Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for April 9, 2026

Fly fishing

A fishing report from Spokane Fly Fishers said lake fishing has been pretty good. There have been chironomid hatches in the afternoon at Amber. Coffeepot is said to be hit or miss, but some chironomid activity has been reported there also and the trout caught are 16 inches or larger. Dry Falls Lake has produced some nice fish, but the water is low and the fishing is concentrated in small areas. Fishing has been good at Rocky Ford.

The bays on Lake Roosevelt are often neglected by fly fishermen, but fishing these can be very productive and often red-hot for hard-fighting triploid trout. Leeches under an indicator should get you started.

Flows have been on a steady decline on the North Fork Coeur d’Alene recently and Silver Bow Fly Shop says they’ve heard some good reports on the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River when the flows are right, but river levels can change overnight. While these aren’t prime time flows for wade fishing, there is plenty of fishable water at these levels and even more if you’re floating the river.

Fishing is good on the St. Joe. The cutthroat are moving into some stronger currents with the increased bug activity of March Browns and Skwalas. Look for late morning and onwards for dry fly potential. March browns have been the main deal. It is spawning time in the tributaries, so leave them alone for the time being.

Trout and kokanee

Sprague Lake is booting out some very large trout this spring with fish up to six pounds fairly common. Lack of ice this winter kept trout anglers searching for other fishing destinations, so very few fish were removed from the lake.

Waitts Lake is taking up again where it left off last fall with trout fishermen again finding fish by trolling the middle of the lake. A Muddler Minnow with a piece of nightcrawler below a small dodger is finding 12-inch rainbow and larger browns.

Liberty Lake has seen some good catches of brown and rainbow trout. Liberty is also providing some early perch and crappie fishing. The perch are a little anemic-looking as they recover from the spawn.

There is some good rainbow and brown trout action now at the very top end of Rock Lake. Anglers fishing at the launch have been catching more rainbows and steelhead than browns.

The trout bite on Roosevelt has been better than the walleye bite, I cleaned two fish from a Saturday trip, one a magnificent fin-clipped 22-inch triploid full of one-inch crawdads.

Lake Spokane still has a good population of 14- to 16-inch trout, but only bank fishermen are catching any as the lone, normally useable launch at the Little Spokane mouth, has seen very high, fast water, and the rocks just past the launch are still waiting to eat a motor’s lower unit.

Lake Lenore is providing good fishing for large Lahontan cutthroat trout. The fish are preparing to spawn and can be found along the shore in large schools.

Spiny ray

The walleye bite on Lake Roosevelt has been off since last weekend. There were a lot of boats in and around Porcupine Bay on Saturday, but no one was having any luck.

The water temperature at Eloika Lake was 50 degrees on Saturday. A friend fishing there, however, said the crappie weren’t biting. Crappie reports are beginning to trickle in from Fernan, Hayden and Hauser in Idaho, although it’s still a little too cold to trigger the spawn that brings a frantic bite in shallow water.

Walleye in the big reservoirs in Central Washington are starting to bite. The parking lots at the launches on Banks Lake, Moses Lake and Potholes Reservoir are beginning to see a lot more boat trailers.

Largemouth bass fishing has taken off back in the sand dunes on Potholes Reservoir. Swimbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, and Texas rigged plastics are all taking fish. Smallmouth bass are also being taken with drop-shot rigs in deeper water. The rock piles around Goose Island and along the face of the dam are good.

Smallmouth bass are beginning to hit tube baits in 10 feet of water at Lake Roosevelt. Walleye fishermen report also taking some big smallmouth on blade baits. The biggest smallmouth are usually the first to bite at Roosevelt and elsewhere – like Dworshak Reservoir and the Snake River.

A few walleye anglers on the Snake River have been using planer boards with a lot of success. Big Bandit crank baits and Flicker Shad are putting fish in the boat.

Other species

The burbot bite on Lake Roosevelt has died way off except by Kettle Falls, but those fish are said to be larger than most.

The Palouse River channel cats have been slow to stack up on the big mud flat at the mouth. So far, there have been no positive reports for a fishery that is usually booming by this time.

Hunting

The general Washington and Idaho statewide spring wild turkey seasons begins Wednesday. Special youth-only hunts have already taken place, and there have been reports indicating the birds in some areas are still in large flocks. The Idaho youth season began April 8.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com