Alan Liere’s weekly fish and game report for Sept. 8

Wed., Sept. 7, 2016

Alan Liere

Tip of the week

With the clear water in all area streams and rivers now, it is important that fly fishermen make their first presentation count. A bad cast or presentation usually results in a spooked fish.

Braggin’ rights

We didn’t shoot many doves during the first three days of the season, but I counted time spent with my son, Matt, and my just-turned 13-year-old grandson, Walker, a huge success. Walker not only shot his first dove, he passed on all sitting birds and exhibited perfect barrel management and overall shotgun safety.

Overheard

Fish biologists think most of the one-salt steelhead, which make up the bulk of the upper Columbia run, may have been lost. At this time it looks like there might not be much, if any, of a 2016-17 steelhead fishery on the upper Columbia.

Heads up

The Sept. 14 meeting of Spokane Fly fishers will feature Pat Way of Northwest Outfitters speaking about steelhead techniques used on the Clearwater, Snake and Grande Ronde rivers. He hopes to “demystify” all the various equipment and nomenclature involved in fly fishing with a spey rod. Location: St Francis School, 1104 W. Heroy, 7:00 p.m.
Smallmouth fishing around Newport has been outstanding, but the river is down and the launch at Oldtown is barely usable.

Fly fishing

The Spokane River is fishing very well in the riffles and the North Fork Coeur d’Alene is getting good again. Silver Bow Fly Shop says big golden stones are still effective, as are hopper, ant and beetle imitations. The St. Joe River has been good both up and down. Fish are hitting small flies and streamers and everything in between.

The Clark Fork River is fishing very well. The larger fish are holding at the bottoms of the big rapids, and foam hoppers will trigger strikes. Guides are fishing attractors and some droppers during the day and switching back to small naturals after noon.

The mainstem Yellowstone River and all tributaries downstream from the Highway 212 Bridge in Laurel, Montana were never part of the recent closure, and with the exception of the Shields River and all of its tributaries, remain open to all uses.

Salmon and steelhead

Westport, LaPush and Neah Bay are closed to all salmon fishing, but the chinook season has been extended through Sept. 14 on the mainstem Columbia River from Buoy 10 upstream to the Tongue Point/Rocky Point line. The area remains open for hatchery coho and steelhead and will re-open for chinook retention on Oct. 1.

Fall chinook are arriving in the upper Columbia River and most are headed to the Hanford Reach. Above the Reach, the best fishing will be between Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams. The fall chinook run is large this year, so the fishery might be extended all the way up to Chief Joseph Dam on the Douglas-Okanogan county line through the end of November. Anglers may retain three adult salmon – hatchery or wild – in the Hanford Reach this fall (Hwy 395 to Priest Rapids Dam) but are limited to two adult fish downstream of the Hwy 395 Bridge at Kennewick. All areas of the Hanford Reach are currently closed to fishing for steelhead.

Summer chinook fishing continues on the Wenatchee River through the month of September. Daily limit is four salmon, two of which can be adult hatchery-marked chinook. Fishing has been fair. Selective gear rules are in effect.

Steelhead fishing has been slow so far due to warm water temperatures, especially in the Snake River, but anglers are having some success fishing very early in the morning, at dusk, and into the night. Anglers can retain three hatchery steelhead per day in the Snake River.

Trout and kokanee

The night bite on Loon Lake remains good, but trollers are also catching their share of kokanee. A friend who trolled there this week noted that while most of his 10 fish were over 11 inches, he also caught fish as small as 6 inches and some at around 9 inches.

This month is the last chance to fish several of the region’s trout lakes. Closing Sept. 30 are Fish, Fishtrap, Badger, Williams and West Medical. Fishing has been generally poor at these lakes since July, but cooling water should bring them out of the deep holes and make them bite again. Amber Lake, which has also been off, shifts to catch-and-release only on Oct. 1.

September is also the last month of trout fishing for many Columbia Basin waters and a few others – Spectacle Lake and Washburn Island Pond in Okanogan County and Blackbird Island Pond in Chelan County. A couple of Okanogan County trout lakes – Campbell and Davis – have shifted from catch-and-release to catch-and-keep fishing.

Spiny ray

Waitts Lake has had such good trout fishing this summer, many anglers forget it is also good for medium-sized perch and big bass. Waitts will remain open through the winter.

Anglers launching at Porcupine Bay on Lake Roosevelt say the river has dropped about 13 feet but walleye fishing is good up-river. Take lots of nightcrawlers with you, as there are schools of small bait-stealers on the prowl. Walleye fishing is also picking up in the Snake near Texas Rapids, and on Potholes and Moses Lake. The Snake River below Ice Harbor Dam is one of the region’s best walleye fisheries, as is the Columbia River below McNary Dam.

Smallmouth bass share habitat with walleye, but have been down pretty deep the last two months. As September progresses, they will move into the shallows until frigid winter weather sends them deeper again. Try for them at Coeur d’Alene and Dworshak in Idaho, and Potholes, Long, Roosevelt and the Snake in Washington.

This is a good time to fish topwaters in the lily pads at a number of eastern Washington lakes. Loon, Deer, Liberty, Silver, Long and Newman are just a few of the lakes with big bass lurking beneath the pads. Floating mice and frog imitations have been effective in bringing the fish out of hiding. Long Lake perch continue to bite, and trolling there for rainbow trout is picking up. Deer Lake perch have also been biting, and a lot are in the 10-inch range.

Downs and Coffeepot lakes close at the end of the month, but until then can yield good catches of perch, crappie, and rainbow trout. Both lakes have seen a good largemouth bite most of the summer.

Moses Lake and Potholes Reservoir in the Columbia Basin, Roses Lake in Chelan County, and Leader, Patterson, and Palmer lakes in Okanogan County are providing opportunities for perch, crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass and smallmouth bass.

The Coeur d’Alene pike bite may be on the upswing as water cools. Weed beds in 6-8 feet of water are producing action with white spinner baits the top fish-getter.

Other species

White sturgeon fishing continues through September in the Columbia River’s Wanapum reservoir (from Wanapum Dam to Rock Island Dam) and Priest Rapids reservoir (from Priest Rapids Dam to Wanapum Dam). Up to two sturgeon, between 38 and 72 inches fork length, can be retained daily.

Hunting

Several changes have been made to the white-tailed deer season in northeastern Washington. General season archery and muzzleloader hunters are reminded that legal white-tailed deer in northeast district GMUs 101-121 are bucks only except for six days in late archery season. This is different than the “any deer” regulation that was originally printed in the regulations pamphlet.

Fall turkey in most Idaho GMUs begins on Sept. 15. The quail, chukar and gray partridge season begins on Sept. 17.

Grouse are not as abundant in Idaho as last year, but hunting should still be above the long-term average. Because of the summer rains, grouse are distributed across a wider geographic area in both Idaho and Washington, so hunters are not seeing as many birds along roads this year.

The Sept. 1 dove opener got mixed reviews. In Yakima County, hunters were generally pleased, but in Grant and Spokane counties, numbers did not materialize in many of the popular spots.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com