Fishing Report
Salmon/steelhead
Anglers who want to improve their chances of catching chinook salmon along the Columbia River should seek out the coldest water they can find before trolling or anchoring, according to Joe Hymer, fisheries biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Department.
Water temperatures along the lower river have been hitting 72 degrees, he said. As a result, the salmon seek out the coldest water they can find and that’s where wise fishermen will be.
Drano Lake, a wide spot along the Columbia, is colder than water in the main river; consequently, good numbers of chinooks gather in the area.
He said steelhead anglers also should try to find cool water areas.
The steelhead run will be a big one this year. More than 130,000 have been counted at Bonneville and 400,000 to 500,000 may be counted by the end of the migration.
The department reported that Buoy 10 anglers averaged one salmon each early during the early part of the season. However, nearly all the salmon were cohos. Only a few chinooks were caught.
“Catches of both species are expected to increase this month,” the department said. “However, there is a 9,000-fish quota for chinook.” The agency has said the season may not last beyond Labor Day.
About 30,000 steelhead have been counted at McNary Dam. The count at Ice Harbor is about 12,000. Water temperature at Ice Harbor is about 71 degrees.
Coast salmon fishing areas at Westport, Ilwaco and LaPush have been closed. Unaffected by the closure are fisheries now under way in the Neah Bay area, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and inside waters of Puget Sound.
The largest chinook salmon caught during fall derby at Lake Coeur d’Alene weighed only 16 pounds and 7 ounces, the smallest to win the top prize since the derby was started several years ago, according to Justin Kimberling of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene.
The salmon was caught by Buckie Finnley of Coeur d’Alene during the first weekend of the derby. He won the new 17-foot boat, a 90-horsepower engine and a trailer.
The second-largest chinook was caught by Herb Singer, also Coeur d’Alene, and weighed 16 pounds 2 ounces. Singer won a 9.9-horsepower motor. Matt Palmer of Coeur d’Alene won an auto pilot for his boat with the third-place chinook that weighed 15 pounds and 6 ounces.
Winning chinooks weighed 30 to 41 pounds in past years.
Kokanee
If you want to take advantage of the sensational kokanee fishing at Loon Lake, plan to do so during the next three weeks. The 11- to 13-inch fish are starting to lose their scales and are taking on spawning colors.
Joe Haley, manager of the Granite Point Resort, said that the kokanee still are in good shape and are excellent table fare.
Both trollers and still fishers have been catching 10-fish limits, he said. The fastest fishing for still fishers is in the late evenings; best times for trollers are early and late in the day.
If you’re a troller, use a red Martin, a Kokanee Killer or another similar lure and bait it with several maggots. For an attractor, use a 000 dodger or a 2-bladed Jack Lloyd. Let out 3-1/2 colors of leaded line and troll very slowly in fairly deep water along the north shore, in front of the Granite Point Resort or in the south end.
If you still fish, anchor your boat at both ends just before sunset over 30 to 32 feet of water and bait your glow hook with several maggots. To get your bait down to within 6 inches of the bottom, use either an in-line sinker or a bell sinker.
Kokanee fishing has been fair at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Kimberling said. The 12- to 13-inch fish are down about 45 feet. Few 25-fish limits are taken, but anglers average 5 to 10 during several hours of trolling.
The Dworshak Reservoir also has been yielding good-sized kokanee.
Spiny rays
Fishing for bass, perch, crappies, northern pike and walleyes has been good at several of the region’s lakes and reservoirs.
Sprague Lake has been plagued by an algae bloom, but the fishing has been outstanding, Monika Metz, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, reported. Most anglers find the walleyes, bass, crappies and bluegills under the bloom.
She said that walleye fishermen have been trolling and drifting slowly over about 15 feet of water. They catch lots of walleyes under 18 inches, but the most persistent continue to fish until they catch two or more legal-sized fish.
She said she has seen some big crappies and bluegills; however, an angler can’t expect to catch large numbers of the two species.
Smallmouth bass have provided action along several rivers and at lakes and reservoirs in the Inland Northwest. Some hot spots include Coeur d’Alene and Hayden lakes, Lake Roosevelt, the Snake River and the Potholes Reservoir.
Kimberling said that some of the best smallmouth fishing in Idaho’s Panhandle have been at Coeur d’Alene and Hayden lakes.
He described the smallmouth fishing at Hayden as “great” and suggested anglers fish fairly deep water off dropoffs. The smallmouths at Coeur d’Alene have been hitting jigs fished in 20 to 25 feet of water.
Pike fishing has been excellent at Hayden Lake, he said.
This is a good time to fish for smallmouths along the Snake River above and below Lower Granite Dam and from Asotin to the mouth of the Grande Ronde River, as well as in Hells Canyon.
Smallmouths have been active off the O’Sullivan Dam at the Potholes Reservoir. Fishermen have had fair to good largemouth bass fishing in the sand dune island area.
Perch fishing has slowed at Moses Lake, but is still good at the Potholes Reservoir.
Last spring Moses Lake became the preferred destination of anglers who seek big perch. The lake is one of few in the Inland Northwest that have consistently provided fishing for 10- to 14-inch perch. Perch anglers say they believe the big perch will be easy to find and catch in September and October.
Perch at the Potholes Reservoir are plentiful but small.
Guide John Carruth of Davenport said walleye fishing has been fairly good along Lake Roosevelt from Seven Bays to Kettle Falls. He said the walleyes are in 20 to 40 feet of water, their depth depending on the time of day.
Trout, Washington
Three of the most productive spots the last few weeks have been Moses and Sprague lakes and the Potholes Reservoir.
Perhaps surprisingly, Sprague Lake, managed as a warm-water species lake, has been yielding five rainbows for many anglers, according to Metz.
The most productive spots, she said, are the resort’s dock and the springs area just west of the resort. Most of the rainbows are 13 to more than 20 inches long.
The Fish and Wildlife Department released several thousand catchable-size rainbows in the lake last spring. The trout now are more than 13 inches long and still seem plentiful enough for good fishing.
Net pen-reared rainbows are providing most of the action at the Potholes Reservoir and Moses Lake. Fishing has been so good at times that anglers have caught limits in an hour or so.
Popular areas of the Potholes Reservoir have been the mouths of the Frenchman and Winchester wasteways, off the Mar-Don Resort dock, off the face of the O’Sullivan Dam and along the Crab Creek channel.
Many fishermen have been dunking baited hooks off Interstate 90 at Moses Lake. Trollers have had good luck trolling in many spots.
Fishing, Montana
If you’ve been considering fishing Missoula area streams, forget it for a while. Montana’s governor has closed all lakes and streams in several western Montana counties to fishing until enough rain has fallen to end the drought and the fire danger. His order also closes hunting and all recreation in most areas.
Montana’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department has closed the famed Smith River to fishing and has restricted angling along a 35-mile-long blue-ribbon stretch of the Missouri to morning fishing. The action was taken to protect wild trout populations from drought and angling stress, the agency said.
The entire 125-mile stretch of the Smith River likely will be closed to fishing until at least September. The decision to close the Smith was taken in response to high water temperatures and low stream flows that continue to threaten the rainbow and brown trout populations.
“Flows in the Smith are critically low,” commented FWP director Pat Graham. “They have averaged only 40-50 cubic feet per second near Camp Baker and water temperatures are reaching up to 78 degrees.”
Temperatures of 77 degrees or more can be lethal to trout, he said.
Fishing along the Missouri River between Holter Dam and Cascade is now banned from noon to midnight, when water temperatures are at their highest. The Kootenai below Libby Dam is still open and fly fishers have done well between the dam and Libby.
Trout, Idaho
Trollers at Hayden Lake have been catching 3- to 8-pound rainbows, Kimberling said. “They’ve been trolling lures and plugs at depths of 30 to 35 feet,” he said.
Fishing for mackinaw trout has been so good at Priest Lake that some anglers have been releasing small fish and keeping the big ones they catch, he said. For example, two men, trolling Rapalas, kept 12-, 14-, 18- and 20-pound macks.
Fishing has been good, especially in the evenings when caddisflies hatch, along the St. Joe, Lochsa and Selway rivers and along Kelly Creek.