Hunting & Fishing

Winter lakes

Hundreds of anglers will fish Fourth of July and Hog Canyon lakes southwest of Spokane today, but turnouts for the opening of Williams and Hatch lakes in the Colville area likely will be small.

Many will catch 16- to 22-inch rainbows at Fourth of July and limits of 8-1/2 to 17-inch rainbows at Hog Canyon.

Wildlife agents probably will cite some anglers at Fourth of July for violating the regulation that specifies only two trout more than 14 inches in length can be kept.

The daily limit at both lakes is five trout. However, only two of the five can be 14 inches long or longer.

The problem for anglers will be to catch trout under 14 inches long so they can take home five fish. Nearly all the fish biologist Bob Peck hooked and released this week were more than 14 inches long.

Fourth of July is still too low for the launching of boats off trailers. Anglers will have to carry small cartoppers and other flotation devices to the water.

Most anglers should catch limits at Hog Canyon. Rainbows released as fry last spring are 8-1/2 inches long. The lake holds a good population of 11- to 13-inch rainbows and a few trout to 17-18 inches.

Fishermen can use gas-powered engines on Hog Canyon, but only electric motors at Fourth of July. The mile-long road into Hog Canyon is rough and rocky, but in slightly better condition than last year.

Bass released illegally into Williams Lake north of Colville probably ate nearly all the rainbow fry released last spring. Fishing is expected to be poor this winter. Hatch holds a few trout and lots of small perch.

Lenore Lake was closed to fishing Thursday. It will reopen May 1 to catch-and-release fishing.

Fly fishers are using chironomid pupa and adult imitations and scud and leech patterns to catch rainbows at Rocky Ford Creek, a fly fishing-only stream open the year-round.

Steelhead

Several of the Snake River’s tributaries provided sensational fishing last weekend, but they could be high and muddy this weekend as the result of heavy rains.

The Walla Walla and Tucannon rivers produced the fastest steelhead fishing in the region last weekend. Fishery biologist Art Viola reported 64 anglers averaged 3.4 hours per steelhead Saturday along the Walla Walla and 45 fishermen averaged 2.4 hours along the Tucannon Friday-Sunday.

The average for Mill Creek Saturday was 1.9 hours per steelhead. Because only three were checked, the figures don’t accurately reflect fishing success.

Four were checked along the Touchet; they averaged 4.2 hours.

Viola said property owners along the Snake’s tributaries have complained some steelhead anglers aren’t asking for permission to trespass on their land to fish the streams and have littered their land.

If anglers fail to get permission to trespass, he said, property owners will refuse access to the streams.

Checks follow: Ice Harbor, 15.1 hours per steelhead; Lower Monumental, 11.4; Little Goose, 7.2; Snake, 9.9; Grande Ronde above Bogan’s, 8.3. Many fish from shore near Lower Monumental and Little Goose dams and near the Lyons Ferry hatchery, using baited jigs under large bobbers.

Upland birds

A few areas in eastern Washington where there is prime habitat hold enough pheasants for fair hunting. However, hunters are saying the birds are as wild as they ever get and frequently fly out of cover when a car stops.

Some have given up hunting pheasants and partridges and are hunting quail. Brushy draws along the Snake and its tributaries hold good-sized coveys.

Pend Oreille derby

Two Spokane-area anglers caught the biggest rainbows entered in the nine-day derby. Both fish weighed 24 pounds, 13 ounces, but the 36-inch fish boated by Lana Cochran of Otis Orchards took first place under rules that say the first fish weighed takes first. Carl Sherwood of Spokane caught his 37-3/4-inch rainbow two days after Cochran took her fish.

If unofficial standings are judged official, Cochran will get $1,000 in K&K cash and Sherwood will pocket $500 during the award ceremony starting at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Pastime Cafe in Sandpoint.

Bob Humston of Bayview caught the biggest mackinaw trout, 21 pounds. He will get $500 for catching the largest mack and $100 for also boating the seventh-largest mack.

Trout, Idaho

Anglers have been catching 11-12-inch rainbows at Fernan, rainbows to 16 inches at Cocolalla and 12-16-inchers at Hauser.

Salmon

Fishing for chinook salmon at Lake Coeur d’Alene may have slowed a little, but it’s still sensational, according to Jeff Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop.

Smith said he and his son caught 8-1/2- and 9-1/2-pounders, as well as some “shakers,” Thanksgiving morning, and then he and two friends caught three more than 7 pounds Saturday.

Pike

Some anglers are trolling big Rapala plugs and Daredevle spoons along the shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille and catching good sized northern pike, Smith said. It’s possible to troll several miles near the eastern shoreline south of Bayview and be in good pike water.

Waterfowl hunting

More than 350,000 ducks and geese, most of them migrants from Canadian provinces, now are in the Columbia Basin. An aerial survey last week indicated that nearly 240,000 of the ducks are mallards and that there are about 30,000 geese. Most birds are in the northern Basin.

Counts at major reservoirs, lakes and streams on Nov. 21, follow: Eagle Lakes, 20,260 mallard, 146 geese; lower Crab Creek, 1,110 mallards, 285 geese; Priest Rapids pool, 3,480 mallards, 195 geese; Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, 47,000 mallards, 500 pintails, 160 geese; Potholes Reservoir, 51,130 mallards, 20 geese; Potholes Reserve, 20,900 mallards, 200 geese; Winchester Reserve, 8,850 mallards; Winchester Wasteway, 310 mallards; Frenchman Hills Wasteway, 310 mallards; Frenchman Hills Reserve, 3,500 mallards, 160 geese; Moses Lake, 31,790 mallards, 355 geese; Rocky Ford Creek, 1,030 mallards; Stratford Lake, 8,000 mallards, 9,500 geese; Billy Clapp Lake, 4,800 mallards, 1,550 geese; Round Lake, 10,000 geese; Banks Lake, 750 geese; Grimes Lake, 650 geese; Jameson Lake, 135 geese; Rock Island pool, 380 mallards, 420 geese; Wanapum pool, 6,490 mallards, 10,850 wigeon, 1,150 geese, and Wanapum Reserve, 28,400 mallards, 2,900 geese, 800 wigeon and 1,500 pintails.

Nearly all potholes and lakes in the region are ice free and many are providing excellent duck and goose hunting.

Water levels of most lakes in North Idaho are higher than they’ve been in several years, meaning hunters have had almost unlimited choices of places to hunt.

Jim Reynolds, assistant manager of the Kootenai refuge near Bonners Ferry, said 25,000 ducks, mostly mallards, have been using refuge waters. Thousands arrive at the refuge daily and thousands continue their migration to the Columbia Basin and beyond.

Duck hunters have had good shooting on the Potholes Reservoir, at numerous potholes and lakes from Sprague Lake to the Columbia River and along the Winchester and Frenchman Hills wasteways.

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