Spring forth, anglers, before summer starts

Anglers have good reason to relish the moment.

As we brown our way out of a near-record-dry winter – with a regional snowpack averaging 70 percent of normal – some streams could be a trickle, many lakes too warm and a few favorite fisheries could be a bust by midsummer.

But for the next few months, bliss!

Anglers were driving – in cars, not snowmobiles – to the Red Ives area of the St. Joe River at the end of February.

Lake Roosevelt’s annual drawdown to accommodate spring runoff could be minimal this spring. Only five of the reservoir’s 22 boat launches were out of the water this week.

Rivers such as the Coeur d’Alene and Spokane are holding steady at winter flows hospitable to hatches and anglers. Even the spring runoff doldrums are likely to be short-lived.

Pike anglers are hitting prime time for targeting the biggest northerns with bait at the south half of Lake Coeur d’Alene and the chain lakes.

Ice was off early and fish are becoming active feeders earlier than normal in Washington lakes that opened to fishing March 1.

A whopper run of spring chinook is forecast for the Columbia River system, and river flows are likely to be much friendlier than in the past for angling when the fish arrive in the Snake and Clearwater.

That goes for the Yakima, too. Indeed, this may be a fabled spring to fish the Yakima River. The skwala hatch is imminent and there’s little runoff predicted to foul the hatches through spring.

This could be one of the best years in memory to fish the Mother’s Day caddis hatch on the Yakima, said Jack Mitchell of the Evening Hatch Guide Service.

“Last year it started around May 5,” he said. “This year it could start in the last week of April.”

Crab Creek cleansing: A rain-on-frozen ground event in January hammered Crab Creek with a rush of water, said G.L. Britton, who guides fly fishers on a private stretch in Lincoln County.

“The river channel is scoured, and that’s something it needs occasionally,” he said. “But it’s clear the number of trout is down, as though they’ve been flushed downstream and out of the area.”

Killer deal: Some fly fishers are tarnishing their reputation for sensitivity to the nature of river systems.

Washington anglers are being asked – and in some waters it’s required – to kill the fin-clipped steelhead they catch this winter to help thin this season’s bumper crop of hatchery steelhead.

The daily kill limit was raised to four steelhead in some waters. State fisheries biologists are urging anglers to bonk every one of them to reduce the competition with wild fish on the spawning beds.

The alternative: The state may have to reduce the number of steelhead released from hatcheries in future years.

But stories were far too common at the Great Western Sportfishing Show last week about fly fishers who’ve been playing all sorts of “oopsie” tricks to avoid keeping a steelhead on rivers such as the Methow, which has been providing phenomenal fishing.

Some of them said they didn’t want to reach a limit on days when they could easily catch more than four fish. Others complained about the eating quality of the late-winter fish.

One said it was a long way to carry steelhead from where he was fishing back to his vehicle.

Wah! Maybe a fly fishing club should be organized to distinguish these greedy sissies who can’t rise to this season’s urgent occasion. Call it Catch And Release Pompous Purists – CARPP.

Fly fishers need to join the crowd this year: Buck up, stoke the smoker and bonk those hatchery steelies to preserve the precious wild runs.

Perch predicament: Anglers are being asked to take a similar attitude to Coffeepot Lake.

Chris Donley, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife district fisheries biologist, said anglers would do the fishery a favor this year by “taking out buckets full of perch.”

Perch are overpopulated and crowding out the trout and other fisheries, he said.

While rules restrict fishing methods and limit the number of trout and crappie that can be kept at the selective fishery, there’s no limit on perch.

Contact Rich Landers at (509) 459 5508 or e-mail richl@spokesman.com