nwsportsmanmag.com | AUGUST 2019 Northwest Sportsman 111
FISHING
By Mike Wright
A
s summer’s heat descends
on the lakes of Eastern
Washington and North Idaho,
fishing prospects in these areas
becomes severely limited. With the
warmer water, trout feeding habits
change rather dramatically. Just
a few weeks earlier the fish were
aggressively feeding on adult insects
floating in the surface film or coming
completely out of the water to take
flying damsels and callibaetis mayflies.
By August, trout generally head
for the deepest and coolest parts of
lakes, as well as become far more
selective in their feeding habits. The
warmer weather also spurs a rapid
acceleration of weed growth in lower
elevation lakes, often making it quite
difficult to get your gear down to
the levels where the fish are holding
without getting tangled up. Many
also suffer from widespread algae
growth, which can negatively affect a
fish’s appetite and their ability to spot
your lure or fly.
And the number of fish available
is yet another problem. Since thesurvival rate on hatchery trout is not
good during the warmest months of
summer, fisheries biologists don’t
generally stock lower lakes in late
July or during the month of August.
With many of the fish released in
the spring and early summer having
ended up on anglers’ dinner tables
and no replacements sent to the
lakes, the number of fish available
later in the season is reduced.
For the hardcore stillwater trout
fisherman, all these facts paint a
very gloomy picture about this time
of year. However, there is a pleasantSet Your Sights On
Selkirk Trout
Way up in this North Idaho mountain range are a string of stocked lakes
that provide good late summer fishing.
Solitude, scenery and scrappy fish are the rewards for getting up into the mountains for
alpine trout this time of year. North Idaho’s Selkirk Mountains offer a number of glacially
sculpted waters, like Harrison Lake, that are stocked to provide fishing opportunity. (USFS)