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Alan Liere's Fishing-hunting Report for Aug. 6 by Alan Liere Spokesman-Review, August 6, 2020

Fly fishing
Area rivers are running warm and fishing usually shuts down after 11:00 a.m. Big hopper patterns are working on the Clark Fork.

Trout and kokanee
Even in the hot weather, Clear Lake in Spokane County is a good fishing destination. Anglers are catching both rainbow and browns and also quite a few small crappie.

Kokanee fishing has been good on Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho, but don’t wait much longer. As the spawning instinct kicks in, adult kokanee migrate up the reservoir. In a typical year, most of these fish will be up around Grandad or even higher by now. However, during trawl surveys last week, adult kokanee were still scattered throughout the reservoir. The fish are running mostly 10-11 inches.

Many northeast Washington lakes stocked with cutthroat trout are good bets at this time of year, especially early and late in the day. Long Lake in Ferry County, as well as Browns and Yokum lakes in Pend Oreille County and Little Twin Lake in Stevens County are all fishing well. Kokanee are also biting in Paterson, Alta and Spectacle lakes in the Okanogan.

Rookie kokanee anglers complain about not being able to catch Loon Lake kokanee at night. During a trip this week, a friend said he wasn’t getting any bites. His fishing rod, which looked the same as mine, had poor balance and was not sensitive at all. When I gave him my 51/2-foot rod, he began catching fish. Other factors that bring more fish aboard are keeping your #8 white Glo-Hook (baited with two or three maggots) within a foot of the bottom, “charging” the hook periodically with a light until it glows green, finding the right depth (currently about 34 feet) and slo-o-o-w-ly raising the rod tip and dropping it quickly. Set the hook at just the slightest “tic” or heaviness, and don’t expect a good bite until 10 p.m. or later.

The high lakes around White Pass, Chinook Pass and Snoqualmie Pass are now accessible to trout fishing. WDFW stocks many small, hike-in lakes with rainbow or cutthroat trout fry, and some also have naturally reproducing eastern brook trout populations. Visit WDFW’s high lakes page on the WDFW fishing webpages.

Salmon and steelhead
Fall chinook and coho fishing opens on much of the lower Columbia River in August, including the popular Buoy 10 fishery, which opens a little later this year on Aug. 14. The preseason forecast anticipates a run of more than 400 fall chinook to the Columbia this year.

Returns of upriver summer steelhead are predicted to remain low again this year, in particular the B-index stock. As a result, the Columbia will remain closed to steelhead in August from Buoy 10 to John Day Dam. Anglers may keep one hatchery steelhead daily from John Day Dam upstream to the Highway 395 Bridge in Pasco.

The Brewster pool sockeye fishery continues strong and the limit has been raised to four. Dave Grove of Captain Dave’s Guide Service says shrimp-tipped spinners behind a Dodger is the staple and has accounted for many chinook as well. To book a trip, text (509) 939-6727.

The Wenatchee Lake fishery opened Monday with a daily limit of four sockeye. According to enforcement officers, the opening day average catch was two fish per boat.

More than 4,700 sockeye were retained the first week of the fishery at Baker Lake, and it is now closed to sockeye retention. . . .