Alan Liere’s fish and game report for June 8

Fly fishing

The Okanogan district’s quality trout fishing lakes have all been performing very well. Anglers have been getting into several fish an hour at the Green lakes northwest of Omak and Aeneas Lake west of Tonasket.

The Big Spokane, North Fork Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe are all high but fishable – just adjust your presentation and go for short drifts with double nymph rigs instead of trying to cover a lot of water at once.

Salmon and steelhead

Spring chinook salmon fishing on portions of the Clearwater River and the Little and Lower Salmon Rivers reopened on June 3. This spring season will target jack chinook in the Clearwater River and adult and jack hatchery chinook in the Salmon and Little Salmon rivers. Fishing will be limited to Thursday through Sunday weekly.

The lower Yakima River is open through June 15 for hatchery spring chinook from the Highway 240 Bridge in Richland to the Grant Avenue Bridge in Prosser and from the Wine County Road Bridge in Prosser to State Route 241 Bridge.

The Skagit River from Hwy. 536 at Mt. Vernon to the mouth of Gilligan Creek will open to sockeye fishing Monday through July 15 with a three-fish limit. Note that the sockeye fishery, along with other fisheries on the Skagit River, are tentatively scheduled to close June 28, 29 and July 6, 7, and 11 to avoid gear conflicts with tribal fisheries scheduled those dates. For updates, check the emergency rule webpage at fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/.

Trout and kokanee

Many of Spokane County’s trout lakes that opened in late April continue to produce good catches. Anglers at Clear and West Medical lakes have been catching decent numbers of rainbow and brown trout. Fish Lake continues to produce good numbers of Eastern brook trout. Badger and Williams lakes are fishing well right now for rainbow and cutthroat trout. Long Lake is seeing good catches of rainbow trout running 13-20 inches. In addition to the trout, it has given up good catches of largemouth and smallmouth bass, and some large perch and crappie.

Stevens County’s Little Pend Oreille chain of lakes – Gillette, Heritage, Sherry, and Thomas – are fishing pretty well, as are Mudgett, Starvation, and Waitts. Cedar Lake in the northern part of the county is perhaps the best trout water in Stevens County, regularly producing limits of fat rainbow trout for boat anglers. Loon Lake night fishing is good in 32 feet of water near Granite Point. In Pend Oreille County, Diamond Lake is starting to produce, as are higher elevation waters like Big Meadow, Skookum, and Yokum lakes. Ferry County’s Curlew Lake offers both boat and shore anglers abundant rainbow trout, plus tiger muskie and large perch.

Two friends who fished Rock Lake recently said limits came quickly for 12- to 16-inch rainbow on trolled Wedding Rings and Smile Blades with worms. They fished up lake with 2.5 colors of leaded line.

Banks Lake anglers are picking up kokanee around mid-lake in the top 15 feet, and rainbow on the surface. Depth will change as the water temperature rises.

Kokanee fishing at Lake Chelan continues to be productive, reports Travis Maitland, WDFW district fish biologist, who said the kokanee are in the 11- to 14-inch range.

Anglers have also been successful targeting kokanee at Patterson Lake in Okanogan County. The upper reservoir in Conconully (Conconully Lake) has continued to produce good harvests of rainbows and kokanee thus far, while turbid runoff conditions have made the lower Conconully Reservoir more challenging. Catch-and-release rainbow trout fishing at Davis Lake in the Methow Valley has been good.

Spiny ray

Downs and Bonnie lakes are beginning to produce some nice perch and crappie. Eloika Lake and Liberty Lake have smaller crappie and perch as well as largemouth bass and brown trout. Unfortunately, Eloika Lake weeds are growing rapidly, and already beginning to form a mat on top. If you can find some open pockets, though, you’ll find plenty of 1- to 3-pound largemouth.

Fishing for smallmouth bass and walleye should continue to improve in the Columbia and Snake rivers. A strong recruitment of walleye two years ago has resulted in thousands of walleye in the lower and middle Columbia River in the 12- to 16-inch size range this year. Anglers are already reporting large catches.

Friends fishing at Northport this week report very good walleye fishing, though there is heavy current in places. They have been launching at Snag Cove and say the water is rising about two feet a day. At that rate, the China Bend launch will be useable soon.

This is a good time to fish Banks Lake for both smallmouth and largemouth bass, most of which have moved up into the shallows to spawn. Not all anglers have success, however. Keep moving and try different lure colors. The bite times and patterns seem to change daily. Big perch and crappie are also being caught now.

Bass and panfish anglers are doing well at Leader Lake and Washburn Island Pond in Okanogan County, reports WDFW Okanogan District Fish Biologist Ryan Fortier. Early morning and late evenings are the best times to target these species.

Potholes Reservoir and Moses Lake are good for smallmouth and largemouth bass now. Walleye fishing should kick in soon.

Other species

A limited retention sturgeon fishery is now open on the lower Columbia River from the mouth of the river to the Wauna power lines on five more days: Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and June 17. Anglers will have a daily limit of one fish measuring 44-50 inches from its snout to the fork in its tail. An annual limit of two white sturgeon, regardless of where they are caught, will also be in effect and anglers will not be allowed to retain sturgeon after 2 p.m. on any of those days.

Anglers taking advantage of the just-opened sturgeon fishery on Lake Roosevelt are taking quite a few keeper-size fish. Good reports come from the water upstream of Kettle Falls.

Channel cats running 2-15 pounds have been attacking cut bait at the mouth of the Palouse River. The fishing has been good all day long.