Hunting and fishing

Fri., Jan. 14, 2011

By Alan Liere spokesmanliere@yahoo.com

Tip of the week

Rubbing a little Chapstick around the inside of the ceramic guides on your fishing rod will help keep them open in cold weather. It won’t last forever, so periodic reapplication is necessary.

Braggin’ rights

Eloika Lake is known as a multispecies winter lake. Colville resident Raleigh Forsyth came close to taking them all on Thursday morning. He caught perch, bass, sunfish, a bullhead, a grass pickerel, a crappie and both a rainbow and a brown trout. Unaccounted for was a bluegill.

Overheard

It’s early yet for the good spring bite, but there have been some big walleye netted recently on the Columbia River near the Tri-Cities.

Heads up

There have been reports of anglers being ticketed at Hog Canyon Lake for continuing to fish after icing trout 14 inches or more. But contrary to reports, recent interviews with the wardens working that lake and Fourth of July indicate there have been warnings but no tickets for that particular infraction.

Reader Phil Clements contacted WDFW regarding the confusion over the 14-inch rule at Hog Canyon. The following is an excerpt from the reply he received: “... the bottom line is this: Nothing in the Washington Administrative Codes (WACs, which are the permanent regulations) state that anglers are required to stop fishing after catching two fish over 14 inches, if those were the first two fish caught. This is not like salmon, where anglers are required to stop fishing after the adult portion of their daily limit has been retained. This lake has a five-fish daily limit on trout, but only two may be over 14 inches. “That does not mean that they cannot continue to fish for the other three – under 14 inches, unless they are fishing with bait. If that is the case, anglers are required to stop after catching five fish – regardless of whether those fish were kept or released. This is due to the higher mortality rate on fish caught with bait because fish usually take baited hooks much deeper into their mouths than hooks without bait.”

WDFW regional biologist Chris Donley offers another take on the matter: “Fishermen need to take some personal responsibility and switch to a plain, unbaited jig after taking their two 14-inchers. The guys who continue to fish with bait are killing most of the fish they release. These are the same guys who will complain a month from now that they can’t catch a decent-size fish anymore from Hog Canyon.”

Not to belabor the issue, but I am appalled by the apparent lack of knowledge and technique regarding the releasing of fish. Too many anglers think if the fish swims away, it will be fine. Not so. If the fish is removed from the water and handled the least bit roughly, or if it is hooked anywhere but the mouth, chances are it will not survive.

Fly fishing

With the current melt, it is unlikely any area rivers will be fishable for several days. The Clearwater is projected to hit 16,000 cfs and the Grande Ronde is expected to go to 6,000 cfs. The good news is that there are plenty of steelhead in the reservoir that will be entering tributaries on high water. When the flows diminish and the water clears, fishing should be phenomenal.

Trout and kokanee

Hog Canyon has experienced good-to-excellent fishing all season. Red salmon eggs seemed to be the offering of choice this week, but anglers are also finding success with small crappie jigs tipped with maggots, pieces of worm or mealworms. The fish seem to be all over the lake in 8-10 feet of water.

Fourth of July Lake isn’t seeing much action, primarily because the ice has never really set up. There are about 5 inches, but it doesn’t look safe.

Williams and Hatch Lake in the Colville area are well-iced and trout fishing has been good.

Lake Roosevelt seldom disappoints, though anglers do report lulls between the lights-out action. Good reports come from Lincoln, Seven Bays and Fort Spokane, with flies and flashers taking a lot of fish. Three colors of leaded line will do the trick. Bank anglers usually have to wait longer for a school to swim by.

Roses Lake in the Okanogan is providing good ice fishing for 10-inch planted rainbow. Also in Okanogan County, Bonaparte Lake is kicking out good catches of 10- to 12-inch brook trout.

Rufus Woods anglers are using a variety of offerings to entice triploids to net. Slip sinkers baited with Power Bait will work by the net pens, but jigging and trolling are also effective. The fishing has been slowly consistent rather than hot.

Waitts lake ice fishermen are taking brown trout and a few rainbow just out from the public access.

Steelhead and salmon

Three friends and I fished the Clearwater River around Orofino for two days at midweek but managed only one bite (it broke off) between us. The old “should have been here yesterday” curse was in effect, as a few days before, fishing had been good.

The Grande Ronde was pretty well iced up before the recent warming trend. When it breaks up and comes down, steelhead fishing should be excellent. The Grande Ronde is a nice river to fish from shore, as it is not as wide as the Clearwater and there is plenty of public access from a mile below Boggan’s Bridge clear to Oregon.

Some winter steelhead should be available from beaches on the lower Columbia for anglers willing to brave the elements. Upper Columbia Steelhead fishing is fair to good in the Pateros area. A high percentage of the fish are wild and must be released.

Spiny ray

A friend and I fished Silver Lake early in the week during the cold snap but managed only a half-dozen perch despite one angler’s report from the day before about 60 fish in two hours. Timing is everything at Silver. The morning bite is best, the afternoon sporadic and the evening dismal. The fish have been biting well during warm fronts following cold snaps, so this weekend should be good. I like a silver and green Swedish Pimple for perch, but a simple Glo-Hook can be excellent when tipped with a perch eyeball, a piece of worm, or a maggot – real or manufactured.

Eloika Lake is more temperamental than Silver, but look for it to heat up with the warming weather. The top will most likely be a sloppy mess this weekend.

In Moses Lake, perch fishermen are reported to be taking some big fish through the ice by the I-90 bridge. Potholes Reservoir is iced over, but there has been nearly no one out.

The Coulee City Marina has been good for perch. The fish aren’t as consistently large as they were three years ago, but with a little sorting, a 25-fish limit of 9-inchers is not impossible.

Other species

Sturgeon angling has been fair for boat anglers in the Bonneville Pool but poor for bank fishermen.

Provided that upcoming tests are favorable, clam diggers will get their next chance to hit the beaches Thursday through Jan. 22 at Twin Harbors and Long Beach. The National Park Service has also scheduled a dig Jan. 21-22 at Kalaloch, located inside the Olympic National Park, to coincide with those at the other two beaches.

Hunting

This may go down as one of the poorest duck seasons unless the current thaw exposes food and entices mallards back into the area. The only decent duck hunting outside of the Tri-Cities is for divers on big water and on some of the Grant County wasteways. Geese, on the other hand, are sticking around. In Moses Lake, the Mesebergs at MarDon Resort are leading clients on phenomenal shoots.

If you want to shoot a pheasant, quail, grey partridge or chukar, Monday will be your last chance this year in Washington.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com