Hunting & Fishing

Turkeys

The big turkey opener in Eastern Washington wasn’t as soggy as hunters thought it would be. However, rain pelted hunters in some areas and forced turkey flocks to take cover.

Indications are, however, that hundreds of hunters tagged gobblers. Many are telling stories about how they bagged turkeys, but many more are talking about turkeys that stayed just out of shotgun range.

Washington’s turkey season is a month long and won’t end until May 15. There is still lots of time for hunters to put tags on gobblers. As the season progresses, though, the turkeys will become warier. Idaho opened the Panhandle to hunting Saturday to 125 hunters who received controlled-hunt permits. Another 400 permit-holders can start hunting the Panhandle game management units Saturday.

The Panhandle units won’t open to all hunters until May 1. Several units in the Clearwater region and farther south opened Saturday. They’ll remain open through May 25.

Most popular hunting areas in Eastern Washington were in Stevens, Ferry and Lincoln counties in the northeast and in Asotin, Garfield and Columbia counties in the southeast. However, some gobblers were tagged in Spokane, Adams and Lincoln counties. A few were reported taken just outside Spokane’s boundaries.

Salmon

Salmon fishing was excellent at Lake Coeur d’Alene last weekend, according to Justin Kimberling of the Fins & Feathers shop. Not everyone caught chinooks, but nearly all boats came in with salmon.

He said fishing picked up in the north end of the lake, with trollers catching chinooks in Wolf Lodge, Beauty and Squaw bays. The south end was littered with debris. Most of the chinooks were 4 to 7 pounds and the most productive times were from 9 a.m. to noon and 4 to 7 p.m. Trollers used both herring and plugs in the upper 20 feet.

Kimberling recommended that anglers troll at 1.6 to 1.8 knots, the most productive speeds.

Incidentally, more than 42,000 spring chinook salmon had been counted at Bonneville Dam by last weekend. The run is expected to the biggest in several years.

Spiny rays

Northern pike are spawning in the shallow bays around Lake Coeur d’Alene. Anglers who took part in an artificial lure-only derby last weekend caught only a few fish. In fact, the heaviest string weighed only 20 pounds.

Most pike will have spawned by this weekend and the fish will resume feeding on minnows. Kimberling said several lakes in Idaho’s Panhandle have been providing good fishing for perch and crappies.

Some of the biggest perch have been caught at Fernan, he said. Many are 9 to 10 inches long. Nine- to 10-inch crappies also have been taking anglers’ jigs.

Hayden is North Idaho’s top crappie lake, and it’s been living up to its reputation. Only crappies 10 inches or longer can be taken and the limit is 15 a day. Only a few fishermen have caught limits; average catch has been running four to five.

Crappies in the Twin lakes are worth fishing for. They average 11 to 12 inches, Kimberling said. Most productive lake is Upper Twin. Fishermen also have been catching fair numbers of largemouth bass.

Good-sized smallmouth bass have moved into the bays around Lake Coeur d’Alene, he said. Some anglers, fishing tube jigs, have caught smallmouths in water 10 feet deep and deeper. The bass are running at more than a pound each.

Few anglers fished Sprague Lake last weekend, according to Monika Metz, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort. She said some caught perch, walleyes and rainbows.

One fisherman caught a 5-pound rainbow.

Bass fishing has picked up at the Potholes Reservoir, but walleye fishing has continued slow.

Perch apparently have spawned in most Columbia Basin waters. However, anglers are continuing to find fair-sized perch schools in Moses Lake. Some have been fishing near Interstate 90.

After perch spawn, the bigger ones usually head for deep water for a while.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reported that bass and walleye fishing has picked up in The Dalles and John Day pools of the Columbia River.

Boat fishermen averaged a legal walleye kept for every 3.7 rods in The Dalles pool. Fishermen averaged 6.6 bass each in the John Day pool.

Trout, Washington

Trout fishermen have few options until the general fishing season opens April 29.

Most productive waters continue to be Lake Roosevelt, the Potholes Reservoir, the wasteways that empty into the reservoir and a few small seep lakes in the Columbia Basin. Coffeepot Lake has been yielding catchable-size rainbows and a few big carryover trout.

Most trout caught at the Potholes Reservoir have been near the Mar-Don Resort, at the mouth of the Frenchman wasteway, off Medicare Beach and off the face of O’Sullivan Dam.

A few of the desert seep lakes have yielded 10- to 16-inch rainbows. And some just below the Mar-Don Resort have given up a few good-sized trout.

As usual, Lake Roosevelt anglers have been fishing from shore near the Seven Bays Resort and at the mouth of Hawk Creek. Trollers have been working the water from Spring Canyon to Seven Bays. They’ve taken a few big kokanee, as well as rainbows.

If you fish Coffeepot for trout, try the lower end. A few anglers have found enough rainbows there for two-fish limits. Fishing at the upper end has been slow.

Indian lakes

McGinnis Lake on the Colville Indian Reservation yielded good-sized brook trout for many anglers when the lake, as well as other waters on the reservation, opened Saturday.

Most of the brook trout caught over the weekend were 11 to 12 inches long. A few to about 14 inches were caught, too. Fly fishers said the brookies were skinny but in good shape. In past years, average sizes were about 2 inches longer than those caught last weekend.

Three of every four who fished South Twin Lake caught four-fish limits during the weekend, reported Bob Canody, operator of the Log Cabin Resort.

Half of each limit were rainbows and the other half brook trout, he said. Trollers caught more brookies than rainbows; they trolled Muddler Minnow and other flies tipped with worms.

The trout weighed 1 to 3 pounds. About 150 anglers fished the lake. A spokesperson for the Rainbow Beach Resort at North Twin said fishing was good at the lake during the weekend, with anglers hooking both rainbows and brook trout.

Trout, Idaho

Several North Idaho lakes have been giving up limits of trout, Kimberling said. Among them are Fernan, Round and Kelso. The lakes were stocked recently with hatchery-raised rainbows.

Kimberling said fishing for the Kamloops rainbows in Lake Pend Oreille has been slow.

Some anglers have been drifting roe along the lower Clark Fork River and hooking large rainbows. Others have been fishing for mackinaw trout, mostly around and near the islands south of Hope.

Trout, Montana

All the major trout streams in the Missoula area were high and off color early this week as the result of last week’s rainstorms and may not be productive this weekend.

The Clark Fork was running high and murky and fishing was tough last weekend and early this week. Some knowledgeable guides are wondering whether the runoff has started. Only time will tell.

The Bitterroot also was high and off-color. As a result, fishing, which had been good before the storms, was slow.

Rock Creek is the best of the lot, but it, too, is high.

Skwala stoneflies and March Brown and Gray Drake mayflies have been hatching. Most fly fishers have resorted to big Woolly Buggers, San Juan Worms and nymphs fished near the bottom.

The Missouri River is one of the few Montana trout streams providing excellent trout fishing. The river is running at less than 5,000 cubic feet per second below Holter Dam, ideal for floating the stream.

The Kingfisher fly shop at Missoula said most fly fishers have been using olive midge emergers, San Juan Worms, small pink scuds and small bead-head patterns. If the wind isn’t strong, midge hatches may provide good dry fly fishing.