Spokane couples reported having sensational fishing for big brown trout along the river last weekend from the Varney Bridge to Ennis.
Dr. Fred Viren said he and Al Payne and their wives hooked and released numerous browns in the 15- to 18-inch class on Serendipity and Woolly Bugger patterns during a guided trip. Viren said the group fished the Firehole in Yellowstone Park and caught lots of small trout on soft hackle patterns.
The Clark Fork River was high and muddy early this week.