Alan Liere’s weekly fish and game report

Wed., Nov. 4, 2015

Tip of the week

Sometimes ducks work better when you use a little finesse. Start by replacing your loud call with one that's quieter, raspier, and “sweeter.” When ducks are passing, blow a four- or five-note greeting call rather than the loud, attention-getting highball. Keep calling to a minimum, offering only a low-key invitation composed of a little feeding chatter with maybe a single quack or two. If the ducks circle downwind, blow a three- or four-note comeback call. But only do it once. If they come back around, go subtle or silent.

Braggin’ rights

Medical Lake resident Alan Knott accompanied me to the Sunnyside, Washington area last weekend with the primary objective of shooting a drake wood duck. By 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, he got the first wood duck he had ever seen outside of photographs, and 30 minutes later, he collected another with a long passing shot. Both birds will be mounted.

Overheard

“Last year, we had a strong return of nearly a million coho to the Columbia River,” says Cindy LeFleur, southwest regional fish manager at WDFW. “This year, we’re clearly going to fall far short of that mark, which shows how quickly ocean conditions can change.” She added that early run coho have returned to area hatcheries at about one-third the projected level of 26,000 fish.

Heads up

Idaho Fish and Game encourages hunters who purchased a deer, elk, or pronghorn tag to report the results of their 2015 big game hunts as soon as possible. Hunters are required to file a report for each tag they purchased whether they went hunting or not. Promptly received hunting and harvest data provides Fish and Game a more complete picture of game populations to base decisions for next year's season. Without this timely information, managers are forced to be more conservative when making future hunting opportunities available.

Fly fishing

Recent rains have brought much needed water to all area trout rivers. At this time, flows are better than they have been for months. Temperatures are down and nymphing and slow moving streamers are most effective.

If targeting steelhead, the Grande Ronde should have dropped enough by the weekend to provide good fishing but the mouth will be crowded. According to Silver Bow Fly Shop, nymphing a stone and an egg will be the top producer. The Clearwater too, should be in shape by the weekend, as should the Methow. Nymphing a stone with a lightning bug under it has been the hottest tactic, but egg patterns will also be on the menu.

Salmon and steelhead

Steelhead move upriver on pulses of water, and the recent rains are bringing new fish into area rivers. The Methow, Snake, Salmon, Clearwater and Grand Ronde all had improved catch rates this week. WDFW Okanogan District Fish Biologist Ryan Fortier says the steelhead fishing remains strong throughout the Methow River with the highest success coming from jig/bobber anglers followed by fly anglers. Because steelhead fishing is considered very good anytime catch rates are lower than 20 hours per fish caught, most of these waters are doing well. The exception is on the Salmon River from Whitebird Creek upstream to the Little Salmon.

The fall Chinook season on most Idaho rivers ended Oct. 31, and will end on the last section of the Snake River Nov. 17. Snake River anglers have enjoyed the second best run of fall Chinook in decades.

Steelhead anglers are experiencing a pretty good bite in the Pateros area fishing near the bridge, the Rocks, and off the dock in town. Guide Shane Magnuson says he is limiting the boat most days. A high proportion of Pateros fish are hatchery origin.

Fall Chinook salmon fishing continues through November on the mainstem Columbia River from Priest Rapids Dam to 400 feet below Chief Joseph Dam. The fishery is possible because over 60,000 Chinook have returned above Priest Rapids Dam, including over 25,000 above Rock Island Dam. The intent of the fishery is the removal of excess hatchery fall Chinook from the Upper Columbia River Basin, so the daily limit is six Chinook salmon, with or without fin clips, of which only three may be adult Chinook. Barbless hooks must be used and all coho must be released.

WDFW’s Ringold Springs access area offers plenty of great fishing by boat or from shore. Steelhead align with the seams and slots nearest the eastern bank of the river, both above and below the hatchery intake creek at Ringold. Bank anglers working the seams close to shore and fishing progressively deeper throughout the day do well, as do boat anglers using trolling motors to slip downstream, hitting the same slots and seams. Popular lures for Ringold and other regional steelhead fisheries include scented or baited bucktail or marabou jigs in black, black and red, black and purple fished close to the bottom below slip bobbers.

Steelhead fishing is also good down the Columbia in the still-water forebay behind McNary Dam, where a large concentration of fish hold for the winter. A similar wintering scenario exists in forebays behind other Columbia and Snake River dams, including Ice Harbor Dam. Trolling lighted plugs at night is popular.

Trout and kokanee

Good rainbow trout fishing is available now at Lake Spokane and should get even better through the fall. Trout fishing is also getting very good at Sprague Lake, which is full of large rainbow that are finally shaking off the summer doldrums and putting on the feedbag for winter. The limit is five, but only two many be over 20 inches.

Lake Roosevelt’s water temperature has dropped into the mid-50s and trout fishing has taken off. A fly (with or without a dodger) trolled somewhere between 10 and 25 feet down will find fish. Generally, about three colors of leaded line and 50 feet of leader will get you there.

Near Chelan, Roses Lake is booting out fast limits of 10- to 12-inch rainbow.

Spiny ray

Moses Lake has been a good destination for perch anglers on the south end of the lake. Some anglers have taken 25-fish limits, keeping nothing smaller than 12 inches. Potholes walleye are still biting at the mouth of Crab Creek and guide Don Talbot says the fishing should hold up for at least another month. Info: (509) 679-8641.

The Snake River smallmouth are biting again. Anglers throwing tubes and cranks toward the shoreline from Lower Granite to Clarkston are finding a ferocious bite at times for fish up to 18 inches.

On Long Lake, Rat-L Traps and jerkbaits are accounting for mixed bags of largemouth, smallmouth and northern pike. Banks Lake walleye fishing has slowed down, but the bass bite still is good. A bass tournament will be held on Banks this weekend.

Hunting

Late modern firearm white-tailed buck deer hunting is Nov. 7-19 in GMUs 105, 108, 111, 113, 117, 121, and 124 in the northeast and central districts. The drought-related bluetongue disease outbreak that killed many whitetails has slowed considerably with cooler, wetter weather so prospects and hunting conditions may be better than the earlier deer hunting season. Hunters 65 and over, disabled, or youth (under 16) can harvest antlerless whitetails during the Nov. 7-19 late season in special deer areas.

Waterfowl guide Bill Saunders of Big Gun Outfitters says snow geese numbers are already high in the Tri-Cities area and he plans to target them in the coming weeks. To book a hunting trip, call (509) 582-0190. Goose hunting in general is improving in the Columbia Basin with early season migrant Canada geese beginning to scatter from their staging area at Stratford Lake to alfalfa or grain fields between Moses Lake and the Columbia River.

Recent rains have improved scenting conditions and upland bird hunters with dogs have had some good days hunting pheasants, gray partridge and quail. Pheasant populations are still low, but gray partridge appear to be up and quail are abundant. Grouse hunters report finding lots of young birds all over northern Washington and Idaho.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com