Fishing Report

Upland birds

The region’s pheasant hunters will know by Saturday afternoon whether wildlife biologists were right when they predicted hunting will be much better than last year.

Idaho hunters in the Panhandle can start shooting roosters a half hour before sunrise, but Washington hunters will have to wait a few hours longer.

Washington gunners can start hunting partridges and quail throughout the eastern part of the state at noon Saturday. The early partridge season ends today in southeast Washington.

Because the pheasant broodstock population was small, the birds weren’t able to produce a “bumper” crop of chicks. At best, there are about the same number of birds as there were three or four years ago.

As usual, the most productive areas in Eastern Washington will be in south Whitman County and Garfield, Columbia, Walla Walla, Grant and Yakima counties. Average number of cocks killed in the three top producing counties in the state: Whitman, 16,130; Grant, 20,046; and Yakima, 26,205.

Idaho biologists believe pheasant numbers are up in much of the Panhandle. Most productive areas are in Nez Perce, Latah and Benewah counties.

Washington hunters should do well on partridges and quail, especially along the Columbia River breaks in Grant County and near Lenore Lake southwest of Coulee City. Hunting has been fair to good in southeast Washington during the early partridge season.

Although a high percentage of prime upland bird habitat in Eastern Washington will be posted with “No Trespassing” and “Leased Land” signs, hundreds of thousands of acres will be open to those who ask for permission to hunt.

Waterfowl

Duck hunting was nothing short of terrific when the season opened last Saturday along the Coeur d’Alene River Wildlife Management area, Phil Cooper, spokesman for the Panhandle region of the Idaho Fish and Game Department, reported.

The manager of the area, John Nigh, told Cooper the opener was the best in 10 years. More than half the ducks checked were wood ducks, followed by widgeon and mallards.

Pressure along the Coeur d’Alene management area was heavy. Cooper also said hunting in the Denton Slough near Sandpoint was outstanding, with green-wing teal and mallards providing most of the action.

Idaho scatter-gunners have been shooting geese since Sept. 28 and ducks since Saturday, but those in Washington will start their long season Saturday at noon, when both ducks and geese become legal.

Only a small percentage of the hunters will take limits of ducks, but the average kill should be considerably above those of the last two or three years. Most serious hunters already know there are thousands of ducks and geese throughout Eastern Washington.

Best time to hunt locally raised ducks is during opening weekend. Birds that are shot at the first few days of the season will rapidly become wary. Most will gather together in large flocks and sit on big water during shooting hours.

Then duck hunters will have to wait for the arrival of “northern” birds for good shooting again. The northerns, most of which migrate out of Alberta and Saskatchewan, will start arriving about the second week of November.

Most of the prime duck and goose hunting spots in Eastern Washington have been leased by clubs, but there are still many places where freelance hunters can get good shooting.

Bull elk, Idaho

The general bull elk season opened Thursday in most of North Idaho’s game management units. Cow elk will become legal targets Tuesday.

Deer, Washington

This should be a great year for teenagers and senior citizens in the Spokane region. Every licensed hunter 16 or younger or 65 or older can, without a special permit, kill a whitetail doe in game management units 105 through 142. Only a license and a deer tag are essential.

There are exceptional numbers of whitetails in most of those units. Fish and Wildlife Department officials have stressed that only whitetail does can be taken by the young and old hunters.

Unlike bird hunters, Eastern Washington’s deer hunters won’t have to wait until noon Saturday to try to fill their tags. Deer will become legal targets a half hour before sunrise.

Steelhead

The steelhead run up the Clearwater River won’t be big enough this season to brag about, but the river almost certainly will attract large numbers of anglers when the catch-and-keep season opens Tuesday.

There had been some speculation that the run would be too small to support consumptive fishing and that the Idaho Fish and Game Commission would decide to permit only catch-and-release fishing this fall. However, the commission has taken no action.

Regional fish manager Tim Cochnauer of Lewiston said the catch-and-keep season will open on schedule, even though biologists feel certain this year’s run will be small again, perhaps not quite as small as last year’s.

The B-run fish are starting to move over Lower Granite Dam, Cochnauer said. The Fish and Game Department will try to assess the run next week and then make decisions as to whether the consumptive season will continue.

Cochnauer said fishing has been spotty in the Snake above Lewiston. Some anglers reported doing well, but most say fishing has been slow. Spin fishermen and fly fishers have hooked some steelhead in the Snake below the mouth of the Grande Ronde River.

The Salmon has attracted large numbers of steelhead because the water temperature has been considerably lower than the Snake.

The steelhead run up the Columbia River system seems to have topped out at 200,000, about the same as last year’s run. About 80,000 have started up the Snake River and more than 60,000 have been counted at Lower Granite.

Only 3,200 have been counted at Wells Dam.

Salmon

The so-called “upriver bright” chinook salmon - never really bright - are not only dark, but their flesh is starting to deteriorate as their spawning time approaches. Consequently, many who fish the Columbia River’s Hanford Reach are having the fish smoked to create some taste to the near-tasteless meat.

The salmon are still fun to catch. They have enough power left to break fishing lines and to force anglers to follow them downstream, sometimes long distances.

The run is peaking. More than 200,000 have been counted at Bonneville Dam and 70,000 have moved past McNary Dam.

Fishing has been good for experienced anglers. For example, Spokane’s Don Ostlund and a friend caught their limits last Friday and Saturday. They caught most of the salmon on herring.

Ostlund said he hooked an 8-foot sturgeon, but he and his partner couldn’t get it up to the boat and he finally cut the line. He said anglers using lures meant for chinooks have been hooking sturgeon.

Trout

Lenore Lake southwest of Coulee City might be a good place to spend a few hours this weekend. The Lahontan cutthroat, most 20-26 inches long, are gorging themselves on scuds, mayfly and damselfly nymphs, leeches, water boatmen and anything else edible.

If you’re a fly fisher, consider using patterns that simulate scuds, small mayfly nymphs and leeches. Because aquatic weeds are just beneath the surface in most good fly-fishing areas, a floating line is the best choice.

If you use spinning tackle, try trolling a leech pattern or small lure, such as a Mepps spinner.

Another good spot to catch big cutthroat is Idaho’s Henry’s Lake. A Coeur d’Alene angler, who fished the lake last week, said the average size of fish fly fishers have been catching has been 5 pounds.

Green Drake and Gray Drake mayflies, as well as caddisflies, have been hatching along the Bitterroot River from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily, Brian Ramsey of Grizzly Hackle at Missoula said.

Fishing has been tough along the lower Clark Fork and Rock Creek.

Spiny rays

If you want to catch some good-sized perch, crappies and bluegills, fish the shallow water at Sprague Lake. Monika Metz of the Sprague Lake Resort said two men, fishing in the upper end of the lake a few days ago, caught five 12-inch perch and a fairly large number of 10-inchers, as well as crappies and bluegills.

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