Alan Liere’s fish and game report for July 13

Fly Fishing

Morning sessions on the Spokane River have been good with droppers under big foam dries or just double nymph rigs. There is still some streamer action as well. The North Fork Coeur d’Alene has slowed considerably, but the St. Joe is still a good option. The larger bugs have worked well, but some anglers are getting fish on smaller stuff like caddis and Yellow Sallies.

The Clark Fork is a good option right now. Go early, or stay late, says Silver Bow Fly Shop in the Spokane Valley. During midday, fish the shade. This time of the year a foam bug with a pmd, caddis, or Royal Wulff trailing off the back is solid as dry fly fishing improves.

The North Fork Clearwater is very good right now, as is Kelly Creek. Golden stones are the fly of choice. The Kootenai River is also a great summer option.

Salmon and steelhead

Spring chinook daily counts at Roza Dam on the Yakima River have declined substantially and the season has been suspended.

Retention of summer chinook on the Columbia ended briefly June 30, but that changed this week. An updated run size is now predicting a larger run of the summer chinook, giving anglers in the lower river almost 1,300 more fish to catch through July.

Chinook anglers are finding fish in the Brewster Pool, saying the bites come in flurries.

Brads Superbaits in both the mini cut plug and the Original Superbaits are popular trolled roughly 15 feet off the bottom. The daily limit is two adult chinook.

The sport harvest share of chinook in the Lochsa River will be caught by the end of fishing hours today and the fishery will close. Chinook fishing remains open until further notice on the Little Salmon River, Upper Salmon River and in Hells Canyon.

The Baker Lake sockeye fishery in Whatcom County is off to a slow start, but there is a lot of participation and fish up to 9 pounds are being caught. The most consistent producing trolling depth is in the low to mid 30s. The fish are scattered throughout the lake, so there is no need to join the armada of boats usually congregated in one spot.

The sixth annual CCA Wenatchee River Salmon Derby will be held this Friday and Saturday with a mandatory driver’s meeting today at 6 p.m. at the Eagles Hall on Wenatchee Avenue. Entry fee is $60. To register online and learn all the details visit wenatcheesalmonderby.com. The next big Washington derby is the 12th annual Brewster King Salmon Derby, held Aug. 4-6. There are only 275 tickets sold for this derby and they sell out every year. Ticket sales end on July 31. Register online and get all the details on the derby by visiting brewstersalmonderby.com.

Fins and Feather’s annual “Big One” chinook derby on Lake Coeur d’Alene runs five days, July 26-30, with the first place fish worth $5,000. Chinook fishing has been slow so far this month on the big lake, but as Jordon Smith at Fins and Feathers says, “Someone’s gotta win.” Entry fee is $30 per person.

Trout and kokanee

A report from a Twin Lakes – the one near Rathdrum, Idaho – indicates the kokanee are running larger than usual this year in the 13- to 14-inch range. Trout fishing has also been excellent for trollers going three colors down. Both rainbow and brookies are hitting.

Waitts Lake is as close to a sure thing for a limit of trout as you can find during the hot weather. Troll an orange fly and dodger on about three colors of leaded with a 25-foot leader in 40 feet of water. The average rainbow has been larger than the average brown this summer.

Bonaparte Lake in Okanogan County has been good for rainbow – none under 12 inches – and some as large as 3 pounds. The area around the Boy Scout camp has been good.

Lake Roosevelt trollers are catching plenty of the small planted rainbow, but kokanee fishing has been terrible. One excellent Roosevelt kokanee fisherman said he spent 16 days camping at Keller and had in over 60 hours fishing for kokes. He caught a total of four. There is still a lot debris in the water.

Trout anglers at Potholes Reservoir are raving about the aerial antics of the large rainbow there. Many 3- to 5-pound fish have been taken recently.

Friends who fished Hayden Lake for kokanee recently said they expected larger fish. Some of their catch was around 13 inches, but a fair number were less than 10 inches. Fishing was slow.

Loon Lake kokanee have been cooperative for trollers on the west side of the lake. The night bite for still-fishermen has been up and down. For this, the east side has been the most popular, although a friend did very well this week in the bay south of the island.

Lake Coeur d’Alene kokanee are around 9 inches long. The north end of the lake has been productive.

Spiny ray

The Columbia River Walleye bite continues strong. The current is slowing down and fish are spreading out, which allows the boats to do the same. Bottom walkers and spinners with worms will do the trick.

Leader lake Okanogan County is full of bass, blue gill, crappie, perch, and planted rainbow trout. The crappie are a respectable 10-11 inches.

A friend who spends a lot of time on Lake Coeur d’Alene says he caught and released seven pike recently between 5-9 pounds and had follows from much larger fish. He said all but one pike came on a spinnerbait. Fish were caught in 8-15 feet of water using a very slow retrieve.

Silver Lake largemouth are being found in the reed beds in the middle of the lake on the east side. Texas-rigged worms have accounted for some good-sized fish.

Other species

Sturgeon fishing has been good on Lake Roosevelt out of the Kettle Falls area. A lot of legal fish (38-63 inches fork length) have been taken. The limit is one per day and two per year.

Hunting

WDFW is seeking comments on proposed alternatives for 2018-20 hunting seasons and has scheduled several meetings in July and August to discuss proposals with the public. The alternatives will be posted by July 17 on WDFW’s website at wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/seasonsetting/, where people can comment on the proposals through Aug. 31.