Alan Liere’s weekly fish and game report for May 19
Fly fishing
Cutthroat fishing on the North Fork Coeur d’Alene was only fair this past week with light hatches. The drainage has already lost most of its snow pack, so you’d better fish it now before the water gets too low and too warm.
Damsel fly nymphs are prevalent on area lakes now, so that’s a good pattern to throw near weed beds. Adults will by out in a couple weeks.
Caddis and mayfly imitations are enticing Yakima River trout and the golden stones and yellow Sallies are starting to emerge. The river is in good fishing shape.
Trout and kokanee
Badger, Williams, Fishtrap and West Medical have all produced some good rainbow catches this week. Clear Lake is also a good bet for some big browns, and Fish Lake brookies are about a foot in length.
Friends who went to Coffeepot Lake hoping to catch bass couldn’t get their boat through the shallow channel, so they started throwing their spinnerbaits across from the launch. They reported three hours of non-stop action for trout, catching dozens of fish 18-25 inches on the large bass lures.
Wapato Lake in Chelan County is giving up lots of fat, acrobatic trout 12-16 inches long. Best trolling depth has been at around 20 feet.
Trolling for Chelan Lake kokanee has been excellent anywhere from the surface to 60 feet deep. Locations have ranged from the Blue Roof Condos to the Yacht Club.
Following excellent reports last week, rising water and low pressure combined last weekend to throw off the Roosevelt kokanee bite. Now, however, the bite is on again and hootchies and apexes are working equally well.
Loon Lake kokes aren’t as large as those 22-inchers coming out of Roosevelt, but the limit is ten and the bite is fast. A friend trolled two colors of leaded line on Tuesday from just beyond Morgan Park to the highway side and had a limit of 10-inchers in two hours despite losing a dozen fish at the boat. There have been no reports from night fishermen yet at Loon, but the wild roses are blooming, and that has always been my indicator the night bite has begun.
Anglers trolling shallow with Wedding Rings on Waitts Lake are catching lots of 10-inch rainbow. For the 12- to 13-inch brown trout, drop down to the bottom five feet.
Fishing for Lake Pend Oreille macks and rainbows has slowed down a little since the big spring tournament, but the kokanee bite has been “unbelievable” according to guide, Kurt Arnter at Pend Oreille Charters. Most of the fish, which average 9 inches, are in the top 10 feet of water.
The kokanee are much larger this spring at Priest Lake, with most of the fish running 14-16 inches. The best bite has been on the south end of the lake in the Coolin/Outlet area. The limit is six.
In Montana, Koocanusa Lake kokanee are running 8-10 inches with a limit of 50 per day. Many anglers, however, are targeting the big rainbow. Quite a few fish from 13-16 pounds have been netted recently. Info: Koocanusa Resort and Marina (406) 293-7474.
Salmon and steelhead
The limit on spring Chinook in the Snake River has been increased to two fish below Ice Harbor and Little Goose dams as well as near Clarkston. Each of these areas continues to be open two days per week until further notice – Friday and Saturday below Ice Harbor and Sunday and Monday for the other two. There were a lot of trollers on the water near Lewiston on Sunday and a lot of fish being caught. A K-14 Kwikfish with a sardine wrap has been popular.
Idaho’s spring chinook fishing season will close Friday evening on the Clearwater River from Camas Prairie Railroad Bridge to Cherrylane Bridge.
Elsewhere on the Clearwater River, the limit is still one spring chinook, but Bart Jarrett at Northwest Fishing says he has put some big fish in the boat recently and the Clearwater does not have the two-day-a-week fishing restriction.
Reports from the Snake River across from Little Goose Dam indicate chinook fishing has been very good for anglers casting off the rip-rap.
Hatchery steelhead and hatchery jack chinook recreational fishing opened on May 16 in the lower Columbia River from Tongue Point/Rocky upstream to the I-5 Bridge, and spring chinook fishing is now opening on the Icicle River.
Drano Lake anglers are taking fair numbers of chinook both trolling and dunking cured purple shrimp under a bobber.
Spiny ray
A friend who fished Lake Spokane last week said he caught perch, crappie, smallmouth, largemouth, pikeminnow and trout. The trout were 14-16 inches, one of the perch was 12 inches, and a couple of the crappie stretched 13 inches.
Some good-sized largemouth bass are being taken at Diamond Lake this spring and a few anglers have been able to zero in on large schools of 9-inch perch.
Silver Lake largemouth are scattered all over the lake with no one spot consistently productive. There are, however, a lot of 3-4 pound fish available, and the occasional tiger muskie keeps things interesting.
John Petrofski reports that he and a friend fished Rock Lake this week for largemouth, experiencing decent luck until sunset when the fish really turned on. He said that in an hour they caught 15 bass over 2 pounds.
Bluegill are in the shallows at a number of area lakes, though the spawn has not yet begun. Liberty Lake has a huge population of bluegill, but those at Loon and Silver can be considerably larger.
Coeur d’Alene northern pike are in the shallows. A dedicated Coeur d’Alene pike angler says white soft plastic frogs are fooling them.
Relatively unknown and certainly under-fished are the smallmouth bass in Priest Lake. Throwing tubes, plugs or jugs towards shore in rocky areas has been phenomenal for fish up to 4 pounds.
Other species
Clam diggers have one last chance to dig razor clams this season at Copalis and Mocrocks during a final opening running Friday through Sunday. Both beaches will be open on Friday and Saturday and Mocrocks only on Sunday. Morning tides will be good and no digging will be allowed after noon.
Bottom fishing for black rock bass and ling cod has been excellent recently out of Westport.
Shad fishing opened on May 16 from Buoy 10 upstream to Bonneville Dam. As of Wednesday, about 10,000 fish had been counted at Bonneville.
Hunting
The deadline to apply for Idaho deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, and fall turkey is June 5. Hunters may apply at any hunting and fishing license vendor or with a credit by calling 1-800-554-8687.
Contact Alan Liere via email at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com