Hunting & Fishing

Trout, Washington

Fishing is starting to slow down at some lakes that yielded five-fish limits in a couple hours a few weeks ago. The reason: Whenever the weather has been reasonably mild and the wind hasn’t howled, such lakes as Badger, Williams and West Medical have been fished hard.

However, thanks to below-normal temperatures, periodic rainstorms and wind, fishermen haven’t reduced the trout populations to the point where persistent anglers can’t catch five fish.

Fishermen have reduced the competition for food among the remaining trout. As a result, fish can be more picky. And trout often are more selective, dining on hatching insects, scuds and leeches.

In the Columbia Basin, Blue and Park lakes are good bets for pan-sized rainbows. Jameson in Douglas County still holds plenty of 11- to 13-inch trout for good fishing.

Most of the Okanogan County lakes managed for pan-sized rainbows also have plenty of fish for good fishing. Among the most productive: Patterson, Conconnully lake and reservoir, Alta, Pearrygin and Wannacut.

Several multiple-species lakes, including Clear, Silver, Jumpoff Joe and Waitts in the Spokane region, are good choices for anglers who like a little solitude. Most of the lakes hold both rainbows and brown trout.

Thanks to a net-pen project at the Mar-Don Resort, the Potholes Reservoir is producing fair to good trout fishing.

Lake Roosevelt is too low for launching boats at most ramps. The lake has been drawn down for the expected big spring runoff.

At least four - lakes on the Colville Indian Reservation the Twins, Buffalo and McGinnis - are good bets. The latter still holds a big population of 12- to 16-inch brook trout and will be popular with fly fishers, trollers and still-fishermen.

Trout, Idaho

Fishing for big rainbows at Lake Pend Oreille has picked up a little since the spring fishing derby, Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers Shop at Coeur d’Alene, reported.

Trollers caught a few rainbows in the teen bracket the last week, he said. The fish are near the surface and most anglers use planing boards to get lures away from their boats.

Mayflies are hatching along the shoreline of Lake Coeur d’Alene and some anglers are catching and releasing good numbers of trout, Smith said. Fly fishers cast imitations of the Callibaetis mayflies and spin fishers cast small spoons.

Smith suggested fishing for cutthroat in the Silver Beach area, along the shorelines in Beauty, Wolf Lodge and Turner bays. The limit is one cutthroat more than 14 inches.

Specially managed waters

Mayflies, dragonflies and damselflies are hatching at most of the fly fishing-only and selective-gear lakes in Eastern Washington.

During the early part of the season, most fly fishers used chironimid pupa imitations. They’ll continue to do so, but they’re now taking advantage of the Callibaetis mayfly hatches and damselfly and dragonfly hatches.

Chopaka, 7 miles northwest of Loomis and the state’s most popular fly fishing-only lake, will be dotted with 75 to 100 fly fishers the next couple of weeks. Several fly fishing clubs will have outings at the lake.

The campground at the lake will be jammed with pickup campers, tents, trailers and motor homes. Some club representatives arrived early this week and claimed several campsites.

Chopaka is popular because it provides some of the best lake dry fly fishing in the Northwest. When the Callibaetis mayflies hatch, fly fishers abandon their chironomid imitations for floating flies.

This may be the last good year for awhile at Chopaka. The smallmouth bass population is exploding and the bass compete with the rainbows for food and living space. The lake may be treated with rotenone this fall or next year.

Blue, a selective-gear lake south of Loomis, almost certainly will attract scores of anglers, many of them fly fishers, the next two weeks. Fortunately, there are enough camping spots for 75 to 100 rigs.

Blue has a fairly good population of 14- to 18-inch rainbows.

Neither Aeneas, a fly fishing-only lake, nor Ell, a selective-gear lake, is expected to draw big crowds. Aeneas holds only a few hundred huge triploid rainbows. Fishing has been slow at Ell most of the time since the lake opened.

Dry Falls, a selective-gear lake, has been pounded hard by fly fishers and spin fishermen since it opened. Because it holds good numbers of 12-to 18-inch rainbows and some big brown trout, it’s popular with Coast anglers. Many will camp at the Sun Lakes State Park campground. Some anglers will hike into Homestead, a selective-gear lake near Moses Lake. It holds some big rainbows.

Best bets in the Spokane region are Bayley and Amber lakes. Bayley, a fly fishing-only lake on the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge, has been providing excellent fishing for big rainbows and some brook trout the last few weeks. Amber, a selective-gear lake, is loaded with 11-to 15-inch rainbows. It also has a few big carryover rainbows.

Kokanee

Loon Lake is still the best bet for 10- to 13-inch kokanee in the Inland Northwest. Some fishermen have been taking 10-fish limits nearly every time they troll for the landlocked sockeye salmon.

The standard trout and kokanee limit is five fish a day. However, Loon is one of nine lakes and reservoirs in Eastern Washington that have special limits. An angler can keep 10 kokanee and five rainbows at the lakes.

Chapman and Horseshoe in the Spokane region are also among the lakes that have special limits.

The key to catching the kokanee at Loon is getting a baited lure down to where the fish are schooling. Anglers have seen huge schools of kokanee at depths ranging from 30 to 45 feet. If a lure doesn’t go through a school, an angler doesn’t have a chance to hook kokanee. Most fishermen, who fish only with leaded line ahead of flashers, must do a lot of experimenting to get to the fish.

Kokanee fishing has been poor at Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille and slow at Lake Coeur d’Alene. However, anglers who have been trolling the reservoir behind Dworshak Dam have done well, catching a dozen or so 10- to 13-inch kokanee.

Spiny rays

Anglers who fish Sprague Lake are hoping normal temperatures will prevail. As the lake warms up fishing should improve dramatically, according to Mike Mielke, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort. Some fishermen did well last weekend, he said. For example Bob and Velma Broom put a lot of good-sized bluegills into a bucket Saturday by using a green Beetle Spin lure tipped with worm.

Mielke also said some keeper-size walleyes were caught during the weekend. The successful fishermen trolled worm harnesses.

“The key to success,” he said, “was to troll slowly.”

Most of the rainbows stocked in the lake earlier this year are 12 inches long, he said.

Bass fishing was slow at Lake Coeur d’Alene during the weekend, Smith said. The smallmouths are expected to resume hitting anglers’ lures as the weather improves.

Salmon

Fishing for chinook salmon in Lake Coeur d’Alene picked up last weekend, Smith said. The salmon have moved toward the surface again, he said, and trollers have been catching them along shorelines in several bays.

The salmon have been cruising just under the surface, he said. He suggested fishermen fish the mouth of the Coeur d’Alene River and the head of the Spokane River and work tight to the banks of most bays.

Most fishermen have been trolling helmeted herring or Apex lures.

Smith said salmon fishing was slow during the salmon derby at Lake Chelan last weekend. However, many of the 550 who entered the derby caught lots of mackinaw trout.

One, Phil Rettstatt of Twisp, Wash., apparently broke the existing record for mackinaw. His fish weighed 31 pounds, 2.75 ounces. The fishing regulations pamphlet lists the record at 30 pounds, 4 ounces. Smith said his father, Bill Smith of Owattona, Minn., caught a 22-1/2-pound mackinaw during the derby.

Turkeys

Washington turkey hunters have put away their guns, but in Idaho they’re continuing to hunt gobblers in several game-management units. Units 1 through 6, as well as some units in the southern part of Idaho, will remain open until May 25.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department has assured successful hunters who have seen a spongy layer of fat and blood vessels between the breast and skin of their turkeys that the meat is safe to eat.

“The spongy material is fat which is in the process of being metabolized,” said Phil Cooper, department spokesmen for the Panhandle region. “The layer is produced prior to the breeding period when gobblers feed very little.

“Termed a `breast sponge,’ the layer can account for 10 percent of an adult gobbler’s total body weight. The spongy fat layer serves as an energy reservoir. It does not affect the edibility of the meat, but should be removed when skinning or plucking a turkey.”

Montana rivers

The St. Regis and Bitterroot rivers have been producing surprisingly good fly fishing in recent days, according to Donn Dale, owner of the Clark Fork Outfitters.

“The Bitterroot is hot now, with lots of activity on Sqwala stoneflies and caddisflies,” he said.

Clay Findlay, a Spokane fly fisher, confirmed the report. He said clouds of caddisflies started hatching along the Bitterroot at 2 p.m. each day when he and a friend fished the river last week. The river came alive with rising trout, most of them cutthroat.

Dale said the Clark Fork was about as good as it gets a few days ago. Trout fed on large Gray Drake mayflies, Sqwala stoneflies and caddisflies.

He said the first Golden Stone Flies started hatching last week.