Hunting & Fishing

Kokanee

Loon Lake almost certainly is the best still water in the Inland Northwest where you can catch enough fish for two or three meals.

Kokanee fishing has been sensational for more than two months, with many experienced anglers catching 10-fish limits of fish that average 12 to 13 inches long.

Fishermen have been catching the kokanee by trolling and still-fishing in the evening.

If you plan to troll for the landlocked sockeye salmon, do so early or late in the day. Water skiers, speedboats and personal watercraft take over the lake from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every calm day.

Launch your boat before dawn and troll maggot- or corn-baited lures behind dodgers or multi-bladed flashers. You may have to let out three to five colors of leaded line to get down to where the kokanee schools are swimming.

Most comfortable time to still-fish during hot weather is after 8 p.m. the temperature may hit 95 degrees in midafternoon, but it will drop dramatically after the sun sets. You may even need to put on a jacket.

Trolling is the simplest way to catch the kokanee. If you decide to still-fish, talk with someone who is knowledgeable about the technique. Catching kokanee on baited glow hooks at night is tricky.

There are several other lakes and reservoirs in the region that hold kokanee, including Roosevelt, Davis, Chapman, Coeur d’Alene, Dworshak Reservoir, Pend Oreille, Koocanusa and Mary Ronan. None is producing fishing as fast as Loon.

Surprisingly, Pend Oreille, where the kokanee population is at or near an all-time low, has been producing 25-fish limits for a few persistent anglers. Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, said friends have told him they’ve caught limits of 10-inch kokanee in the lake’s south end.

Kokanee in Dworshak Reservoir are a little larger than those in Lake Coeur d’Alene. Smith said he’s heard fishermen have been catching some kokanee in the 14-inch class.

Stream fishing

Trout fishing along the region’s streams during midday hours can be frustrating, especially when bugs aren’t hatching or terrestrial insects aren’t available to the fish.

If you plan to fish North Idaho or Montana trout streams this month, prepare with hopper, beetle, ant and attractor patterns for midday fishing and caddis imitations for evenings.

This is hopper time along many Inland Northwest streams. Hopper imitations can be effective along the Clark Fork, Bitterroot, Missouri, Madison and Big Hole rivers in Montana, especially on windy days.

Beetle and ant patterns sometimes are the ticket to consistent fishing along all streams.

Many fly fishers succeed fishing a hopper pattern trailed by a bead head Prince or Pheasant Tail nymph.

Most productive time of the day often is in the evenings during massive hatches of caddisflies.

Fly fishers from throughout the country have had sensational fishing the last few weeks along the Missouri River. A Spokane fly fisher who fished the stream last week said the fishing was the best he’s experienced in several seasons. However, the crowds were the biggest he’s seen in years.

Steelhead

Steelhead fishing has been fair to good in the Ringold Springs area of the Columbia River, according to fisheries biologist Jim Cummins.

The area will be open to steelhead fishing through Aug. 15. The 1999 fishing regulation pamphlet incorrectly lists a July 31 closing date.

Cummins said enough steelhead have climbed the fish ladders at McNary Dam and continued up the Columbia to provide good fishing until the river is closed.

About 9,000 steelhead have been counted at McNary Dam, but most have started up the Snake River.

About one of every five anglers checked in the Ringold area the last couple of weeks had a steelhead, Cummins said. Nearly 500 steelhead have been caught this year.

The number of steelhead returning to the Ringold hatchery trap has increased in recent days. Some of the steelhead are “recycled” back to the Columbia River to give anglers a better chance at catching the fish.

If you plan to fish the Ringold area, remember the best time to hook a steelhead will be from dawn to 8 or 9 a.m. And also you’ll have lots of company.

Salmon

More than 700 anglers, perhaps as many as 1,000, are expected to troll for cash and merchandise prizes at Lake Coeur d’Alene during the fall chinook salmon derby starting Saturday and ending Aug. 15.

The top prize, a 16-foot boat, 15-horsepower motor and a trailer - a package worth $10,000 - will go to the angler who catches the biggest chinook, Smith said.

This year’s derby may attract a record number of anglers because big cash prizes will be awarded every day. Smith said fishermen who register the three largest salmon will receive $500, $300 and $200. Entry fee is $25. Minimum size of salmon that can be registered is 24 inches.

Smith predicted fishermen will hook lots of small salmon in the 3- to 5-pound class during the derby. Larger chinooks could be few and far between.

He expects the most productive areas to be off Arrow Point, Tubbs Hill and Powderhorn Bay. So far, he said, chinooks that will spawn this fall haven’t appeared off the mouths of the Coeur d’Alene River and Wolf Lodge Creek. But it’s possible there will be some near the stream mouths some time during the derby.

Most of the chinooks are 65 to 85 feet deep, he said.

Salmon fishing has been fair to good out of Westport, Ilwaco and LaPush. The Strait of Juan de Fuca was opened to salmon fishing Sunday. Biologists have predicted good fishing for marked cohos out of Sekiu and Pillar Point. The cohos average 4 to 6 pounds, or a pound heavier than they were at this time last year.

Spiny rays

Walleye fishing has been excellent at Lake Roosevelt, guide John Carruth of Davenport reported.

He said friends and clients have had good luck working jigs with skirts in 8 to 20 feet of water in the Fort Spokane area. The hooks are tipped with 2 inches of worm.

“We’ve been catching two to four walleyes over 20 inches every day we’ve fished the river,” he said.

Carruth also said bass fishing can be good at times at Coffeepot Lake.

He also reported talking with anglers who fished minijigs off the dock at the launch ramp and caught 9- to 10-inch perch. Because the lake is managed under selective-gear regulations, bait can’t be used.

Walleye fishing continued to be slow at the Potholes Reservoir, Mike Meseberg of the Mar-Don Resort reported. However, a few keepers are caught almost every day.

Meseberg said fishing at the reservoir has been slow during midday hours. Best time to try for the walleyes and other spiny-rayed fish is early and late in the day.

Trout, lakes

You can catch a limit of trout at numerous Eastern Washington lakes, but your chances of hooking fish aren’t good during the heat of the day.

Fish early or late. And fish deep if you’re a bait fisherman.

If you’re a fly fisher, you may hook trout at or near the surface during a midge hatch, but you probably will have to wait until the sun is low in the sky or has set.

For example, Coffeepot, a selective-gear lake west of Spokane, was undisturbed by rising trout earlier this week. By evenings, though, midges hatched and trout, some weighing 2 to 3 pounds, ate the pupae and adults.

That was typical at many of the region’s lakes. The trout are relatively small at Badger and Williams, but they’re plentiful and they start rising to midges at about 7 each evening.

The same is true for most of the multiple-species lakes. Best fishing is in the evenings, sometimes after dark. Fishermen have hooked some big browns at Clear, Silver and Waitts lakes about sunset.

Meseberg recommends trolling for net pen-reared rainbows at the Potholes Reservoir very early.

Bear, cougars

If they didn’t already know it, those who turned out Sunday to hunt bears in northeastern Washington discovered that thick underbrush hid bears, berries in the high country still weren’t ripe and bees and wasps are as thick as mosquitoes over a swamp.

Wildlife agent Tim Hood of Kettle Falls said he checked 16 hunters, none of whom had killed a bear.

Hood said the hunters didn’t see bears in and around chokecherry bushes and huckleberry bushes.

Nearly all hunters contacted by wildlife agents were hunting bears, although the cougar hunting season also opened Sunday.