Fishing Report
Kokanee
The fastest way to catch 10 kokanee is to still-fish in the evenings at Loon Lake. Joe Haley, manager of the Granite Point Resort, said the still-fishing is so good some anglers are limiting in less than an hour.
Trollers do well in the early mornings before the boat traffic increases at the lake, he said. After boats churn up the water, trolling sometimes gets tough.
Most trollers aren’t getting their lures and bait down to the kokanee in Lake Coeur d’Alene. The fish are at least 40 feet deep. That means anglers must add some lead weight at the end of their leaded lines, using 2 to 3 ounces of lead on monofilament or use downriggers.
Most of the kokanee in both lakes are 11 to 13 inches long.
Salmon
Chinooks in Lake Coeur d’Alene have been hitting anglers’ trolled lures and flies nearly every day, Justin Kimberling of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene said.
For example, a high percentage of those who fished the lake Saturday caught salmon. However, fishing was slow Sunday. That’s what an angler can expect.
The chinooks are at 60 to 70 feet. Most productive area has been from Arrow Point to Tubbs Hill. Fishermen have been trolling dodgers and flies, flashers and helmeted herring.
Several chinooks weighing more than 10 pounds were caught last weekend. The largest was 16 pounds.
It’s been the same story at Westport. Fishing for chinooks and cohos has been so good that nearly all who fish off charter boats have been going home with two salmon, according to Mark Cedargreen, executive director of the Westport Charterboat Association.
Starting Tuesday, adult salmon may be kept from Buoy 10 upstream to the U.S. Highway 395 bridge at Pasco. From Buoy 10 upstream to the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line, the daily limit is two salmon, no more than one chinook. All wild cohos must be released.
The Fish and Wildlife Department said chinook retention at Buoy 10 may not last through Labor Day.
The Wind River downstream from the railroad bridge and Drano Lake will open to fishing for salmon Tuesday. On the Wind River downstream from the railroad bridge, Drano Lake and White Salmon River, non-buoyant lure restrictions become effective Tuesday.
Trout, Idaho
It’s possible to catch a limit of mackinaw trout at any time at Priest Lake, according to Kimberling.
Most anglers either are trolling or jigging in 140 feet of water. Anglers who jig have jigged 1-ounce lead heads and hootchies. Trollers have been using Flatfish, Lyman plugs and dodgers ahead of helmeted herring.
The upper Coeur d’Alene River is too low for comfortable floating. However, anglers have been floating the lower river. Fishing has been fairly good, especially early and late.
The St. Joe, Kelly Creek, Lochsa and Selway are in excellent condition. Biggest crowds are fishing the St. Joe, especially in the catch-and-release section.
Spiny rays
Walleyes stocked in Liberty Lake four years ago are large enough to keep, the Fish and Wildlife Department reported.
A keeper walleye must be at least 18 inches long. The 4-year-old fish in Liberty are 18- to 20- inchers.
Incidentally, the department reported walleye and smallmouth bass fishing have been good at Banks Lake the last couple of weeks. Anglers say they’re doing well on walleyes and bass at Lake Roosevelt.
Sprague Lake continues to provide good walleye fishing, Monika Metz, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, reported.
She also said anglers have been catching a few good-sized bluegills, crappies and catfish.
The department said smallmouth bass fishing has been good at Deer Lake and that Banks Lake has been yielding bass and walleyes.
Anglers have been catching lots of northern pike at the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River, Kimberling said.
Most of the pike are 5 to 6 pounds, he said, but some to 16 pounds have been caught. He suggested anglers cast spinner baits Daredevle spoons.
He also said smallmouth bass fishing has been good at Hayden and Coeur d’Alene lakes. Most anglers have been working the shorelines.
Trout, Washington
Although surface water temperatures are in the high 70s, numerous Eastern Washington lakes are still giving up limits. Fishing has been fairly good along some streams.
Fishtrap Lake was hit hard the first part of the season, but some persistent anglers, trolling deep in the narrows, have been taking limits of 12- to 13-inch yearling rainbows, the department said.
The department said fishing has been good along both Crab Creek and the Tucannon and Touchet rivers.
Trout fishing has been excellent at Sprague Lake. Metz said it’s been so good that some anglers, fishing over the springs in the north end, have hooked and released numerous trout ranging from 13 to 20 inches.
Fishermen have had good luck at both Loon and Deer lakes. In fact, some who troll for kokanee at Loon have been catching stocked rainbows, as well as the kokanee.
A few lakes in Pend Oreille, Stevens and Ferry counties have been producing fair to good trout fishing, including Meadow, Yokum and Swan lakes.
The fly fishing-only and selective-gear lakes no longer are as crowded with anglers as they were in May and June. However, fly fishers, trolling leech patterns and fishing chironomids in deep water, continue to hook good-sized trout at Aeneas, Ell, Chopaka and Dry Falls lakes.
Trout, Montana
Water temperatures of Montana streams are in the 70s and, in a few cases, fish are under stress.
Fishing has been slow during midday hours along the Clark Fork and Bitterroot. The river is low, running at only about 2,720 cubic feet per second at St. Regis.
Except for breezy days, when grasshoppers are blown into the stream, fishing can be deadly dull when the sun is high.
Hatching on the Clark Fork have been Pale Morning Dun and a few Green Drake mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies.
“The best patterns have been big Royal Madam X patterns early and then size 14 Royal Wulffs until about 2, and then big Goddard Caddis and small Elk Hair Caddis during the evening,” the shop said.
Early and late in the day are the best options along the Bitterroot, the shop said. Recommended are PMDs and small golden stones during the early morning hours and caddisfly patterns in the evenings.
If you can put up with scores of other anglers, you might do well along the Missouri below Holter Dam. The trout have been taking PMDs, Elk Hair Caddis and terrestrial patterns.
The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission has closed the middle reach of the Big Hole River to all fishing because of extremely low water conditions and high water temperatures that threaten the river’s native Arctic grayling population. A 19-mile stretch from Rock Creek road bridge to the mouth of the North Fork was closed July 1.
The latest closure includes a 28-mile stretch from the North Fork to Dickie Bridge just upstream from the community of the Wise River.
If the water level drops to 150 cubic feet per second below the Dickie Bridge, the section from the bridge to the mouth will be closed. The flow has been about 262 cfs.
Steelhead
Some of the more than 50,000 steelhead that have climbed the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam have moved into the lower Deschutes River and already numerous anglers, most of them fly fishers, are working the drifts.
The Deschutes is one of the Northwest’s most popular streams during the summer months. Also popular is Oregon’s Sandy River, which has a good run of steelhead.
The Dechutes canyon can be almost unbearably hot in July and August, but the heat doesn’t deter steelheaders. The river will be crowded with anglers the rest of the summer and fall.
Relatively few steelhead have reached the Snake River. More than 5,000 have been counted at Ice Harbor Dam, too few to interest steelheaders. One in three of the fish have been wild steelhead.
Cougar-bear seasons
Few hunters are expected to prowl Eastern Washington woods when the cougar season opens Tuesday. For nearly all hunters, warm or hot weather is not the time to go after the big cats.
The bag limit is two cougars a season. One tag is included with a big game license. To take a second, a hunter must buy an additional tag.
Numerous Eastern Washington game management units will be opened to bear hunting Tuesday. However, several northeastern and Blue Mountain units won’t be opened until Sept. 5. The units were opened Aug. 1 last year.
There will be more bear than cougar hunters, but most bear hunters are expected to wait for cooler weather.