Fishing Report
Ocean salmon
Ocean salmon seasons open Monday at Washington areas such as Neah Bay, Ilwaco, Westport and La Push to tap some of the best returns in years of Columbia River-bound hatchery chinook and coho.
For info on charter boats at Westport call (800) 345-6223; for Ilwaco call (800) 451-2542.
Crab pot fishing in Puget Sound opened Friday.
Fishing will be open Sundays through Thursdays in Marine areas 1 (Ilwaco) and 2 (Westport-Ocean Shores). Anglers may keep one chinook in their two-salmon daily limit.
Anglers can keep two salmon in the La Push area and both can be chinooks. All of marine area 4 (Neah Bay) from the Sekiu River to Cape Alava will open with a two-hatchery coho daily limit. All chinooks must be released.
Kokanee
Kokanee continue to provide some of the most productive lake fishing in Inland Northwest waters.
Spokane-area anglers don’t have to travel far to catch good-sized kokanee. Loon Lake has been kind to both trollers and night fishermen, yielding 10-fish limits to experienced anglers.
However, with temperatures in the 80s and 90s, trolling can be a challenge, not because of the high temperatures but because of water skiers and speedboaters.
For trollers, the best times to fish the lake are early in the morning and from 7 p.m. to dark. Most skiers are off the water then.
Night fishermen don’t start looking for kokanee schools until after 9. When the kokanee are biting, the experts take 10 fish in less than 2 hours, sometimes in an hour.
The Washington Fish and Game Department is reminding anglers that no kokanee can be taken from a portion of the Little Spokane River, including Chain Lake, a wide part of the river.
The department recently banned the taking of kokanee from the river upstream from Spokane County bridge No. 4901, one-tenth mile northwest of Elk.
The emergency regulation was passed to protect a wild, self-sustaining kokanee stock that may be unique and native to the river.
Davis Lake in Stevens County is attracting fair numbers of kokanee fishermen. There seem to be fairly good numbers of kokanee that average 14 inches long.
One of the problems of fishing Davis is launching a boat. Swimmers and picnickers often take over the launch site, making it difficult to launch or retrieve a boat.
Lake Coeur d’Alene continues to provide good fishing for 11-inch kokanee, Justin Kimberling of the Fins & Feathers shop said. The kokanee are still relatively shallow and trollers have been letting out two colors of leaded line ahead of flashers or dodgers. Wolf Lodge and Beauty bays are the most popular areas.
Lake Koocanusa is yielding 20-fish limits of small kokanee for trollers.
Stream fishing
Some of the region’s trout streams are providing excellent fly fishing. The Missoulian Angler fly shop at Missoula reported the Blackfoot and Bitterroot rivers and Rock Creek are low and clear enough for good fishing during hatches.
“Rock Creek has been great,” the shop said in a fishing report. “The salmonfly hatch is over. Golden stones are around every day. Pale Morning Duns are showing well. Green Drakes have been spotty at midday. Caddis are coming off strong just at dusk and the Western Pale Evening Duns are making their first appearance.”
The shop reported the salmonfly hatch on the Blackfoot is over, but the golden stones are hatching. The Bitterroot is in good shape; however, fishing can be tough on sunny days.
The Clark Fork River is in excellent shape for fishing, Donn Dale, operator of the Clark Fork River Outfitters, reported.
“Fish are taking Elk Hair Caddis, Royal Wulffs, Yellow Stimulators and Prince Nymphs under the surface. Evening hatches have been the most productive, with caddis patterns the most effective. The Turk Tarantula is beginning to work during the day.”
Montana’s Yellowstone River opened to fishing Thursday. Operators of fly shops in West Yellowstone have been predicting an outstanding season. The river seems to have a big population of cutthroat trout.
The salmonfly hatch along the Madison River has peaked. However, the trout are still taking imitations of adult salmonflies and big nymphs. The Coeur d’Alene River continued to provide excellent fishing for cutthroat, some more than 16 inches long, last weekend. Kimberling said fly fishers have been hooking fish from the mouth of the North Fork to the high country in the catch-and-release sections.
The St. Joe, Selway and Lochsa are still high, but anglers report fair to good fishing.
Spiny rays
If you just want to have fun catching big bass, Coffeepot Lake might be a good destination. A few of the biggest bass caught in Eastern Washington the last couple months have been hooked there.
John Carruth of Davenport, a fishing guide, said some bass weighing more than 5 pounds have been hooked at Coffeepot.
He and a friend fished the lake recently and hooked several bass, including a 7-pounder.
Coffeepot is managed under selectivegear rules. You must use barbless hooks and can’t keep bass more than 14 inches long. However, you can keep two under 14 inches.
Most of the crappies he and others have caught average 9 inches. Since bait is prohibited, few anglers go after perch. Coffeepot will close at the end of August.
Carruth said this is a good time to fish for walleyes and smallmouth bass at Lake Roosevelt. The lake’s level is up again after the big drawdown and the walleyes are still in relatively shallow water.
Bass fishing has been good at the Potholes Reservoir, but walleye fishermen have had to work hard for a keeper or two, Mike Meseberg of the Mar-Don Resort reported.
Fishermen have been catching some 10- to 14-inch crappies at Liberty Lake. If you decide to fish the lake, go early. Water skiers and other recreationists take over the public access area by midmorning, making it difficult to launch a boat.
Fishermen have complained that some of the cars on the public access area don’t display the Fish and Wildlife Department’s parking decal. To use an access operated by the agency, a person must have a decal on their vehicle.
Bass and crappies have been providing lots of action for anglers at Idaho’s Hayden Lake, Kimberling said. Fishermen believe the crappies have spawned in the north end, but are still in shallow water.
Fishing for northern pike has picked up at Lake Coeur d’Alene, he said. A few big pike, including one that weighed more than 20 pounds, were caught last week.
He suggested anglers fish in and around weed beds in the bays with big plugs.
Inland salmon
The chinook salmon in Lake Coeur d’Alene have had lockjaw periodically for more than a week. Not even the guides have been able to find salmon willing to take their clients’ bait.
Some 60,000 adult spring chinook salmon have been counted at Bonneville Dam the last few weeks. More than 20,000 have gone over McNary Dam and nearly 9,000 have been counted at Ice Harbor.
Specially managed waters
Coffeepot Lake may be a good place to fish for rainbows this weekend. Guide Carruth said he and others who have fished it in recent weeks believe the lake, now under selective-gear regulations, has a fairly large population of rainbows, a few weighing nearly 10 pounds.
Because anglers must use single, barbless hooks and can’t use bait and because the daily catch limit is only two trout, the lake hasn’t been as popular as lakes where there are no restrictive fishing regulations.
“The fly fishermen have been having a ball hooking and releasing big trout,” he said.
Fishing has been tough at most selective-gear and fly fishing-only lakes in Eastern Washington. Most insects have hatched, surface water temperatures are in the high 60s and 70s and the trout do most of their feeding in the evenings.
Trout, lakes
Anglers who troll deep and those who still-fish in 15 to 30 feet of water in the evenings have been catching trout regularly in some Eastern Washington lakes.
For example, trollers have been catching rainbows, a few to 4 pounds, in various areas around the Potholes Reservoir. Most popular areas are Medicare Beach and off the face of O’Sullivan Dam. Bank fishermen have caught trout along Frenchman’s Wasteway.
Badger, Williams and West Medical lakes in the Spokane area and Blue and Park in the Columbia Basin have yielded limits to persistent fishermen.
Shad
About 16,000 shad have climbed the fish ladders at Ice Harbor Dam and most have gone over Lower Monumental. It’s possible that anglers may still catch shad in the lower Snake.
About 1.6 million shad had climbed the Bonneville Dam ladders by Monday. Most have or are spawning in various areas along the Columbia.