Hunting and Fishing

Fri., June 4, 2004

Alan Liere, Correspondent The Spokesman-Review

outdoor insights

Tip of the week

» Frequently check the condition of your fishing line by running your thumb and index finger along the length. If you feel any roughness you should break off above that point and retie your hook. Exposure to the sun will also weaken monofilament line, sometimes making it necessary to discard it all and start over.

Overheard

» Montana has taken the bull trout in Lake Koocanusa off the state's endangered species list, allowing a two fish per year limit for this lake. A free fish card is required.

Heads up

» With May and June being the peak time for Washington and Idaho wildlife to have their young, here is a simple suggestion to well-intentioned people finding baby animals that appear to be abandoned: Leave them alone. Most young wildlife picked up by well-meaning citizens have not been abandoned, do not survive in captivity, and have no survival skills if released later back to the wild.

» •A proposal to treat a stretch of Pend Oreille County's Le Clerc Creek, ridding the waters of brook trout to help recover threatened bull trout, will be presented at a 7 p.m. public meeting June 16 at the Community Center, 107 First St. in Cusick.

» •Gilchrist Pond off Union Flat Road southwest of Colfax, will be closed to fishing 8 a.m. Tuesday to protect trout stocked specifically for the "Fishing Kids" clinic, which begins June 12 at 9 a.m. Sign up through Whitman County 4H (509) 397-6290.

» •Fish for free, that is without need to buy a license, on June 12 and 13 in Washington. The only exception is that you still need to have a catch record card for Dungeness crab, salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and halibut. In Idaho, Free Fishing Day is June 12.

» •From June 16-July 31, the retention of both hatchery and wild chinook will be allowed on the Columbia River from the U.S. Highway 395 Bridge at Pasco upstream to Priest Rapids Dam. The "release wild chinook" restriction was inadvertently included in the Sport Fishing Regulations pamphlet.

» •Catching northern pikeminnows on the Columbia and Snake Rivers is more lucrative than ever. The bounty paid by BPA has just been increased a buck to $5 each for the first 100 pikeminnows. The reward goes up to $6 each for 101 to 400 fish and $8 each for pikeminnow in excess of 400. Info: (800) 858-9015, or www.pikeminnow.org.

Trout

The Spokane area put-and-take lakes are still producing, and could get even better as the weather settles. Diamond is loaded with small rainbow, and Loon Lake is giving up some of its biggest rainbow in years. Fishtrap is good, and the weed growth on West Medical has actually improved fly fishing, according to Steve Moss at Blue Dun Fly Shop in Spokane. He also said Badger and Williams are fishing very well.

The North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene is still high but fishable, Moss says, but he suggests anglers stay above the South Fork for best results. The St. Joe is prohibitively high, but over in Montana, the Missouri has been awesome. With 32 miles of river, it soaks up a lot of anglers.

The Clark Fork was running at about 1,500 cfs and dropping at midweek, according to Joe Contrell at the fly shop in St. Regis. A size-12 Prince Nymph is nailing some good trout there. Info: (406) 649-2566.

If you fish Crab Creek, expect to catch trout, but watch out for rattlesnakes.

Deer Creek Reservoir, the brand new fishery near Pierce, Idaho, has produced very good fishing for smaller rainbow. This man-made, 80-acre lake was planted with 11,000 catchables, and sweetened with some rainbow up to 13 pounds.

Small mackinaw are abundant in Deer Lake this spring. They are running from 20 inches up. Rainbow to 22 inches are still fairly common. For bigger macks, try Loon or head north to Pend Oreille or Priest Lakes.

Guide Rich Lindsey says the mack fishing on Priest is “very consistent,” and on Pend Oreille, guide Kurt Artner of Pend Oreille Charters, reports kams and macks to 15 pounds. He says the water is unusually clear for early June.

Fly fishing on Rufus Woods has been outstanding, but the frequent storms of late have kept pressure down. Cloudy days or afternoons and evenings are the best. Cone-Head Buggers and Egg-Sucking Leech patterns in blacks, browns and oranges have worked well.

Kokanee

Loon lake silvers are biting well on the troll. Good still-fishing is probably a couple weeks off . On Coeur d’Alene, 10-11-inch kokes are abundant in the south end. Some days produce limits, but the average is about a dozen. Dworshak Reservoir kokes are plentiful and about the size of those in Coeur d’Alene.

Salmon

The final count of spring chinook at Bonneville Dam was 170,344 adults and 8,885 jacks. The jack count is 20 percent higher than the recent 10-year average, but still less than half of last year’s total.

A lot of the chinook that have come up the Snake are already past the popular Hog Line at the mouth of the Clearwater. As the numbers of fish over the dams decrease, chances of intercepting a salmon there are minimal. Most of the fish are around Orofino and Kooskia, says Larry Barrett of the IDFG. You’d probably do a lot better fishing the holding pools near the hatchery. If you’re going to fish there, however, Barrett suggests you do it now, as harvest in the Clearwater is at two-thirds the allotment, and most likely, will close June 13.

The South Fork of the Clearwater and the Lochsa would also be good places to try in the next week or so as there are several thousand chinook heading that way.

On the Snake, salmon fishing is open only from Dug Bar to Hells Canyon Dam. Quite a few fish have been taken right at the dam.

Spiny ray

The Memorial Day Bass Jamboree on Banks Lake registered 175 adult anglers and was won by Tony Lind with 15 fish totaling 33.12 pounds. Jeff Boyer was second with 32.10 pounds. Douglas Booth caught the largest bass, 4.7 pounds.

Unseasonably cool weather and high winds have frustrated most fishermen on Potholes Reservoir, reports Mike Meseberg at Mar Don Resort. Stable weather and some 80-degree temperatures are needed to turn on the fishing. Some nice walleye, bass and trout have been showing this past week but limits have not been common. The water level is extremely high.

Moses Lake has been a different story. At Mike’s Bait and Tackle, Mike Graham says the walleye there “have been going crazy” at both ends of the lake. The fish are just coming off the spawn and are hungry, but baitfish have been hiding in the weeds. As these move into deeper water and become more accessible, fishing will slow down. Info: (509) 764-4416.

Sprague Lake walleyes also are biting, reports Monika Metz at Sprague Lake Resort. She says limits of 2-3-pound fish are being taken by trolling night crawler-baited bottom walkers slowly near the bottom.

Walleye fishing on Roosevelt is generally good. The Spokane arm of the Columbia recently opened, and anglers have reported finding lots of small fish. At China Bend, four anglers fished for limits around. Their walleye ran 15-19 inches.

Though the river is high, smallmouth fishing has been good all over the Snake River system, and some good channel cat fishing is available, too. Water has been running over the spillway on Little Goose Dam, and the Palouse is still pretty muddy, but once things settle down, catfishing will be excellent.

At Boggan’s Oasis, Bill Vail says the Grande Ronde smallmouth fishery is still a couple weeks off. The river is running at about 7,000 cfs.

Smallmouth bass in Banks and Lake Roosevelt are still spawning and have been very cooperative. So have the smallies in Moses, Long, and Loon Lakes.

At Eloika Lake, no really big largemouth are showing right now, but fish under 4 pounds are common. The largemouth are through spawning and have moved into deeper water. Jerry’s Landing reports that everything is two weeks ahead of last year, and fish are already being taken at mid-lake on topwaters. Newman and Deer Lake largemouth are also on the bite. Rumor has it that Liberty Lake is giving up some decent crappie.

Sturgeon

Sturgeon effort has been high on the lower Columbia and the Columbia pools with a few legals being taken. On the Snake River, this has been one of the best seasons ever for sturgeon, and the bite continues.

At Darver Tackle in Starbuck, Darcy Darver reports good sturgeon fishing off the Little Goose spillway. Info 866-578-3808.

(Outdoors Editor Rich Landers contributed to this report.)