Hunting and fishing

Fri., Nov. 26, 2010

By Alan Liere spokesmanliere@yahoo.com

Tip of the week

Most Lake Roosevelt anglers tip their flies with a piece of nightcrawler, but if you leave them out overnight, even in a worm box or cooler, they’re likely to freeze in this weather. A closed Styrofoam carton of worms will keep for months in the refrigerator, however. It may not give you any points with Thanksgiving guests, but it sure saves the disappointment of arriving at the lake with no bait.

Braggin’ rights

It took Spokane taxidermist Dale Moffat and his 42-year-old son, Tom, four years to draw a Montana whitetail tag, but they made the most of it last week near Havre. Dale shot a fine 4x5, and the next day, Tom killed an even larger 5x5 in a raging blizzard, crawling to within 80 yards of the bedded deer.

Overheard

• The Idaho Fish and Game Commission recently adopted new seasons and rules for 2011-2012. A major change was to make year-round fishing seasons the rule rather than exception. Those waters with special seasons will now be listed in the brochure as exceptions.

• This spring, Idaho conservation officers will begin working on a new way to sniff out wildlife crime by “employing” a black lab to work in wildlife crime investigations. Training for the dog and the handler will be provided by Indiana Department of Natural Resources. When finished, the dog will aid Fish and Game by identifying more closed season, unlawful possession and over-limit violations, thereby allowing conservation officers to locate more evidence, more efficiently in the field. Tracking skills can help locate lost or injured hunters, locate violators and prove some cases, such as trespassing.

Heads up

• The EWU Fishing Club announces its first fundraiser, a wild game and fish all-you-can eat barbecue on Dec. 3rd from 5-9 pm at the EWU Student Union Building, N 10th and Elm St. in Cheney. There will be raffles as well as seminars on bass and steelhead fishing, backcountry elk hunting, and Potholes duck hunting. Price is $10 for adults and $5 for children. All proceeds benefit the EWU Fishing and Hunting Club, whose goal is to provide sporting outdoor opportunities to students. Info: Nick Barr, (360) 485-9462.

• Although it seems that every time you turn around, Fish and Game is reminding you to file your big game harvest report, there is a reason. It takes time to collect reports and turn them into a useful report for the Game Commission, which uses this, together with winter herd counts and other biological information, to set hunting seasons early in the new year for the fall. To report on your deer, elk, and/or pronghorn tag in Idaho, go to http://fishandgame.idaho.gov or you can call 1-877-268-9365. In Washington, go to http://wdfw.wa.gov/ or call 1-877-945-3492. Have your Wild ID number ready.

Trout and kokanee

Area winter lakes Hog Canyon, Fourth of July, Williams and Hatch will open Wednesday after being closed for rehabilitation last year. Fish biologists Chris Donley and Bill Baker have sampled the lakes and said anglers will be pleasantly surprised. Hog Canyon, Hatch and Williams trout are running 10-15 inches. Fourth of July fish will go as big as 17 inches. There are lots of them. There was no ice on any of the lakes when fished, but anglers are advised to keep a watch on the 10-day forecast. If the cold weather holds, ice fishing on opening day is a possibility, especially at Hog Canyon.

Lake Roosevelt anglers report excellent success for some of the larger rainbows as well as wild sheep sightings between Lincoln and Sterling Point. Long-lining mono and plugs has been just as effective as dragging flies on three colors of leaded line. Pink Apexes have also been good.

A Spokane bank angler on Roosevelt said it took him four hours to get to Lincoln, one hour to catch a limit, and three hours to get home. He was using green marshmallows.

Rufus Woods is kicking out a lot of tagged 2-3 pound fish as well as a few larger ones that have been in the impoundment longer. Dark-colored jigs in 10-15 feet of water are doing the damage near the net pens.

Nasty weather is affecting participation in the Lake Pend Oreille Thanksgiving Trout Derby. As of mid-week, Roy Stokes of Post Falls led the adult division for rainbow with a fish weighing 15 lbs, 13 oz. For adult mackinaw, Dave Ivy of Sagle led with a fish weighing 10 lb, 3 oz. Ivy is also second in the rainbow category with a fish of 13 lbs, 12 oz. No fish were allowed to be weighed in on Thanksgiving.

Salmon and steelhead

Steelhead anglers are doing well now on the upper Wenatchee River, but a lot of the fish caught are wild. The Methow, too, is providing decent fishing.

The Clearwater River is coming back down after last week’s storm and fishing pretty well, though participation is understandably low. From the Salmon confluence to Hells Canyon Dam has been good.

The best steelhead fishing has been on the Salmon River from the Middle Fork to the Lemhi River, where anglers are averaging a fish every six hours.

Anglers are averaging one steelhead for each 11 hours of fishing in the Hanford Reach. Catch and harvest is well below the 2008 and 2009 November. Steelhead angling is fair in the Columbia River above the John Day Dam and in the John Day Arm.

Spiny ray

Walleye anglers fishing the full moon at Keller did not do particularly well this week. The few who braved the weather reported quite a few fish, but nothing of size. Most bites were at 50-60 feet.

Perch aficionados may want to keep an eye on shallow Eloika Lake, which was forming ice around the edges at midweek. If the cold snap continues, this may be one of the earliest ice fishing seasons, and the initial bite at Eloika is generally one of the strongest of the season.

Other species

In general, the sturgeon fishing on the Lower Columbia from the Wauna powerlines to Bonneville Dam has gone as cold as the weather. Out of 117 sturgeon bank anglers and 24 boat anglers sampled recently from Bonneville Dam downstream to the Wauna powerlines, no legals were kept.

Hunting

IDFG biologist, Jim Hayden says the Priest River deer check station shows better results for hunter success this year than last, with pressure down and harvest up. He says 11.9 percent of the hunters checked brought in a deer compared to last year’s 7.3 percent.

No one has reported seeing big numbers of unwary mallards in the Columbia Basin, but a friend in Moses Lake says there is a good-sized flock of northerns feeding in his cornfield. Hopefully, when the big migration arrives they will find open water.

Idaho 2011 licenses, tags and permits go on sale at 11:01 p.m. PST, Tuesday, except for the nonresident Selway B elk tags which go on sale at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Nonresident hunters can buy their licenses and tags at Fish and Game offices, any license vendor, or by credit card by calling 1-800-554-8685. They can also buy them online at the Fish and Game Website at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov. Big game hunters can find more information on the sale and purchase of tags for residents and nonresidents on pages 92-96 of the Idaho 2010 Big Game Seasons rules booklet.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com