Hunting & Fishing
Turkeys
Washington’s turkey season ends Monday, but Idaho hunters can continue trying to tag birds until May 25 in most of Northern Idaho.
The breeding season is just about over throughout the Inland Northwest. Most hens are nesting and gobblers are looking around for the few hens that haven’t been bred.
Traditionally, there are few hunters in Eastern Washington turkey country during the last week of each season. Most hunters who have tagged turkeys no longer will be hunting, and most of those who haven’t been successful have given up.
In fact, a few hunters say that the last week of the season is a good time to hunt. Competition is no longer a problem and the turkeys, some of which haven’t seen hunters for a week or so, have settled down. If the weather is mild and the sun shines, the next three days could be a productive time to hunt gobblers.
The big problem for late-season hunters is to call gobblers to them. They’re best chances are to tag jakes, but many still want longbearded gobblers.
Kokanee
Experienced kokanee anglers are continuing to catch 10-fish limits of kokanee at Loon Lake, Linda Haley of the Granite Point Resort reported.
She said the kokanee range in length from 9 to slightly more than 12 inches.
Most anglers are letting out two and two-and-a-half colors of leaded line ahead of long leaders. Many have been using the Fisher Fly and a glow fly baited with maggots. The most productive spots have been in front of the resort and along the north shore.
Chapman Lake is continuing to produce small kokanee.
Trollers have been catching lots of kokanee just above Dworshak Dam, Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, reported. The kokanee average about 11 inches.
Trout, Washington
Most trout-only waters in the Spokane region, parts of the Columbia Basin and in Okanogan and Douglas counties still have plenty of trout for good fishing.
The best producers in the Spokane region should be Fishtrap, Badger, Williams, Ellen, Yocum and the lakes in the Little Pend Oreille chain.
West Medical is one of the few places an angler can go in the Spokane area where most of the rainbows and brown trout are 16 to 17 inches long. The big trout aren’t plentiful and fishing can be slow, but the reward can be a couple of trout that provide a bigger meal than five 10- to 12-inchers.
Clear Lake seems to have a fairly good population of good-sized rainbows and browns. Near-by Silver, however, won’t be a good trout producer this year.
Clear, West Medical, Liberty and Newman were stocked with sterile rainbows before the season opener. Anglers may have caught most of those fish, but there are still some left, particularly at Liberty and Newman lakes. The Fish and Wildlife Department released 3,750 in Newman and 2,500 in Liberty.
Badger and Williams have been fished more than other trout-only lakes in the Spokane region; however, they have enough trout and cutthroat for good fishing for at least two more weeks.
Blue and Park lakes southwest of Coulee City were hit hard by hundreds of anglers on opening weekend, but only a few fishermen have fished them the last 10 days. Yearling rainbows in the lakes are 11 to 13 inches long.
This is a good year to fish Jameson Lake in Douglas County. The yearling rainbows are 12 inches long and carryover fish run to 17 inches. The lake attracts lots of Coast anglers.
Several put-and-take lakes in Okanogan County are loaded with trout. Among them are Alta, Conconully lake and reservoir, Leader, Pearygin, Wannacut, Fish and Round.
McGinnis and North and South Twin lakes on the Colville Indian Reservation are still producing limits of good-sized trout for persistent anglers. The brook trout in McGinnis are 12 to about 16 inches long and are on the thin side. The rainbows and brookies in the Twins average more than 15 inches and some are more than 24 inches.
Specially managed waters
Several fly fishing-only and selective-gear lakes in Eastern Washington have been providing good to outstanding trout fishing.
Among the best have been Amber, Medical, Dry Falls, Rocky, Starvation, Big Twin and Ell.
Bayley, a fly fishing-only lake, has been a big disappointment this year. The carryover rainbows and browns are rare and in poor shape. Fishing was slow during the first few days of the season at Blue in the Sinlahekin; however, anglers hope it will improve.
A few anglers who have fished the lower end of Coffeepot Lake have reported outstanding fishing. One fly fisher said he caught a rainbow weighing more than 8 pounds.
The rainbows in Amber, a selective-gear lake, average less than 13 inches long, but the lake seems to be full of fish. Medical, also a selective-gear lake, has been producing some big brown trout.
North Silver, a fly fishing-only lake, still holds some broodstock rainbows despite heavy fishing by bait fishermen before May 1, when the new regulations became effective. However, the anglers who fished the lake before May 1 apparently caught more than 100 of the 350 rainbows stocked in the lake. North Silver also has some catchable-size rainbows.
Browns, a fly fishing-only lake in Pend Oreille County, has been yielding some 12- to 14-inch cutthroat as well as numerous cutts in the 8- to 10-inch class.
The top selective-gear lake in Stevens County has been Starvation, where fishermen have hooked good numbers of rainbows.
The most productive fishing in Okanogan County has been at Ell and Aeneas lakes.
The rainbows in Ell, a selective-gear lake, average 16 to 18 inches long and seem to be plentiful this year. Aeneas, a fly fishing-only lake, has been producing outstanding fly fishing for rainbows, many of which are 16 to 20 inches long.
The Callibaetis mayflies should be hatching at Chopaka Lake, northwest of Loomis. The lake, the most popular fly fishing-only lake in the state, holds 12- to 20-inch rainbows.
Trout, Idaho
Trollers caught numerous rainbows during the spring fishing derby at Lake Pend Oreille, but only a few in the 15- to 19-pound plus class, Smith said.
Many anglers kept the rainbows and Mackinaw trout they netted. However, a lot of fishermen released the fish they hooked. Smith said they haven’t been convinced by the Idaho Fish and Game Department that it’s necessary to decimate the trout population to save the kokanee.
Spiny rays
Lake Coeur d’Alene is one of the best lakes in North Idaho to catch smallmouth bass, Smith said.
Numerous smallmouths to 18 inches in length have been caught the last couple weeks. Most of the bass that fishers have kept have been 12 inches or longer.
He said an angler caught a 5-pound 2-ounce smallmouth during a derby and released it.
He said smallmouths are plentiful in many parts of the big lake, including off Silver Beach and in Squaw and Beauty bays. He recommended fishermen cast crank baits in crawdad brown and perch colors in 8 to 10 feet of water.
Numerous lakes in Eastern Washington are yielding spiny-rayed fish. Bass fishing has been fair to good at Banks and Moses lakes and the Potholes Reservoir.
Salmon
Shore fishermen can start fishing for chinook salmon and steelhead in the Ringold Springs area of the Columbia River on Monday.
The area is between Fish and Wildlife Department markers one-quarter of a mile downstream of the Ringold wasteway outlet to the department markers one-half mile upstream of Spring Creek.
The daily catch limit is two salmon with a minimum size of 12 inches and two steelhead with a minimum size of 20 inches.
The department expects about 1,600 spring chinooks and several hundred steelhead to return to Ringold during the season which will end July 31. The chinooks are big, weighing 14 to 25 pounds.
Anglers are fishing for hatchery chinooks along the Clearwater’s main stem and the North Fork. The Little Salmon was opened today.
Drano Lake along the lower Columbia has been yielding good numbers of spring chinooks and steelhead. However, fishing pressure has been extremely heavy, with boaters fishing only a few feet from one another.
Trout, Montana
Fishing hasn’t been rewarding for most anglers along the trout rivers in the Missoula area. Streams have been high and off-color.
The most productive has been the lower Clark Fork, but fishers shouldn’t expect much action until the river falls and clears.
Experts have taken trout on parachute Blue Winged Olive mayfly imitations, parachute Adams, Pheasant Tail Nymphs and, as usual, San Juan Worms.
Midges and Blue Winged Olive mayflies have been hatching along the Missouri. However, many fly fishers have been casting San Juan Worms, small bead-head patterns and lead-head Crystal Buggers. Small pink scuds and olive midge emergers also have taken fish.