Hunting and fishing

Fri., Oct. 21, 2011

By Alan Liere spokesmanliere@yahoo.com

Tip of the week

Cedar cooking planks aren’t just for salmon. Try marinading a venison backstrap or steak in your favorite concoction or just use Italian salad dressing straight out of the bottle. Cook the venison on a plank over charcoal, basting occasionally with more marinade.

Overheard

Through September, an estimated 26,591 adult fall chinook have been caught from the lower Columbia mainstem sport fishery from the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line to Bonneville Dam. That record will increase after the October catch is added. The old record was 26,195 fish caught in 2003.

Heads up

With the advent of the fall chinook salmon fishery, it is possible for an angler to land and keep chinook salmon or steelhead during October in the lower Clearwater and Snake rivers. The present three-day permit must be modified to allow anglers to distinguish between the two kinds of fish when they are harvested and punched on their permits. Three-day permit holders are asked to add an “S” for steelhead or a “C" for chinook to the front of the location code they enter on their tags.

Fly fishing

There is good fly fishing on Hayden Lake for trout and bass, but fish have moved out into the deeper flats. Trout fishing is picking up on all eastern Washington and North Idaho put-and-take lakes.

St. Joe trout are finicky, but small patterns will still get you fish. The entire Clark Fork is on the rise but it shouldn’t have an adverse affect on fishing. Good baetis and mahogany fishing is available in the afternoons from Missoula downstream to St. Regis.

Rock Creek has been fishing excellent the past week for fly fishermen throwing streamers. Brown/yellow combinations are good.

Trout are biting during the middle of the day on the Blackfoot. Morning temperatures have come down, so double nymph rigs with rubber legs and big Princes are in order. Streamer fishing should remain good through the end of the month.

Great hatches of mahoganies and baetis have fish looking up in the afternoons on the upper Bitterroot.

Skating October caddis will net you some big browns on the Missouri River, but you’ll catch more fish using nymphs.

Steelhead and salmon

At 150,000, the 2011 steelhead count at Lower Granite Dam is about 20,000 fish behind last year’s count but only 10,000 fish behind the average of the last five years.

The peak of the fall chinook run has passed over Bonneville Dam, but boat anglers fishing in the gorge continue to average 1.80 fall chinook and 0.50 coho caught per boat. Bank anglers have taken considerably fewer.

Steelhead fishing is good for bait fishermen at Heller Bar on the Snake River, but much slower upriver. The mouth of the Salmon has slowed way down. Guide Tim Johnson of Clarkston said he fished upstream of Asotin recently and did OK. He said 14 of his last 17 steelhead have been unclipped. The Clearwater/Snake confluence has been slow, but fishing is pretty good around Orofino. The Clearwater is producing some nice “B” run steelhead. Grande Ronde River flows are up and fishing is good.

Anglers fishing the Wenatchee River are catching steelhead, coho salmon and chinook, all on the same trip all the way up to Leavenworth.

Anglers are still taking chinook at Vernita. Most fish have turned significantly, but a few bright ones remain. Wells Dam has been slow for steelhead, but it should pick up later in the season. Anglers at Hanford averaged 1.7 chinook per boat last week. Saturday is the last day of the salmon fishery from the Highway 395 Bridge at Pasco upstream to Wanapum Dam.

Chinook effort has decreased slightly on the Yakima River, but harvest remains strong. This week there were an estimated 1,063 angler trips on the Yakima River for salmon. Last week, anglers averaged one chinook for 12 hours of fishing. Estimated harvest for the week was 171 adult chinook, 53 jacks and nine coho. Saturday is the last scheduled day of the salmon fishery.

Trout and kokanee

Coeur d’Alene Lake kokanee are still hitting Wedding Rings and maggots behind a 4/0 dodger at about 20 feet. The Wolf Lodge has been good, with most fish running 11-12 inches.

Jameson Lake in Douglas County is kicking out fast limits of 12-inch rainbow for anglers dunking Power Bait.

Rufus Woods Reservoir is still good for limits of 3- to 7-pound triploids, both at the net pens and near Bridgeport where trout anglers are also taking an occasional steelhead.

Lake Roosevelt trout anglers are having a tough time of it lately, said Branditt West, creel clerk for the Colville Tribe. She said two boats came in with limits of mostly 20-inch fish this week, but other than that, she’s not seeing the numbers. Baited orange Apex Lures are popular.

Upper Goose Lake south of Potholes Reservoir has been excellent for 12- to 14-inch trout as well as a variety of bass and panfish. The lake has a primitive parking area and a concrete launch.

Spiny ray

Sacheen Lake, Long Lake and most other multispecies Washington and Idaho lakes are turning on for bass. Successful anglers are throwing crank baits on the edges of the shallows.

Lake Roosevelt walleye are deep, small and elusive, but Rufus Woods is good. The most productive area has been in the vicinity of Buckley Bar, about 2 miles downstream of Seaton’s Grove Launch. The fish are spread out, so bottom bouncers and spinners are needed to cover a lot of water. Focus on the drop-offs around the river channel in depths of 40-60 feet.

Banks Lake is low, but there is still plenty of water in the big pond and the ramp at Coulee Playland is good. Smallmouth and largemouth bass are feeding voraciously.

Pend Oreille River pike were reported to be lethargic last week, although this is normally a good time to fish the river. Anglers reported getting most of their hits right at the boat after a long follow.

Other species

Channel cats are providing lots of action for Snake River anglers throughout the system, although steelhead bait fishermen say the 3- to 5-pound shrimp-stealers are a nuisance.

Hunting

Hells Canyon chukar hunters say the birds are high, but my foray into Wawawai Canyon this week moved four low, tight-holding coveys in three hours. Deer hunters along the Snake River breaks between Wawawai and Clarkston also report seeing lots of birds. Had I been carrying a rifle rather than a shotgun, I could have easily filled my tag with a huge 4x4 muley. Judging from my subsequent drive along the Snake River on Monday, deer hunters had a good opener.

Whitetail deer hunters in Spokane, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties had only fair success on last weekend’s opener. Deer density was down and participation was low. Hunting success should improve once the leaves drop, which may not be until the late buck season in November.

Eastside WDFW bird biologist Mikal Moore says an informal survey on the duck opener last weekend indicated hunters were getting about 3.5 birds each, higher than the last couple of years. She said there were a lot of teal, but also a fair number of mallards and wigeon. Moore noted that for some unexplained reason, hunters were crowded into the north Potholes areas with few using Winchester and Frenchman wasteways. After a midweek closure, the Washington duck season begins again Saturday and runs uninterrupted through Jan 29.

There are 14,000-15,000 lesser and Tavener geese sitting on the Stratford Reserve with more arriving daily. Goose hunting was generally good in the Columbia Basin on opening weekend.

The overall prospects for a good pheasant opener this weekend are rather dim, although deer hunters in parts of Whitman County reported seeing lots of birds in places. Dense thickets of Russian olive and cattail associated with Frenchmen and Winchester wasteways and ponds in the Columbia Basin are likely to hold pheasants.

Contact Alan Liere by e-mail at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com