Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for Jan. 18
Fly fishing
With the cold temperatures, Rocky Ford Creek will be about the only option for any trout fishing this week. Fishing reports have been mixed but were not that good even before the subzero weather set in. The Rocky Ford never freezes, though, so if you need a fly fishing fix, that and the Spokane River will be about it.
Open water fishing
The Colville Tribe recently released 800 triploids at Seaton Grove on Rufus Woods Reservoir and another 800 at the state park above Grand Coulee Dam. The fish weighed between 3 and 6 pounds. Most anglers are catching two categories of fish at the lower end of the reservoir, either 12-inchers or others that are 2½ to 3½ pounds.
It is doubtful you’ll see ice on Rock Lake as it is deep and kept open by strong winds. It is a good winter fishery, though, and there is often decent rainbow trout fishing from shore at the primitive launch.
Anglers are finding some walleye in Porcupine Bay and up by jigging dark jig heads with green plastics in 40 to 50 feet of water. Many of the fish have been between 16 and 18 inches.
Ice fishing, Washington
Some of the Washington lakes at higher elevation, like Sidley, near Oroville, and Bonaparte, near Tonasket, have had safe ice for a few weeks. Bonaparte has a huge variety of fish including kokanee, tiger trout, brookies and mackinaw. It is a deep lake, but some of the best fishing is in 30 feet of water or less.
Pend Oreille Chain Lakes, Gillette, Thomas and Coffin all have good ice and similar fishing. The predominant species is perch, but there are also crappie and trout. A friend and I tried Thomas on Monday, but we evidently got there too late. Another angler said he arrived at dawn and fishing was steady for 8-inch perch until 9:30 a.m. when the bite died. The drive to Thomas from Spokane takes almost as long as the drive to Curlew Lake.
The Thomas Lake access usually isn’t too bad if the snow has been knocked down. There’s a steep slope right at the water that is difficult to navigate when coming back tired and cold. Gillette Lake is much easier to access, especially if it’s plowed, but Gillette, I’m told, doesn’t fish as well as Thomas. Coffin Lake has a block-long steep hill that can wear you out on the trip back to the vehicle.
Ice fishermen on Curlew have been hauling out buckets of nice-sized perch from the state park area where there are 6 inches of good ice. The ice depth is not consistently that much everywhere on the lake, however, as there are places that took a lot longer to freeze.
There was only one angler testing the ice when I stopped at Jumpoff Joe Lake on Monday. He hadn’t done much fishing and the ice appeared to be about 3 inches thick. The little lake has brown trout and jumbo perch as well as rainbow. Most anglers fish to the right of the public access. It is a shallow lake with the deepest water in the middle at about 20 feet.
Silver Lake is full of small perch and is a good place for a catching fix. It’s a great place for kids. Go out and to the right from the public access and begin fishing in 29 feet of water. For bait, perch eyes are tough to beat.
Waitts Lake ice is good and fishing has been fair to good out from the public access and slightly to the right. Usually these trout are on the bottom, but are sometimes suspended 10 or more feet off the bottom. Jigging spoons and maggots as well as Power Bait are working for trout 13 to 16 inches long.
Diamond Lake is capped with ice, but it may not be thick enough for fishing by the weekend. The more snow we get, the longer it will take to become fishable.
Eloika Lake ice has firmed up nicely and ice anglers are taking some decent-sized perch and largemouth bass. There is no minimum size, but bass between 12 and 17 inches must be released. One over 17 inches may be retained, and there is a five-fish limit.
Banks Lake is frozen all the way across. Most of the ice is 4 inches thick, but there is an area in the middle that had less than 3 inches on Tuesday. Often, there is good perch fishing in the boat basin at Coulee City.
Ice fishing, Idaho
Hauser Lake had 7 inches of ice earlier in the week and anglers were taking fair numbers of good-sized perch. Blue Lake has 9 inches of good ice with 4 inches of snow on top. Ice anglers were catching a few crappie, but they said that according to their electronics there were a lot of finicky fish surrounding the bait. Freeman and Upper Twin have good ice but so far, but only small perch are being caught. Fernan and Avondale are also ice-capped. Fernan has the most variety of fish including big channel cats as well as spiny ray and rainbow trout.
Ice on Mirror Lake is good and anglers fishing for kokanee are getting a few. Cocolalla Lake ice is also good. Perch and trout are biting fairly well in the morning, but the trout bite picks up as the day progresses.
Hunting
Waterfowl hunters have until the end of January in some Idaho areas. The season closes Jan. 28 in Washington. Other than that, only chukars remain open in both states until Jan. 31. Snowshoe hare, cottontail rabbit and red squirrel hunting season remain open through March 31 in Idaho. In Washington, hares and rabbits are open through March 15.
Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com