Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for Oct. 16, 2025
Fly fishing
Trout fishing is still good on the Spokane River. BWO’s, some October caddis, Chubby Chernobyls, double nymph (or Euro rigs), streamers, and soft hackles all work.
Silver Bow Fly Shop says you can still use some terrestrials on the North Fork Coeur d’Alene, but pack your fall bugs like mahogany duns and blue winged olive mayflies. Toss in a few caddis as well. Find the pools and you will find the fish.
The St. Joe River still has good trout fishing. You do not need to go early, but, mornings will find action with streamers or nymphs. As it warms up, there will be some good dry fly fishing. Fall bugs in your box should include October caddis, mahogany duns, blue-winged olives, purple hazes and midges. A rusty or orange chubby with a perdigon dropper can work great in the afternoons.
The North Fork Clearwater and Kelly Creek are still fishing well, though slower than a couple weeks ago. October caddis style orange Chubbies are good, and ants are still producing.
The Kettle River is fishing very well. Anglers are catching a lot of rainbow and whitefish and even the occasional brown trout.
Trout and Kokanee
Clear Lake and Waitts Lake both have rainbows and browns, and these fish are putting on the feed bags now. Clear Lake closes at the end of October, but Waitts is open year-round.
Amber and Medical lakes close at the end of November and also have good numbers of large rainbow and brown trout. Brown trout are moving up in the water column at and Rock Lake. Troll a Rapala on the big shelf straight out from the launch.
Lake Roosevelt rainbow are beginning to hit more consistently. Anglers in several locations from Swawilla Basin and the Goat Farm to Keller are saying there has been a better bite lately. Roosevelt trout always move up in the water column this time of year, so start your day trolling at about 20 feet.
Trout at Blue, Curl, Rainbow, Spring and Deer lakes on the W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area in southeast Washington continue to bite well. Watson Lake has very low water levels.
Steelhead and salmon
The Grande Ronde River around Boggan’s Oasis has been producing some steelhead, but not on a consistent basis. Chinook fishing is sporadic at the Snake/Clearwater confluence with some mornings producing a lot of bites and others producing nothing.
The Lyons Ferry Bubble Fishery, from the red river marker (Marker 28) on the south shore of the Snake River, upstream to the Highway 261 Bridge, is open through Oct. 26, Thursday through Sunday of each week. There is a daily limit of two adult chinook, including no more than one wild adult chinook.
Spiny ray
Autumn anglers at Loon and Deer Lake say bass fishing has been very good – largemouth at Loon and smallmouth at Deer. Loon closes at the end of the month, but Deer is open year-round.
Perch that were found in 12-15 feet of water early this fall are now more likely to be 20-30 feet down in the deeper lakes. Anglers are finding them at lakes like Diamond, Sacheen, Long, Fernan, Curlew, Hauser. Hayden and Twin. In Eloika Lake, which is shallow, perch are always hugging the bottom in the deepest water available – seldom more than 12 feet.
Moses Lake anglers should soon be experiencing some good perch fishing. The I-90 Bridge usually gets productive this time of year and the bottom end of Goat Island has been mentioned in recent reports. For now, the best fishing is in 12 to 15 feet of water.
A variety of Potholes Reservoir spiny ray species are still in shallow water along the northwest side of the Crab Creek Channel, but the larger crappie are deeper and hanging around structure. Bass fishing has been excellent. Walleye fishing is fair.
Walleye fishing is good on Long Lake. Troll above the weeds for fish 15 to 18 inches.
Other species
Summer assessment surveys have shown a relatively stable population of razor clams on Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, and Mocrocks beaches, but Kalaloch Beach won’t be open for clamming due to continuing issues with depressed populations of harvestable clams. The next digs will be Oct. 22, 23 and 26 at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, and Mocrocks and Oct. 20, 21, 24 and 25 at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, and Copalis.
The white sturgeon season on Lake Roosevelt continues through Nov. 30. A lot of fish but very few keepers have been caught this year.
Lake Roosevelt is cooling off, and YJ Guide Service’s Guide Craig Dowdy (509 999-0717) says it is time for anglers there to begin looking for burbot.
Hunting
Waterfowl hunters on last weekend’s Washington opener reported only fair success. Right now, only the local ducks are available, though Canada goose hunters did pretty well on the big birds. The best success was in the Columbia Basin for ducks and geese.
Many hunters do not know it, but there are decent populations of wood ducks in the Pend Oreille, Colville, and Kettle River valleys as well as in the Yakima area and on ponds around Moses Lake. Fan and Eloika lakes near Spokane also have small populations. In northern Idaho, Killarney and other small lakes in the Chain Lakes system have fair numbers of wood ducks, and hunters took some of these colorful birds on opening day.
The general season for eastern Washington pheasant hunting begins Saturday, There will probably still be a number of young birds. Most of the action will be in Whitman County and south of the Snake River. Cover is high and thick in most places. In addition to wild birds, pheasant hunting opportunities are enhanced with releases of farm-raised roosters at sites across the region. Details can be found on the Eastern Washington Pheasant Enhancement Program web page.
Big coveys of quail are living in and around the hillside blackberry patches along the Snake River from Wawawai Canyon all the way to Lewiston. There have also been reports of chukar populations down low, but the wet weather this week will push them up the hills away from the river.
The modern firearm elk season in Eastern Washington runs Oct. 25 to Nov. 2. The best opportunities for elk are in the southeast district of the Blue Mountains. GMU 166 has the highest success rate for general season hunters in recent years, but it gets crowded. Closer to the Spokane area, hunters on private lands in GMU 130 have the most success, but hunting is by special permit only. The best elk hunting in northeast Washington is in the Pend Oreille sub-herd area, which includes GMUs 111, 113, and 117.
Other than those from relatives living near Addy, Washington, I have received zero reports of successful deer hunts. Up there, four young hunters took two spikes and reported seeing nothing any bigger. They said they heard very little shooting. Around my property in unit 124, I haven’t heard a single shot. Blue tongue appears to have wiped out a herd of deer that was finally reaching huntable numbers since the last epidemic. I will not be hunting deer this year.
Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com