Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for Jan. 22

Fly fishing

The guides at Silver Bow Fly Shop said Spokane River flows are finally dropping down to a semi-reasonable level for winter fishing. If the forecast holds true, it will continue dropping over the next week.

With a flow currently sitting just under 10,000 cubic feet per second, fishing spots are still limited. But access will improve every day as flows come down.

Typical winter tactics are the way to go. Anglers could try nymph rigs with a stone, attractor, worm pattern or anything with a pop of color, like hot beads or hot tags. Streamers are always worth throwing around this time of year – aim for a slow strip or swung presentation.

If you’re fishing the lower river west of downtown Spokane, keep an eye on Hangman Creek flows. The creek often blows out this time of year and can negatively impact water clarity downstream of the confluence.

Conditions are currently looking good for the North Fork Coeur d’Alene River. Flows are at a very fishable level and there have been some decent reports lately.

Anglers could always try Rocky Ford if you need a fly fishing fix. Scuds, midges, blobs and streamers are all good. Generally, this is the busiest time of year for this fishery. Silver Bow Fly Shop guides suggest anglers bring their own rock to stand on if they’re fishing on the weekends.

Ice fishing

Up north, Williams Lake has a doughnut of ice around a big open area in the middle. One angler was observed paddling a small boat into the open water and was caching some nice rainbow trout.

Curlew Lake has four inches of ice in the big bay between the launch and the island. Anglers there were catching a lot of 9-to-10 inch perch

Sacheen Lake ice is looking a little better this week, but there is still open water in the cattail area by the boat launch. Anglers are catching mostly small perch.

The ice on Bonaparte, Gillette, Thomas and Coffin is good. Anglers are catching mostly perch.

Eloika, Bear and Diamond lakes still have a lot of open water. Fish Lake, near Wenatchee, is usually a popular ice fishing destination in winter, as it has a robust population of perch and trout. Currently, however, the ice is on the thin side and not safe.

In Idaho, lakes like Avondale, Fernan, Cocolalla and Round are not capped with ice. Some of the higher lakes in Bonner County do have ice.

Trout and Kokanee

A party of friends who fished at Hunters from shore said they had nine rods out with a variety of colored Power Baits, but only caught two trout in four hours. The week before, four of the same friends did very well, and that seems to be the story all over the big reservoir – places that are red hot one day are dead the next. Keep moving.

One angler I talked with said he and a friend only caught two trout in three hours trolling all the usual spots between Ft. Spokane and Hawk Creek. They then went to another spot closer to Sterling and caught eight fish in less than an hour.

It has been an unusual winter on Lake Pend Oreille as the water remains high for easy launching and the old excuses – too snowy, too cold, too stormy – are not relevant.

Anglers who last year had to trailer their boats to Hope can now launch at Farragut and Bayview and are pulling Apexes, Rapalas and squid-style plugs for rainbow and mackinaw. Most of the lake trout are suspended rather than hugging the bottom, and many of the rainbow are running 15-to-25 pounds.

Steelhead and salmon

Fishing appears to be decent down south on the steelhead rivers. Flows are still pretty high everywhere but have been stable and clarity looks good. Swinging flies on the Clearwater has been fairly effective this week.

Spiny ray

Lake Roosevelt walleye are being caught from Porcupine Bay up the Spokane River arm.

On some days, blade baits and jigs are effective. But on other days, the only thing that will induce a bite is a swimbait. The fish are holding on the bottom in around 50 feet of water.

Overall, walleye fishermen have recently had a tough time on Roosevelt. The best report came from two anglers across from Seven Bays who caught a dozen by fishing swimbaits in 45 to 55 feet of water. They said jigging and blade baits didn’t produce a single bite.

Other species

Burbot are bending rods on Lake Roosevelt, particularly up the Spokane River arm, though very good reports come from bank anglers near the Kettle Falls Bridge.

Anglers serious about getting into a mess of burbot should be willing to give up a restful night of sleep and hit the water just as it starts to get dark – that’s when they go looking for food.

At night, anglers should make sure that the bait or hardware they use glows, as the soft halo of light helps the fish find your offering. Jig constantly, raising your jig, bait or spoon about three feet and letting it fall, banging on the bottom. Burbot use the noise and vibration to find your lure.

Friends fished for burbot during daylight hours by Buoy 5 this week, dropshotting with a piece of nightcrawler on the bottom hook. They said the fish they cleaned were full of crawdads.

Other anglers have been doing well from shore in spots that are usually full of trout anglers. Fish these spots beginning at sundown when the trout anglers pack up and burbot leave the deep holes and move toward shore.

Lake Coeur d’Alene launches remain good with the higher water. Jeff Smith at Fins and Feathers said pike fishing is “not great” but swimbaits and jerk baits will still catch fish from the weed edges out to about 30 feet of water.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com.