Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for Feb. 20, 2025

Thu., Feb. 20, 2025

By Alan Liere The Spokesman-Review

Tip of the week

Tip of the week: With close to a foot of ice on most area lakes, anglers should make sure the fish on the line has its head up in the drilled hole before trying to lift it onto the ice. Starting your lift too soon will sometimes find a fish crossways at the bottom of the hole, causing the hook to come out as it is lifted.

Heads up: Idaho Fish and Game will be setting new big game seasons for deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, wolf, and mountain lion in March. Hunters can comment on season proposals through Feb. 23 Sunday on the big game season setting webpage at idfg.idaho.gov/comment. On Thursday, hunters may also attend a public meeting from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Fish and Game Panhandle Regional Office, 2885 W. Kathleen Avenue in Coeur d’Alene.

The weight of recent heavy snow on the ice of lakes is causing drilled holes to overflow, mix with the snow and create a messy slush. With the upcoming warmer temperatures and rain, this condition will get even messier. Heavy snow on area lakes has made it much harder to drag loaded sleds and clam-style ice houses. Although the ice will still be thick enough to be safe, you might want to consider rubber boots rather than footwear with more porous material.

Overheard: WDFW has plans to do some research on Diamond Lake to determine if northern pike are indeedin that water, as reported. Regional fish program manager Chris Donley reminds anglers that if they do catch a northern pike, it should be killed.

Fly fishing

Silver Bow Fly Shop said to stick with the standard winter tactics now – dredging double nymph rigs, fishing streamers slow and deep. Rocky Ford is always worth a trip this time of year. Scuds, midges, small baetis and streamers will all be on the menu. Don’t be afraid to mix things up and try some oddball patterns.

The Clark Fork in Montana is a decent option and a good bet for some large mountain whitefish. Small white flies will do the job.

Lakes popular with fly fishers that open March 1 in Grant County are Dusty, Lenice, Nunnally, Lenore and Dry Falls, but don’t hold out too much hope for ice-free water.

Washington ice fishing

Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee, has seen some great ice fishing for perch this winter. A few kokanee have also been taken.

The four Washington winter lakes – Hatch, Williams, Hog Canyon and Fourth of July – are still fishable through good ice. There are at least 8 inches of ice on Hog Canyon and Fourth of July, and more on the other two. They remain open to fishing through March.

A friend said he fished Waitts Lake this week without much luck. He caught two 12-inch rainbow in several hours and noted no one was doing much good. Waitts Lake has been slow for trout fishermen and almost nonexistent for those seeking perch.

Bear Lake, an oft-forgotten winter fishing destination, is open to fishing for juvenile and senior anglers and anglers with a disability who have a designated harvester companion card. Ice anglers there usually target the nice-sized perch, but the lake also has channel catfish and trout.

Corral Lake, a short distance from Potholes Reservoir, is producing decent trout fishing through the ice.

Diamond Lake ice fishing has slowed considerably from that experienced a couple of weeks ago, but there are still perch and trout to be had. An angler this week found a school of perch and put 70-some fish on the ice in a few hours, but that is an exception. Perch of 10 inches are not that unusual, and the rainbow and brown trout usually run 12 to 13 inches and up to 16 inches with some much larger showing occasionally. A friend has had good luck on perch with a small blue or orange-colored Tungsten jig baited with maggots. He only caught three fish in three hours on Monday, but they all bit in a 10-minute window around 4 p.m. on the bottom in 57 feet of water. The fish were fat, egg-laden females of 10 inches, 11 inches and 12½ inches.

Eloika Lake perch fishing has been decent out of the public access, but the better fishing has been in 15 feet of water to the north past the old Jerry’s Landing. Sacheen Lake has been slow for perch anglers. During the summer, I have caught some big perch in the middle of Jumpoff Joe Lake, but now that the ice is here, they have been hard to find. The lake has some big trout in addition to the perch.

Curlew Lake still boots out perch in great numbers, but the water just off the public launch at the state park is not likely to give up big numbers, as that is where most of the effort has been concentrated since the lake iced over. Anglers who do well at Curlew say it is important to keep drilling holes until you find the hot spot. A friend who fished out of Tiffany’s Resort this week said he drilled his first hole and saw nothing on his electronics, then moved 10 feet, drilled another hole, and the bottom three feet was packed with perch. He and two others iced more than 170 fish, including five 12-inch rainbow trout.

Idaho ice fishing

Anglers fishing at Bronze Bay on Spirit Lake say the ice is 7 inches thick, but the kokanee bite has been slow.

Mirror Lake has had a steady kokanee bite. Anglers fishing at 35 to 40 feet down in 50 feet of water say the bite is steady but not particularly fast.

Cocolalla Lake perch have been biting fairly consistently. Ice anglers have made some 100-plus catches of 8- to 9-inch fish recently.

Idaho fishermen are running tip-ups on Hayden Lake for catches of 5- to 8-pound northern pike. A 16-pounder was taken last weekend.

Trout and kokanee

As the water level drops on Lake Roosevelt, trout fishing appears to be improving for trollers and bank fishermen. At 1,277 feet above sea level, launches are still usable except the ones at Hawk Creek, Napoleon Bridge and Two Rivers.

Steelhead and salmon

The Grande Ronde River has been full of slush with shelf ice around Boggan’s Oasis, but the warming trend will improve steelhead fishing there as well as in the Snake and the Clearwater rivers.

Spiny ray

Blade baits around the mouth of the Kettle River are taking some good-sized walleye and fairly good numbers of eating-size fish.

Other species

Early morning or night is best for burbot fishing on Lake Roosevelt, and anglers concentrating their efforts during these times are finding some good fishing at the mouths of creeks as well as in much deeper water near Two Rivers. Burbot are still on the menu through the ice at Davis Lake, also in early morning, but more so from evening into the night. Fishing was slow this week. The morning/evening ice fishing time periods are also prime at Bead Lake, which has some big mackinaw as well as big burbot.

The whitefish season is open on the Little Spokane River from the Highway 291 bridge upstream to Chain Lake. The daily catch limit is 15 fish of any size, and whitefish gear rules apply (one single-point hook, maximum size 3/16-inch point to shank – hook size 14). The whitefish season is also open on the Kettle River in Ferry/Stevens counties with the same gear rules. Small flies and micro jigs are good, especially when sweetened with a maggot or two.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com