Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hunting and Fishing

Alan Liere, Correspondent The Spokesman-Review

Opening day, Washington

Up to 300,000 men, women and children will cast their lines on Saturday’s Washington lowland lake fishing opener. They’ll be after some of the 21 million stocked fish. WDFW Fish Biologist Chris Donley said this could be one of the best fishing seasons in a long time in the central district of the region.

“The fish I’m seeing in my pre-opener testing are nice and fat,” Donley said. “The biggest problem may be deciding where to go.”

According to Donley, these are your best (but by no means your only) bets for the opener:

Spokane County: Badger, Clear, Fishtrap, Williams and West Medical lakes.

Cutthroat trout in Williams Lake are 10-13 inches and the rainbow trout are 12-15 inches. There are also many larger carryovers and some triploids nearly 2 pounds. Badger Lake has 10- to 13-inch cutthroats and 10-to 15-inch rainbows, plus carryovers and triploids. West Medical’s rainbows are running 12-14 inches with carryovers up to 20 inches. There are also some nice brown and tiger trout in West Medical.

Fishtrap Lake has 12- to 14-inch rainbows and lots of carryovers up to 20 inches. Clear Lake has a variety of sizes of rainbows and browns, plus some nice largemouth bass.

Don’t forget Amber Lake, which shifts to a catch-and-keep season Saturday. Amber has many fat rainbows near 20 inches. Selective fishery rules still apply, but anglers will be allowed to keep two trout, 14-inch minimum. There are a lot of cutthroat up to 16 inches in Amber, and a lot of rainbow more than 20 inches. Anglers may not keep any fish from Amber with a clipped adipose fin. These are triploid rainbow, and biologists are interested in seeing how big they will get.

Other Spokane County suggestions are Fish Lake for eastern brook trout and tiger trout; Downs Lake for rainbows, bass, perch and crappie; and Liberty Lake for rainbows, browns, and both largemouth and smallmouth bass.

Stevens County: Lakes at the north end of the region that aren’t usually as crowded have some good fisheries. WDFW fish biologist Curt Vail said Cedar, Starvation and Waitts lakes are good picks.

“Starvation will produce lots of limits of rainbows in the first week of the season,” Vail said. “Cedar Lake will also produce well and has some rainbows in the 18-inch range. Jumpoff Joe Lake is usually a good bet for brown, rainbow and brook trout, plus perch and bass.”

Waitts may be the best overall since it has large brown trout and net-pen-reared rainbows as well as the rainbow stocked directly from the hatchery.

Pend Oreille County: Top lakes will be Marshall and Yocum, both stocked annually with cutthroat. Browns, Mystic, Noname, Muskegon and Pettit are also good choices for cutthroat. Browns is a fly-fishing-only spot. Bayley Lake is another fly-fishing-only water on the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge, but it’s suffering from less-than-normal water levels. Anglers who traditionally like to fish for cutthroats in the Little Pend Oreille chain of lakes will find most of those aren’t doing well because of infestations of spiny ray infestations.

Ferry County: Curlew will be best, although it’s actually on a year-round season. Between the annual rainbow fry stocking and the rainbow net pens on Curlew, it produces lots of catches in the spring and summer. Ellen Lake was treated to get rid of trout-competing species last year. Although it was restocked with some catchable-sized and a few surplus broodstock rainbows, it will be better next year.

Columbia County: In the south end of the region many fishing waters are either year-round or they opened last month. They continue to receive hatchery trout plants. Curl Lake may not be open Saturday because of repair work under way on its dam.

Grant County: Several traditionally good fishing waters in the Columbia Basin open Saturday, and WDFW Fish Biologist Jeff Korth said most won’t disappoint opening-day crowds. Deep Lake should provide a good catch of rainbow trout from the 5,000 fingerlings and 5,000 catchables stocked there. Deep’s 40,000 kokanee fingerlings will provide catches of 8- to 10-inchers in early summer.

Tiny Perch Lake is one of the most consistent waters in the Basin, Korth said, with limits of 11- to 12-inch rainbows generally the rule.

Trout harvest at Vic Meyers Lake should be good, with the 2,000 rainbow fingerlings and 1,000 eastern brook trout fingerlings stocked last year running 12-13 inches. Another 2,000 half-pound rainbow catchables were added to Vic Meyers this spring. Anglers can expect a few winter carryovers in the 15- to 16-inch range, especially with the tiger trout stocked there.

Warden Lake should provide action on a variety of sizes of trout. It was stocked with the usual 70,000 rainbow fingerlings last year, but yearling survival is expected to be fair. Fingerling to yearling rainbow growth, however, will probably be good, and yearling trout should range from 12-13 inches on opening day. An additional 25,000 10-inch rainbows were added to ensure good catch rates. Warden also has a fair number of 15-inch-plus carryovers, and there are also some large brown trout.

Blue and Park lakes may be the least productive this season because of competing species and the fact that fewer catchable rainbows were available for stocking.

Douglas County: Jameson Lake should be a good choice for 10-inch yearling rainbows and 13-inch carryovers.

Conconully Lake and Reservoir are both receiving catchable-sized rainbows to bolster last year’s fingerling plants. The Conconully Trout Derby is scheduled for opening weekend, Saturday and Sunday, with prizes for big fish for both adults and kids. Call Conconully Chamber of Commerce, (877) 826-9050, for more information.

Fish Lake was just rehabilitated last fall so it gets 12,000 catchable rainbows to provide some action for the opener.

Carryover fish in Big Twin Lake were winter-killed again, so it just received triploid rainbows up to 2 pounds each to salvage fishing there. Anglers are reminded that Big Twin is under selective gear rules and a one-fish daily catch limit.

Blue Lake, another selective gear fishery, should be a prime spot since it was rehabilitated two years ago. Most rainbows there are big triploids and the brown trout are 14 inches or longer.

Alta Lake should be good for 13- to 15-inch rainbows from last year’s stocking. Davis Lake is also good, but it is catch-and-release. Patterson and Pearrygin lakes near Winthrop will produce 8- to 10-inch rainbows and some larger carryovers. Once it warms up, Wannacut Lake will produce 10-inch yearling rainbows and carryovers up to 18 inches.

Fly-fishing only Chopaka Lake has rainbows up to 17 inches. Check the fishing rules pamphlet carefully since many of these and other lakes have special rules to maintain the fisheries.

Idaho fishing

Snake River smallmouth and sturgeon are bending rods from Lewiston to Hells Canyon Dam. Dworshak Reservoir smallies are also on the bite, and the kokanee angling gets better each day.

Lake Pend Oreille’s 60th annual K&K Derby kicks off this weekend and runs through May 8. Info: (208) 263-0424 or (208) 265-4830.

Coeur d’Alene kokanee are starting to bite near Eastpoint on the south end, said Jeff Smith at Fins and Feathers. It should only get better for 11- to 12-inch fish. Smith notes that smallmouth fishing on Coeur d’Alene is good. Tube jigs in the north end, from either boat or shore, are nailing fish.