Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for April 24, 2025
Fly fishing
Silver Bow Fly Shop said March Browns and Nemouras are still the dominant dry fly hatches on the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene, where fishing has been good, but keep an eye out for the Gray Drakes in the coming weeks. Midday has been providing the best hatches. The St. Joe has also been good.
The local favorites, Medical, Amber and Coffeepot lakes, have been fishing steadily for rainbow trout. Leeches, chironomids, callibaetis, damsels, water boatmen, daphnia (blobs) have all been popular among fly fishermen.
Bayley and McDowell Lake on the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge in Stevens County offer decent rainbow trout fishing with good access for fly fishermen. Both lakes also have brook trout.
Omak Lake has been attracting fly fishermen hoping to catch one of its huge Lahontan cutthroat this spring. To fish Omak you need a Colville Tribal fishing licenses, Reservation Use Permits and Boat Launch Permits. It may be difficult to launch large boats at Mission and Nicholson beaches.
Trout and kokanee
The 2025 Washington Trout Derby opens Saturday, the Washington opener, and runs through Oct. 31 at more than 100 stocked lakes. The 10th anniversary edition of the derby is the biggest, with more than 100 participating businesses offering nearly 1,100 donated prizes, which will be handed out to anglers who catch a tagged trout. Winning derby trout will have an orange tag attached near a fin. Keep the tag to claim your prize.
District 2 WDFW Biologist Randy Osborne said his preseason sampling suggested Williams Lake is going to be hard to beat on the opener. Cutthroat are plentiful and are averaging 15 to 16 inches, and it looks like a good carry-over rate on the rainbows as well, with fish ranging from 13 to 17 inches.
Osborne said Badger Lake should also fish well, as it has lots of rainbows and cutthroat in the 11- to 13-inch range, with some larger and some smaller. Kokanee did well over the winter with some running about 12 inches. By late summer, those fish will probably be in the 16-inch range.
As in years past, Clear Lake should also be productive. From preseason sampling, rainbows were ranging from 11 to 17 inches, browns were ranging anywhere from 10 to 22 inches, and although fewer, tiger trout in the 15-inch range are also available.
For those wanting a little more solace on opening day, Fishtrap Lake may be a good place to go. The lake has been stocked with catchable size rainbow (10 to 11 inches), a handful of jumbo rainbow (18 to 21 inches), and some nice carryover rainbows in the 16-inch range will also be available. Osborne said Fish Lake will give up a few trout, but it won’t be the best as the lake is loaded with 6-inch perch.
Northeast Washington lakes received thousands of catchable trout plants in the past couple of months, in addition to the fry and fingerlings from last year that are now expected to be around 11 inches on opening day. Larger carryover fish stocked in previous years are 16 to 18 inches and larger. Rocky, Starvation, Cedar, and Waitts lakes should all be fishing well when the season opens. A plant of 15,000 brook trout and over 70,000 rainbow trout will be planted at Deer Lake. Fishing should be excellent. Frater Lake, near Colville, has three species of trout and usually has good fishing. It received 1,500 catchable rainbow last week.
West Medical, Badger, Williams, Clear, Diamond, Jumpoff Joe and Waitts have all been sweetened with jumbo rainbow. Anglers might also consider Mudgett Lake.
Substantial plants of catchable rainbow trout were made in late March and mid-April in numerous Chelan County Lakes such as Fish, Clear and Roses, and in Beehive Reservoir.
Spectacle Lake in Okanogan received a tiger trout plant of 836 fish weighing three fish to the pound.
Both Conconully reservoirs, Patterson Lake and Jameson Lake will provide good fishing. Expect rainbow trout and kokanee in the 10- to 12-inch range with carryover fish to 15 inches at Conconully.
Park Lake in Grant County will receive around 34,000 catchable rainbow this year. It is a popular opening day lake.
Spiny ray
Idaho anglers don’t generally get as excited about opening day as those in Washington because the Clearwater and Panhandle waters are home to many lakes that never close.
Many of these have good fishing from shore. A few of the best are Round in Bonner County, Hauser in Kootenai County and Dawson in Boundary County, all more noted for spiny ray than trout.
Washington anglers note that while the walleye bite is fair to good in lakes such as Potholes, Moses, Banks and Long, largemouth bass fishing has really ramped up, particularly in the Potholes sand dunes. Roosevelt smallmouth waters are not quite warm enough for fishing to take off, but more fish are being caught there each week.
Eloika Lake crappie fishing reports continue to trickle in. While the trickle is slower from Liberty, Newman, Hayden and Fernan, warming water is ramping up the bite.
Hunting
Idaho Fish and Game has set waterfowl hunting dates and regulations for 2025 and 2026, and 50 controlled tags will be available for swans. The application period runs May 1 to June 5.
Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com