Hunting & Fishing
Upland birds
The final days of Eastern Washington’s upland bird season likely will end with few hunters along the talus slopes where partridges live and in heavy cover where quail hide.
The season for pheasants closed Dec. 31, but the hunting for partridges and quail doesn’t end until sunset Sunday.
Pressure on partridges and quail has been so light wildlife agents have rarely seen hunters the last few weeks.
Best chukar hunting is in Douglas County near Jameson Lake and in the vicinity of Lenore Lake. Quail are numerous enough in many areas for fair to good hunting.
The chukar population in southeast Washington is sparse, but a few die-hard gunners with good dogs are taking birds.
Waterfowl
The weather has been so mild this winter that big lakes and reservoirs are still mostly ice-free. As a result, most birds are in the upper Columbia Basin.
Usually, big waters are ice-covered by early January and most ducks and geese have moved to the lower Snake and the Columbia rivers. However, ducks are finding plenty of corn and wheat to eat near the Potholes Reservoir and Moses Lake and then rest on the reserves and sometimes the lakes during shooting hours. Geese are flying out early each day to feeding areas, staying a few hours, then returning to big water.
You’d think every goose in the region has become wary of decoy spreads since October. However, many behave as though they haven’t seen a decoy.
Last week, for example, I hunted one of several unharvested wheat fields in the Columbia Basin with a couple of friends. We set out four dozen goose decoys in the field before shooting time, then made simple blinds by draping a couple of pieces of burlap over an upper strand of a barbed wire fence and piling some tumbleweed and long, dry grass behind us.
Flocks of big Canada honkers started arriving at 8:30 a.m. Some were so eager to feed on the wheat they didn’t even circle the decoys. They set their wings and started to land.
We killed 11 by 9:30. We had an opportunity to take the 12th goose, but couldn’t decide before a flock arrived who was going to shoot the final bird for three limits. Then the geese stopped flying.
Those big geese behaved as though they had just arrived in Washington from the remote regions of Canada.
More than a quarter of a million mallards are in Eastern Washington, primarily in the northern Basin.
They have been shot at enough to become suspicious of decoy spreads.
Hunting pressure has been heavy in some areas, particularly on and near the Potholes Reservoir.
Hunters still have plenty of time to hunt waterfowl. Seasons for both ducks and geese continue through Jan. 21.
Steelhead
The Touchet and Tucannon rivers apparently were the hottest spots in the state to catch steelhead the final few days of 1995. Fisheries biologist Art Viola reported 41 anglers averaged 1.9 hours per steelhead along the Tucannon above Highway 12 and 26 people averaged 2 hours along the Touchet above Dayton.
Viola described the fishing as “fantastic.” An average under 10 hours per fish is considered excellent steelheading. When the average drops below 5 hours, steelhead fishing is as good as it gets.
Snake River tributaries could be high and muddy Saturday and Sunday as the result of rainstorms this week.
Fishing was fair along the main stem of the Clearwater River when it opened to catch-and-keep fishing Monday, biologist Ed Schriever said. Anglers averaged 20 hours per fish. The average was 7 hours along the North Fork.
The Clearwater was high and muddy Monday and was running at 17,000 cfs.
Most anglers will fish bait under bobbers and drift bait in holding water from Ice Harbor Dam to the mouth of the Grande Ronde.
Shore fishermen will line up along the banks of Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite. Most will thread shrimp on big hooks and fish the bait under big sliding bobbers.
Although most of this season’s run is now above Lower Granite, enough steelhead are between Ice Harbor and Granite for fair to good fishing. Some have moved up the Touchet, Walla Walla and Tucannon, but many are settled down in holding water and probably won’t move much until spring.
Trout, Washington
Some anglers have been risking cold dunkings and possibly worse by walking out on thin ice at Fourth of July and Hog Canyon lakes.
The ice was still less than 4 inches thick in most places early this week. It was covered with a little snow. The upper end of Hog Canyon has been partially open.
Anglers, fishing from shore and boats, have been catching good-sized rainbows at Lake Roosevelt. Periodically, one hooks a big kokanee.
Rocky Ford Creek, a fly fishing-only stream north of Moses Lake, has been attracting a few Washington and North Idaho fly fishers during relatively mild weather.
Midges and some Baetis mayflies have been hatching. Most anglers, however, have been using scud and leech patterns to deceive the big, wary rainbows.
Anglers have been catching a few rainbows and kokanee at Lake Roosevelt. However, fishing has been slow.
Federal launching ramps are supposed to be closed due to the budget problem, but anglers have been moving barricades at 7-Bays and launching their boats.
Most anglers have been launching at the Indian casino ramp near the mouth of the Spokane River and at the Indian-operated Keller Ferry ramp.
Salmon
Trollers are still catching chinook salmon at Lake Roosevelt, but action “definitely has slowed down the last week or so,” Jeff Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop said.
The lake still is off color as the result of runoff water from the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers.
Salmon are 80 to 90 feet deep, Smith said. He recommended anglers troll herring behind flashers.
Spiny-rayed species
The ice on Sprague was still too thin early this week to support anglers safely. However, a few have been taking chances and have caught perch, crappies and bluegills in the upper end.
Ice on many North Idaho lakes is 3-1/2 to 4 inches thick, Smith said, but rain this week softened the ice.
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