Hunting and Fishing

Trout and kokanee

Slow-trolling flies or drifting hootchies and worms on the bottom for Rufus Woods triploids can still bring phenomenal results on some days. The more water over the dam, the better. On Lake Roosevelt, guide Ray Bailey said rainbow and kokanee success are improving.

Anglers at Liberty Lake are still catching good-sized rainbow and brown trout, but persistent winter-like weather has thwarted action on Medical and Downs lakes. Deer Lake is still iced over. Amber and Coffeepot lakes are open and have provided good trout action. Leech patterns in the shallows have worked best at Amber, but the Coffeepot trout seem to prefer chironomids.

A friend fishing Rock Lake from shore at midweek noted that though he caught several 17-inch rainbow, trollers seemed to be catching mostly browns of approximately the same size.

Catch rates were slowed by cooler water at Spectacle Lake in Okanogan County when it opened for fishing Tuesday. “But the fish were a good size, with rainbows averaging 11 to 12 inches,” said Bob Jateff, WDFW district fish biologist in Omak. “A few winter-carryover fish up to 15 inches were also caught. Spectacle should be very good fishing as the water continues to warm up.”

Antilon Lake in Chelan County is usually a good bet this time of year for nice brown trout, but there is still some ice and the lake probably needs to warm up a few degrees. Roses Lake, also in Chelan County, is yielding rainbow to nearly 20 inches, with trollers reporting better luck than still-fishermen

Caliche Lake in the Columbia Basin has been excellent for 10- to 12-inch rainbow. Fly fishermen and trollers alike are taking fish. In Quincy Lake, fishing has also been good and the fish are larger.

Grant County fishing was fair on Tuesday’s season opener, said Joe Miller, WDFW regional fish program manager.

Dry Falls Lake, which is a selective fishery, produced about two fish per rod that averaged 15.6 inches. Several brown and tiger trout were reported in the catch at Dry Falls.

Two selective-gear fisheries that opened March 1 – Lenice and Nunnally lakes on the Crab Creek Wildlife Area just east of Beverly – will be boosted with 1,100 1 1/2-pound rainbows each this month.

The boat ramps at Idaho’s Priest Lake Marina and Indians Creek are free of snow and jiggers are finding good mackinaw action.

Fly-fishermen report good fishing on the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers. On the Yakima River, Jim Gallagher at the Yakima River Fly Shop said conditions are optimum for dry fly fishing. He says skwala stonefly adults are on the water surface in the late afternoon into the evening hours.

Salmon and steelhead

Spring chinook have been drawing large numbers of anglers to the lower Columbia River. Joe Hymer, a fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the catch is the third highest since 1993. Starting Thursday, spills are planned at Bonneville Dam to help move juvenile salmon downriver. “Those spills should also spur more adult salmon to move upstream, and improve catch rates for bank anglers just below the dam,” Hymer said.”

Drawing on 17 years of experience as a fish counter on Columbia and Snake River dams, Verna Foley of Darver Tackle in Starbuck, Wash., said chinook anglers in the upper stretches of the rivers just need to be patient.

Spiny ray

On Banks Lake, walleye anglers are hitting Barker Flats, the north end of the lake near the inlet canal and the area directly across from Coulee Playland Resort for good catches. A few smallmouth are also coming from 25 feet of water. Yamamoto Hula Grubs have been effective for the bass. Some large perch are mixed in with the walleye.

The Spokane Arm of Lake Roosevelt is closed to walleye fishing, but walleye are other places. Fishing is picking up above Kettle Falls. Jim Ebel, WDFW Colville Fish Hatchery manager, said some anglers are catching 14- to 17-inch walleye in 50-100 feet of water.

Other species

Anglers have caught some legal-size sturgeon in the Bonneville Pool, and the fishery is improving from Portland to Longview, Wash., as the river warms.

Lingcod fishing opens off Neah Bay in Marine Area 4 on April 16. The fishery has been open in ocean marine areas 1-3 since March 17.

Hunting

Turkeys are starting to disperse from large winter flocks into small groups and move into more wooded areas at just slightly higher elevations, said Dana Base, WDFW wildlife biologist in Colville. He advises those participating in this weekend’s youth opener to stay below 3,000 feet and focus on south slopes and other sites where the snow has melted.

“I would focus on Ferry and Stevens counties, which have less snow cover now than Pend Oreille County,” he said.

(Outdoors editor Rich Landers contributed to this report.)