Hunting + fishing

Fri., Oct. 16, 2009

By Alan Liere spokesmanliere@yahoo.com

Tip of the week

Hunters must learn to adapt to the presence of bears and wolves, and proper handling of game is essential to avoid conflicts with these carnivores. When a deer or elk is killed and cannot be packed out immediately, the gut pile should be placed on a tarp and moved as far away from the carcass as possible. Then the tarp may be used to cover the carcass. If the carcass must be left in the woods overnight, the hunter should place clothes or articles with human scent around it and place it so it can be seen from a distance when he returns.

Braggin’ rights

Chase Heaton, 16, of Spokane, fishing out of Spokane’s Inland Empire Bass Club staged a come-from-behind victory at the State Junior Bass Tournament on Moses Lake to take the title with a total of 27.46 pounds in the 15-18 age group. In the 11-14 age group, Tanner Boday, 11, from Moses Lake, fishing for the Tri-Cities River Runners in his first state tournament, had an impressive 23.30-pound two-day total of smallmouth bass. Both young winners go to the Western Divisional in Arizona in May.

Heads up

Beginning Sunday, the bag limit for adipose fin-clipped steelhead in several Northeast Oregon waters will increase from three to five fish per day and will remain in effect through April 15 in the following areas:

•Grande Ronde

River from the Oregon/Washington state line to the mouth of the Wallowa River;

•Wallowa River from the mouth to Trout Creek; and,

•Imnaha River from the mouth to Big Sheep Creek.

•In the Snake River from the Oregon/Washington state line to the angling deadline below Hell’s Canyon Dam, the bag limit will be five adipose fin-clipped steelhead of which no more than three may be 32 inches total length or greater. Idaho and Washington have implemented similar regulations in the Snake River and tributaries.

•Effective Thursday, the Columbia River closed to the retention of all salmon between the Highway 395 Bridge at Pasco and Priest Rapids Dam. All salmon must be immediately released unharmed and cannot be removed from the water prior to release. Anglers will be allowed to continue to fish for and retain hatchery steelhead between the old Hanford town site wooden power line towers and Priest Rapids Dam through Thursday. Angling for hatchery steelhead from McNary Dam to the old Hanford town site wooden powerline towers will remain open after Thursday.

Fly fishing

Several fly fishers were having a heyday catching Lake Roosevelt rainbows this week by launching their float tubes at Hawk Creek. They were using fast-sinking lines and muddler minnows.

Trout and kokanee

Many lakes scheduled to close Oct. 31 are producing good catches in the final weeks of the season.

Spokane angler John Petrofski and his friend Matt fished Amber Lake recently and had non-stop action “for trout of all sizes.” They fished early.

Lake Roosevelt trout fishing is smoking, according to George Orr, the Washington Fish and Wildlife commissioner from Spokane. He and three friends launched out of Fort Spokane and caught their limits in a few hours on Wednesday. Orr said their fish were “16-18 inches, really thick and really pink.”

Angling effort on Coeur d’Alene in recent weeks has been primarily for kokanee. Fishing has generally been good with lots of small fish, which indicates an abundance.

Steelhead and salmon

The Snake River is fishing well, particularly downstream from the Salmon. Drifting bait and trolling plugs has been equally effective. The fish are running about 50 percent hatchery. Clearwater steelheading is fair. Fish are still coming from the confluence, but nothing like a couple of weeks ago. Steelhead harvest fishing season opened Thursday on the Clearwater River upstream of the Memorial Bridge. Most Clearwater steelhead are the larger B-run fish, and the daily limit, unlike most other rivers this year, is two rather than five. The Grande Ronde is good for fly fishermen as well as bait and hardware anglers. The water is low.

The Yakima River salmon season is scheduled to remain open through Thursday. Effort and catch have picked up.

Spiny ray

Members of the Chapter 57 of Muskies Incorporated fished the Pend Oreille River under windy conditions last weekend, each boat taking at least two pike. They noted the number of bigger fish seems down from previous years.

Bass are really coming on at area lakes. The recent cold weather evidently triggered the bite.

Other species

Clam diggers got the go-ahead to proceed with the first razor-clam dig of the fall season starting today. Evening digs are scheduled at Twin Harbors (today through Monday); Long Beach and Copalis (today through Sunday); and Mocrocks and Kalaloch Beach (today and Saturday). Digging at all beaches will be restricted to the hours between noon and midnight.

Anglers are catching sturgeon from the Wauna powerlines upstream to Bonneville Dam. Joe Hymer, WDFW fish biologist, said fishing should pick up with the arrival of the fall rains.

Hunting

Dave Ware, WDFW game manager, said he expects about 120,000 hunters to turn out Saturday for opening day of the modern-firearms deer-hunting season. Hunting seasons for ducks and geese, which begin the same day, will likely draw out 30,000 more, Ware said. The eastern Washington waterfowl season runs through Wednesday, then picks up again Oct. 24 through Jan. 31.

WDFW Columbia Basin district wildlife biologist Rich Finger said the outlook for the opening weekend for ducks is good. “Given the recent relatively cold conditions, waterfowl hunters can expect large numbers of early season migrants now such as green-winged teal, American wigeon and northern pintails,” he said.

Taverner’s, cackling geese and lesser Canada geese are already staging by the thousands in the Stratford area north of Soap Lake. Their numbers will build as high as 30,000 by the end of October. These geese will focus their feeding efforts on harvested wheat fields in the area.

Reminder: Cougar hunting will be closed in six Washington counties during the statewide deer-hunting season that begins Saturday. This delays the general cougar hunt with modern firearms until Oct. 31 in Chelan, Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille and Klickitat counties.

WDFW’s Dana Base reminds hunters that the first of many deer harvest check stations of the season will be conducted Sunday on Highway 395 just north of Deer Park. The check station is voluntary, but Base strongly encourages hunters to stop, whether they’ve harvested game or not, to help the department build information about the season and condition of deer.

Deer hunting in the south end of eastern Washington should be fair to good. WDFW district wildlife biologist Pat Fowler of Walla Walla says mule deer populations are stable along the breaks of the Snake River and in the lowlands. Although white-tailed deer populations have declined in some areas, the population overall is still strong and will offer excellent hunting opportunity.

Jim Hayden, Panhandle Region Wildlife Manager for IDFG said it was “kind of a run-of-the-mill opening weekend” for Idaho elk hunters. There was a drop in bull success rates through the St. Maries check station, but only a slight drop at Enaville. The coming weekend could be tough – just three days of either-sex hunting this year with soggy weather predicted.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com