Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for July 3, 2025

Thu., July 3, 2025

By Alan Liere The Spokesman-Review

Tip of the week

Tip of the week: Idaho has thousands of mountain lakes that can provide fair to excellent fishing all summer, and many of those lakes are not all that high. Some even have roads leading to them. Many are accessed on good trails and others require only a short hike. A good strategy is to find an area with a cluster of lakes, so if one lake isn’t producing good fishing, another is nearby. Don’t assume that hiking farther will improve your odds of catching fish, because most mountain lakes don’t get intense fishing pressure. A closer lake may have outstanding fishing for a lot less effort than a distant one. Information on lake stocking is no secret. You can find it in Fish and Game’s Fishing Planner.

There are also more than 2,500 high mountain lakes in Washington. For a pristine, uncrowded fishing experience, go to https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/locations/high-lakes and look for the list called “Getting started lakes.” These will all be high mountain lakes and ponds supporting fish populations. You can choose from different counties with directions included.

Overheard: Idaho Fish and Game has teamed up with the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation to provide loaner rods and tackle at several Idaho state parks. Each of these participating parks has 16 rods available to check out for free, along with fully stocked tackle boxes. If you are interested in the State Park Fishing Equipment Loaner Program, visit the Idaho Fishing webpage, Idaho State Parks and Recreation, to see if the park you are considering is participating.

Heads up: The following activities are restricted on WDFW-managed lands in Eastern Washington: Fires or campfires, including those in fire rings, and discharging firearms for target shooting or other purposes, aside from lawful hunting, unless otherwise posted. Target shooting is permitted daily from sunrise to 10 a.m. through Aug. 15 only at the Methow Shooting Range and the Asotin Creek Shooting Range. Fireworks are prohibited year-round on all WDFW-managed lands.

Harvest is closed for adult chinook salmon on the South Fork Salmon River in Idaho. The fishery will remain open from July 3 to 6 through Sunday for jack-only harvest.

Montana hoot-owl restrictions are in effect on the lower Madison River from Warm Springs BLM day-use area downstream to the Jefferson River, and on the Sun River from the mouth of Muddy Creek to the Highway 287 Bridge. They remain in place on the upper Madison above Hebgen Lake.

Braggin’ rights: The 2025-2026 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp – commonly known as the Duck Stamp – is on sale, as is the Junior Duck Stamp. Painted by Adam Grimm of Wallace, South Dakota, the new Federal Duck Stamp will raise millions of dollars for habitat conservation. Grimm’s third Federal Duck Stamp designed for the U.S. Department of the Interior features a pair of spectacled eiders. The 2025-2026 Junior Duck Stamp raises funds to support youth conservation education. This year’s stamp features a northern shoveler painted by 18-year-old Catheryn Liang of Texas.

Fly fishing

The Spokane River is seeing good dry/dropper fishing. The Spokane always fishes well late into the evening during the summer. River levels are low for this time of the year, so wade fishing is no problem, Silver Bow Fly Fishing said.

The North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River is still a decent option. Consider dropping down your tippet size and using smaller flies. Hopper fishing is getting close. The inner tube hatch is ramping up, so early mornings will be best. The St. Joe is good and should stay that way all summer.

Reports from Browns Lake, northeast of Cusick, indicate rainbow and browns to 18 inches are hitting olive Willys near the east end.

Trout and kokanee

Anglers tossing Power Bait from shore have caught fair numbers of 10- to 12-inch rainbow trout at Fan Lake. The best bite has been in the evening, which, unfortunately, is when the mosquitoes also begin biting.

Hot weather is again sending trout in area lakes into deeper water and has made early morning and late evening the most productive times to fish. At these times, the fish will often be seen feeding on insects on the surface, and a dry fly on top can be more effective than a worm or Power Bait down deep. On Williams Lake, however, the hole in front of Tree 11 is still a good option for a single size 14 hook and a salmon egg.

Cutthroat, rainbow and eastern brook trout are biting during the edges of light in many smaller lakes in Stevens County’s Little Pend Oreille chain and at Davis, Ellen, Empire and Fish lakes in Ferry County.

Seven miles northwest of Tonasket, Spectacle Lake is producing rainbow trout and kokanee. Troll the middle of the lake about 25 feet down.

Steelhead and salmon

There are still a lot of coho salmon in the Icicle River, but they haven’t been cooperative of late.

Sockeye season opened Tuesday on the upper Columbia River above Priest Rapids Dam, but anglers are seeing fewer fish than expected. The sockeye are a couple of weeks late and the numbers that have passed over Bonneville Dam are half the 10-year average for sockeye. It is not known if the run is a lot smaller than expected or if the salmon are just delayed for some reason.

The Baker Lake sockeye season opens Sunday with a limit of four . More than 64,000 fish are returning to the Skagit River and then down to Baker Lake, so fishing should be good. The early morning bite on Baker is usually best in the first hour or two after sunrise.

The sockeye salmon season on Lake Wenatchee typically begins in late summer and runs into early fall. For 2025, the dates are not confirmed, but the season generally starts around mid-August and can extend through September. The 2025 Lake Wenatchee sockeye forecast is 94,000, which is well above the spawning escapement objective of 23,000 at Tumwater Dam.

Marine Areas 3 (La Push) and 4 (Neah Bay) open for all salmon on Friday. Concerns linger regarding low returns of certain chinook stocks, but early forecasts suggest a robust pink salmon run in Puget Sound.

Spiny ray

Friends have had good walleye success lately out of the Northport launch. The walleye bite on Long Lake has been decent, but weeds are becoming a problem. The perch bite is good.

On Lake Roosevelt, walleye anglers say the bite has been “decent but not particularly fast” in the Spokane Arm, but friends jigging for walleye with a worm added in about 10 feet of water near Keller caught almost two dozen between 16 and 20 inches last week.

Other species

For the week ending June 22, the Dalles check station on the Columbia River recorded the moat pikeminnow turned in for rewards with 125 anglers submitting 1,191 fish. Boyer Park on the Snake River was second with 492 pikeminnow turned in.

Over 3 million shad have passed Bonneville Dam, but although the run is slowing down, there is still good fishing there and below McNary Dam.

Silver Lake tiger muskies were putting on a show this week at Silver and Newman Lake. One angler reported six “takes” at Silver with two fish landed. A Newman Lake angler said casting from boat to shore brought three fish to the net.

Channel cats are biting on the Snake River in 20 to 30 feet of water. Nights are best and the action picks up as the weather warms. Use cut bait or nightcrawlers.

Hunting

This fall, 18 hunters will have the chance to hunt white-tailed and mule deer on the 6,000-acre Charles and Mary Eder unit of the Scotch Creek Wildlife Area, located just east of Oroville in northeastern Okanogan County in GMU 124. The drawing is open to everyone and provides six archery permits, six muzzleloader permits and six modern firearm permits. The application period is July 15 through 31 and closes at 11:59 p.m. Those interested can apply through the WDFW website.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com