Greetings from the Inland Empire! I'll have to translate from Spo-ka-neeze into English for you...
First of all...it snowed here briefly in Spokane yesterday, but we're still going to have a dry summer and fall. Fishing has been very good and for those of you who have the time, I would suggest an early trip this year to your favorite stream or lake. The lakes are down 4-6 feet already. Amber Lake has been producing some nice fish. The more successful have been fishing a bionic worm under a strike indicator(bobber):-) Vladmir's green wooly bugger would do just fine but it needs to get into the deeper channels, as the larger fish seem to be holding toward the bottom. Rock Lake is fantastic! Huge brown trout. Best fished with a full sinking line using a wool headed sculpin imitation in olive. Best to fish the left side of the lake to avoid the pinnacles that can do some serious damage to boats. Deep lake. Spokane River is off and on. With the rain, yes, you heard me...rain here in the Spokane area, the tributaries have been spewing brown silt into the river. But the fishing is best in the early evenings using a BWO #16 or #18. A bead head prince works very well in the deeper slots. Coffee Pot Lake is...well...marginal. It's been pounded since the opener this month, but the quality of rainbow is staggering. These are very large fish! What seems to be working best are chironomids fished about 6-10 feet under the surface. I prefer to "bottom-up" (that's not Spokaneeze to finish one's beer)the midge pupae with my sinking line. Crab Creek does well anytime. Got to do some walking, but there is some BLM land over here that has access to the creek and the rainbows will take a #22 midge pupae or mini-bugger with a hot orange bead head. Gotta sneak up on these fish though, as they can feel the vibrations as the herds of fishermen close in on them. Good tech fishing! Lenore Lake is where you should be. Right now. The lake hasn't turned yet and the Lahontans are spectacular. If you like leading a dog around on a leash, then you'll love Lenore. Both of my friends went over there last weekend and one had 19 and the other had 35 fish on in one day's fishing. They were between the islands and the south end using small buggers, chironomids and soft hackles with tremendous success. Clark Fork put out a 6lb rainbow yesterday between Sloway and St. Regis. Again, the fly dejour is a BWO. The willows and eddys hold some really nice cutts and the deeper slots should be fished with a beaded nymph to get down. There are shuttles available just about anywhere from Superior to St. Regis. Check out Al's pickeled herring roadside stand just out of Superior :-) A final note: Look's like we may have a new MT record. On 2/1/05 a 31lb 11 oz brown trout was caught out of Clark Canyon on 4 lb test line! It was 35.5 inches in length. Ya sur ya'betcha! Al Peterson ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.
