Alan Liere’s hunt-fish report for June 1

Fly fishing

Amber Lake fishing has been good. Dark colored chironomids fished under an indicator have been productive.

Silver Bow Fly Shop guides said the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River has been great lately.

Golden stones, drakes, PMDs and Yellow Sallies are showing in good numbers.

Add a dropper to your golden stone pattern if you are fishing earlier in the morning. Midmorning through evening has been good.

The upper St. Joe River is swift and pockets are limited, but the midstretches and lower runs are good.

A golden stone will get it done, and so will salmon flies, drakes, PMDs and Yellow Sallies. Add droppers to your stones, but don’t give up on streamer fishing.

Trout and kokanee

Friends who fished Waitts Lake this week said the trout fishing is excellent.

The majority were rainbow running up to 12 inches, but they also caught a couple of browns approaching 16 inches.

They trolled three colors of leaded line with a small dodger and a Wooly Bugger fly. The best action was at the south end of the lake.

The kokanee bite is an early morning affair on Lake Chelan.

Anglers launching at Mill Bay said that if you’re not fishing by 5 a.m., you’ve waited too long, as the best bite tails off an hour after that. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different lures until you find out what the fish want.

Night fishing for Loon Lake kokanee should begin producing fish as the weather settles.

With the kokanee running up to 15 inches, still fishing with a light rod and a Glo Hook and maggot will be exciting. Don’t expect quick limits like in years past.

Some nice-sized brown trout are being caught by Clear Lake trollers.

Smaller rainbow were found high up in the water column, but the browns are closer to the bottom.

Fishtrap Lake rainbow are 12 to 13 inches. Anglers are catching them in the narrows. Badger Lake is producing cutthroat and kokanee.

Salmon and steelhead

Fishing for spring chinook on the Icicle River has been tough, but it’s getting better as water conditions improve.

Decent fishing can be had from shore.

Between 7,500 and 11,000 springers are expected to return to the Icicle this year, similar to last year’s numbers, which produced some good fishing.

Spiny ray

Lake Pend Oreille bass fishing has been good. Smallmouth bass over 2 pounds are common, but there are a lot of small ones.

Most caught fish are spawning females, and most of these are hooked within a few feet of shore. A 5-inch Yamamoto Super Grub, Texas rigged, will get it done.

Rufus Woods Reservoir is producing some large walleye for anglers drifting jigs by the first net pens.

If anglers are looking for big numbers of eaters, they would be better off at Lake Roosevelt. Even though most of Rufus Woods walleyes are released, no anglers are complaining about catching 6-pound fish.

Crappie anglers haven’t found much success at Eloika Lake this spring. The crappie beds that usually appear on the east side of the lake are being topped by the emerging dollar pads, which make retrieving difficult.

Largemouth bass fishing at Eloika, however, has been good, as it has been at Silver, Clear, Newman, Hayden and Hauser.

Chelan smallmouth bass are in the postspawn and aggressive fish were hitting Senkos and grubs along the shoreline.

Anglers don’t have to go far from the launch at Loon Lake to find largemouth bass. The lily pads are a good place to start. The smallmouth bite on Loon has been good by the island.

Good walleye fishing is about over in the Columbia River until September as the fish have entered their postspawn and begun to disperse.

Banks Lake is a much better bet for walleyes. Anglers there reported excellent Memorial Day fishing at midlake. Trolled spinners with half a nightcrawler worked well.

Smallmouth bass are hitting tube jigs along the rocks on both the Snake and Columbia rivers, and also on Lake Spokane and at Banks.

The biggest smallmouth are coming from Dworshak Reservoir, but that fishery is winding down.

Priest Lake is good for numbers, but it holds some big ones there.

Chelan smallmouth bass are in the postspawn and aggressive fish are hitting Senkos and grubs along the shoreline.

The Roosevelt smallmouth bite has been slow to develop, but anglers tossing toward shore in rocky stretches are beginning to find some action.

Lake Spokane (Long Lake) walleye are still biting, and some anglers are doing well by trolling plugs after dark.

Anglers report action around Willow Bay, and they also relayed some good perch catches in that area.

Liberty Lake has become more popular with spiny ray anglers than trout anglers. Anglers should try fishing the docks and the lily pads for bass.

Liberty offers decent perch fishing, and the channel catfish bite turns on after dark. Newman has been fair for bass. Senkos in the lily pads will find largemouth.

Coeur d’Alene Lake has seen some good bass and pike fishing at times , but the action can quickly go from steady to zilch. Most of the anglers are concentrating their efforts near Harrison.

Other species

Tiger musky are waking up in area lakes. Action for these toothy fish has been reported from Curlew, Newman and Silver lakes.

Some anglers have begun targeting the big channel cats in Grant County’s Lind Coulee, taking fish as large as 17 pounds. Another channel cat destination that remains productive has been the Palouse River.

Hunting

Overall, turkey hunting success was good in Idaho and Washington with the hunting spread out during the season rather than concentrated in the first week.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com.