Fishing Report

Trout, Washington

The ice on Fourth of July Lake this weekend might be too thin to support you safely but too thick to break with rocks so you can fish from shore. On the other hand, there may be plenty of open water for bank fishing.

But don’t count on launching a boat. There is too much ice at the public access area do to that.

The ice on Hog Canyon probably will be thick enough for safe ice fishing.

This is the time of year when it’s nearly impossible to say what ice conditions will be from day to day. If you don’t mind a drive to Fourth of July Lake, you might be able to fish in open water.

Hog Canyon is only a short distance from Fourth of July. Despite fishing pressure since Dec. 1, it still holds enough 12- to 13-inch rainbows for fair fishing at times. However, don’t expect to catch a limit in an hour or so.

Williams Lake north of Colville has been fished almost daily since it opened Dec. 1. However, the lake still has enough rainbows for fair fishing.

Lake Roosevelt still provides fair to good fishing for big net pen-reared rainbows for those who are willing to troll long periods or fish from shore at several places from Seven Bays to Lincoln.

Several lakes in the Columbia Basin are yielding rainbows. Biggest fish are in the Potholes Reservoir. Most productive areas are along the lower Frenchman Hills Wasteway and Medicare Beach.

Fishermen have had good luck at Heart and Corral lakes. For a variety of fish, Soda Lake is a place to wet a line. Fishermen have been catching small perch, pike and trout.

The lakes south of Lind Coulee also have been yielding a few trout, but the fishing has been slow at most of them.

A few fly fishers have been trying their luck at Rocky Ford Creek north of Moses Lake. The upper part of the creek holds some big rainbows.

Steelhead

The Snake River from the Lewiston-Clarkston area to the mouth of the Grande Ronde has been providing fair steelhead fishing. However, the Snake’s tributaries are probably the best bet.

Among the most productive have been the Clearwater, Grande Ronde, Tucannon and Touchet.

Justin Kimberling of Coeur d’Alene and a friend caught three steelhead weighing 12 to 14 pounds last weekend by drifting pink jigs under bobbers in deep holes, according to Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop. They reported seeing anglers catch more than a dozen from a hole just below Orofino.

Fishing has been fair to good along the Clearwater the last few weeks. Jerry Dedloff of the Fish and Wildlife Department’s Snake River Laboratory came up with only two figures for the week ended Sunday. Anglers averaged 6.7 hours per steelhead along the Walla Walla River and 9.9 hours along the Grande Ronde. Fishermen in other areas were checked but not enough for meaningful statistics.

Salmon

The chinook salmon in Lake Coeur d’Alene are scattered throughout the lake, making it difficult to find them, Smith said. As a consequence, fishing has been slow the last week or so.

“The salmon have been caught from the surface to 100 feet and in various parts of the lake,” he said.

Eventually, he said, the salmon will concentrate enough for fishermen to find them.

He said he trolled for salmon last weekend but caught only one chinook.

Trout, Idaho

Lake Pend Oreille now is open to fishing for rainbows but you no longer can keep any kokanee you might hook.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission, in an emergency rule change last Friday, opened the lake to fishing for rainbows and set the daily limit at six a day, with no size limit.

The agency also decided to permit anglers to take all the mackinaw trout they can catch.

Included in the emergency rule was the Clark Fork River from its mouth to the railroad bridge at Clark Fork.

Panhandle regional fisheries biologist Ned Horner said the Fish and Game Department recommended the drastic regulation “to avoid the total collapse of the kokanee population.”

“Our studies have shown that rainbows take 87 percent of the kokanee that are killed each year,” he said.

“We’re dealing with a collapsing of the kokanee population that is at an extremely low level.”

Lake Pend Oreille was to have opened to fishing for rainbows April 29 with a daily limit of two rainbows.

Horner said he has requested the Lake Pend Oreille Club to rethink its derbies. To rebuild the rainbow population, the club has been urging fishermen to release the smaller rainbows so they can grow to trophy size.

With the weather unpredictable, not many fishermen have been driving long distances over slick roads to catch a trout or two, Smith said.

However, a few lakes have been yielding trout, among them Fernan, Kelso, Mirror and Jewel. Hauser, which usually gives up two to three good-sized rainbows through the ice this time of year, has been providing poor fishing.

Smith said some fishermen are blaming muskies in Hauser for poor trout and perch fishing. They believe the muskies are decimating the trout and spiny rayed fish populations.

Spiny rays

Numerous lakes in Idaho’s Panhandle are covered with 5 or more inches of solid ice, and anglers have been pulling fair to good numbers of perch, crappies and pike through ice holes, Smith said. Some popular lakes are Fernan, Rose, Twins, Round, Gamble and Avondale.

Fernan has been yielding pike, perch and trout. Smith said fishermen have pulled some big pike though the ice at Fernan the last few weeks. They’ve been fishing smelt under tipups to catch pike and small jigs baited with maggots to hook perch.

Fastest perch fishing has been at the Twin lakes, he said. However, most of the perch are so small anglers discard them. The biggest perch are in Avondale, but they’re not plentiful. Gamble also holds good-sized perch; however, fishing has been slow at the lake. Some Columbia Basin lakes have been yielding perch and pike, including the Potholes Reservoir, Soda, Moses and Long lakes.

Kokanee

If you’re interested in fishing for the 9- to 9-inch kokanee in Spirit Lake, you should do so the next few days. The lake will be closed to fishing Feb. 15.

The lake has been lightly fished the last few weeks, mostly because the ice had been a little too thin for safety. The limit is only 15 per day. Fair-sized kokanee are in Mirror Lake, but they seem to be few and far between.

Whitefish

If you’re interested in catching whitefish, you can catch all you want to clean from deep holes in the lower end of the Coeur d’Alene River. Although the whitefish are delicious when smoked, few anglers have been going after them.

Smith said the way to catch the whitefish is to fish a small, maggotbaited white fly or tiny spinner through deep holes. Whitefish have small mouths and are difficult to catch on good-sized lures and hooks. The Columbia below Priest Rapids Dam is full of 12- to 14-inch whitefish. If you know how to catch whitefish, you can take a limit of 15 in an hour or so.

Soda Lake holds big lake whitefish, but they’re difficult to catch this time of year. Best time to catch them is when they concentrate at the lake’s inlet in April.

Trout, Montana

Rock Creek has been the only steady trout producer in the Missoula area the last few weeks. Fly fishers have been plagued by drifting ice much of the time, but they’ve hooked fish with deep-running nymph patterns.

The Kingfisher Fly Shop said that such patterns as Kauffman’s and Brooke’s stonefly nymphs, Prince and Hare’s Ear nymphs, fished slow and deep, will attract the rainbows and brown trout.