Hunting & Fishing

Trout, Washington If you want to catch five rainbows that average 16 inches long, go to Lake Roosevelt.

Trollers and bank fishermen continue to catch limits of deep-bodied rainbows in 2 hours or so, according to guide John Carruth of Davenport.

The fastest way of catching a limit is to troll somewhere between Fort Spokane and Keller, he said. One of the hot spots is the mouth of Hawk Creek.

Some anglers have trolled baited lures and flies near the surface; others have used leaded lines. Either way has resulted in good catches.

The fishing has been fantastic for several weeks and has attracted scores of anglers on weekends and many during week days. The rainbows not only are in excellent shape, they make delicious table fare, unlike the rainbows in some of the winter fishing lakes.

Carruth said trollers occasionally catch 12- to 17-inch kokanee. Usually, though, they have to release the fish. Only kokanee that don’t have adipose fins can be kept and nearly all the kokanee that anglers catch have intact adipose fins.

The huge rainbows in Rufus Woods Lake are attracting some fishermen, but fishing has been spotty. Anglers familiar with the spots where the trout concentrate are more successful than those who fish the lake the first time.

Ice on most of the popular winter trout lakes still is thick and solid enough for safe fishing despite higher than normal temperatures and periodic rain.

However, ice has receded along shorelines at some lakes, making it difficult for fishermen to get from shore to solid ice.

Because Hog Canyon was treated with rotenone last fall, most Spokane-area anglers have been concentrating their efforts at Fourth of July Lake, perennially the top ice-fishing lake in Eastern Washington.

The rainbows in Fourth of July don’t taste as good as those in other winter lakes, but they’re plentiful and usually are willing to take bait.

Fishing has been more rewarding early in the morning than during mid-day hours.

Both Hatch and Williams in the Colville area are yielding limits of rainbows to persistent fishermen. Williams is the most productive.

Few North Idaho anglers are fishing for trout. Most are spending their time fishing for perch at a dozen or so lakes and northern pike at lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene.

Spiny rays

Fishermen are still hoping perch fishing will pick up at such lakes as Sprague and Eloika, usually among the most productive spiny ray lakes each winter.

They’ve fished for several hours to catch a few small perch and an occasional rainbow and small bass.

Although perch fishing has been slow at Sprague, a few anglers have had luck catching 9- to 11-inch crappies at the upper end of the lake. However, finding the crappies can be frustrating.

Carruth said he talked with a fisherman who caught a few crappies near the Sprague Lake Resort. However, some anglers, fishing in shallow water near him, caught one crappie after another, nearly filling a bucket.

It’s important to be in the right place at the right time. The crappie schools are in shallow water. Find one and you’ll do well. But you might drill a dozen holes and not locate a school.

By doing a lot of sorting, ice fishermen can catch enough 7- to 9-inch perch at Eloika for a meal or two. Best fishing seems to be across the lake from Jerry’s Landing. The ice is more than 6 inches thick.

Several North Idaho lakes have been yielding good numbers of perch, Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, reported. Among them are Fernan, the Twins, Round and Pend Oreille.

Biggest perch, some 13 inches long, have been coming from Pend Oreille, Smith said. The most popular ice-fishing spots are near the condos on the flats and in Bottle Bay.

The ice is in fair condition near the condos, he said, but anglers should be careful when fishing in Bottle Bay.

Perch are 9 to 10 inches long in Fernan, 9 inches in South Twin and 8 inches in Round. Fishermen do a lot of sorting to get perch large enough to fillet.

Ice is soft around the edges of lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River, Smith said. However, that hasn’t deterred ice fishermen, who have been catching lots of small pike.

The most successful fishermen use five tip-ups to increase their chances of attracting pike. It’s legal to use five tip-ups while fishing through ice in Idaho.

Thompson, Anderson, Black and Killarney have been popular with pike fishermen.

Waterfowl

Ducks and geese apparently will be scattered throughout much of Eastern Washington the final two days of the long season. Hunters will put away their guns after the end of shooting time Sunday.

Idaho hunters have one more day to shoot ducks. The season will end Saturday. Idaho’s goose season ended last Saturday.

The final month of the waterfowl seasons has been an unusual one for the Inland Northwest. Usually, most ducks and geese move to the Columbia River in December or early January, depending on the severity of the weather. This winter, however, has been so mild many birds have remained in North Idaho and the Spokane region.

In most past winters, near-zero and below-zero temperatures and deep snow has caused ducks and geese to move to the Columbia River from Ringold Springs to Umatilla.

Hunting has been poor along the Columbia most of the time. Several Spokane hunters reported poor shooting in the Ringold Springs area.

With daytime temperatures above normal the last couple of weeks, ducks and geese haven’t felt the urge to feed more than a few hours. They’ve often fed at night.

Experienced goose hunters, however, have had good luck hunting fields where the geese feed.

Steelhead, salmon

If you are interested in catching immature chinook salmon, troll helmeted herring at Lake Coeur d’Alene or make arrangements to have a guide take you out on the big lake.

Two guides, Smith and Rick Caddy, say they have been finding 3-to 7-pound chinooks for their clients. Smith said the salmon are 25 to 55 feet deep. Most productive areas are in Mica, Squaw and Loff’s bays.

If you plan to troll out of your own boat, launch at either Higgan’s Point or Booth Park. If you launch at the Third Street dock, you’ll pay a small fortune; you have to pay launching and parking fees, which can add up to more than $10 a day.

The city of Coeur d’Alene operates the Third Street dock launching area. Its high fees have discouraged most boaters.

Rainstorms earlier this week and above normal temperatures weren’t what steelhead fishermen needed. The Snake River and most of its tributaries didn’t clear up enough for steelhead to see anglers’ lures.

It’s likely the Snake, Clearwater, Grande Ronde, Tucannon and Touchet will be off color this weekend.

When the rivers clear, fishermen should have some success along the Snake’s tributaries. However, before driving long distances, anglers should check with sporting goods stores or friends who live near the streams to learn the latest conditions.