[7919]

PM me if you are interested in going out and fishing the spokane this afternoon/evening.

the fish are real pretty right now.

 

[Mumbles]

Nice looking fish Dustin. Drove through Spokebeckistan twice last week and wondered where you might be fishing.

 

[Luke77]

They sure are! Nice red band Dustin.

 

[7919]

Nice looking fish Dustin. Drove through Spokebeckistan twice last week and wondered where you might be fishing.

the fish are pretty scattered and I have not fished it at all this summer so I dont have it dialed in. Flows are a little higher then expected, but still very good. you can fish the river almost anywhere but I pretty much only fish the lower river. It can be good in the tailwaters below upriver damn as well.

 

[orangeradish]

You get around, sir. Well done.

 

[Blake Harmon]

Prlly caught you a little late. Let me know if you wanna get at it tommorrow afternoon

 

[Jmills81]

Dustin....give me a ring 509-993-3646...I can be home soon to join you if you call me

 

[7919]

hey i dont have a phone right now. im about to leave for the gun club! maybe i will see ya

 

[rwbailey05]

Im down to hit the river up anytime. Hit me up with a PM and we will figure this out. Be nice to hit the water after work sometime

 

[Stewart]

Ain't that a bitch... not that I really had time today anyway... Nice fish! I think they're dropping the lake level on CDA so the yard boys can go clean the undersides of the docks.

 

[Tarkin]

In town all this week. Probably see you down there if you're around. Hit it up Sunday, not much going on, so I'll definitely give it another shot later in the week. Water levels still below 2000. Definitely fishable. Fish just need a few days to settle in sometimes. How did it go tonight?

 

[7919]

Didnt touch a thing tonight. It is fishable up to about 15k cfs in my opinion. i found some sweet spots for the 5k cfs flows

 

[TYTLINZ]

im down to fish the Spokland anytime, let me know next time ya go.

 

[luv2fly2]

is the river open from state line to west of spokane? i did not fish it last weekend cause i was not sure. mike w

 

[7919]

its probably open but mostly bass!

 

[Tarkin]

I've never seen it as low as it was about a month ago. It was actually dropping several times to around 400cfs for an hour or so, must've been working on the dam or something. I would think that would be devastating to the trout population on the Spokane. There are enough troubles on that river without strangling the flow intentionally. I discovered spots that I've never been able to see before popping up. Another thing that I've noticed is that for the most part, the fish I've caught on the river have been on the larger side. Not bragging, cause bigger fish don't mean you're a better fisherman to me, but I'm wondering if that's a bad sign, that there aren't many juvies in the system anymore to grow into the bigger fish later on and replenish the stock. Just an observation.

 

[TYTLINZ]

I've never seen it as low as it was about a month ago. It was actually dropping several times to around 400cfs for an hour or so, must've been working on the dam or something. I would think that would be devastating to the trout population on the Spokane. There are enough troubles on that river without strangling the flow intentionally. I discovered spots that I've never been able to see before popping up. Another thing that I've noticed is that for the most part, the fish I've caught on the river have been on the larger side. Not bragging, cause bigger fish don't mean you're a better fisherman to me, but I'm wondering if that's a bad sign, that there aren't many juvies in the system anymore to grow into the bigger fish later on and replenish the stock. Just an observation.

I haven't caught any juvenile fish this year either, All I have caught have been 16+. I also didn't see any small fish, lots of good size fish but no small ones. I also noticed and caught a ton more smallies in the system which cant be good either.

 

[Skysoldier]

I also noticed and caught a ton more smallies in the system which cant be good either.

Yep I think you have the answer, smallmouth are fun as hell to catch but can be killer any small fish in the area.

 

[7919]

yEP. it is a very troubled fishery. However, I landed a nice 8" redband at riverside state park. the water is actually alot higher then i expected it to be. i dont know how devastating the 400 cfs flows are. I imagine any fish in the system simply moves a bit, and what was the status of the reds at that time??

The problems are so hard to adress though. the real solutions would be creating some sort of natural filtration system on the storm overflows pipes, and to create some sort of physical fish blocking barrier at the post falls damn. I think if the smallmouth problem was taken care of by a blockage (seems impossible at 50k cfs though, no idea how one might work) and a bounty placed on smallmouths starting now. Also, increased education on redbands and increased enforcement on poachers.

Steps are being made in the right direction in some of these areas and I thank all of the people who are dealing with avista/government on the issue.

It would be nice to see the redbands keep up the struggle and potentially thrive again in the waters where the large columbia steelhead used to devote themselves too!

Could you imagine the spokane with 1000 fish per mile???

 

[TYTLINZ]

Dustin, that would be sweet. I would love to see the penalty for littering increase as well. With the water so low I walk/fished from Sullivan to the islands and the amount of trash i saw was incredible. The beer cans alone would make for some quick cash if some one were to collect them and recycle them. People trash the system its just sad. For a river with one of the best Caddis hatches in the western area its a shame. so much aquatic live to support a heavier population of trout. I also caught allot of cuttbows and only one redband this year.