Hunting & Fishing

Steelhead

Steelhead fishing is as good as it ever gets in many places along the Snake, Walla Walla, Tucannon and Grande Ronde rivers. Checks show anglers have been averaging less than 5 hours per fish in a few areas.

When the average drops below 15 hours per fish, steelhead fishing is considered excellent. When it gets to 5, even beginners hook fish.

Fishery biologist Art Viola said hot spots last weekend were the Walla Walla River, 11.3 hours per fish; Lower Monumental Dam, 5 hours; Tucannon, 3.3 hours; Little Goose, 11.6 hours; mid-Snake, 10.2 hours; and Grande Ronde from Bogan’s to Troy, 9.4 hours.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department reported anglers averaged 5 hours per steelhead along the Clearwater below the Memorial Bridge. The agency came up with 14 hours per fish along the Snake above Lewiston.

The department also reported fishing was good along the lower Salmon River.

Water temperatures are less than 60 degrees along the Snake River. Temperatures of some tributaries are less than 50 and dropping fast.

More than 115,000 steelhead are moving up the Snake River. Most are still between Ice Harbor and Lower Granite. The count at Lower Granite is 70,000.

Idaho biologists still don’t know how big the B-run will be. B-run steelhead run up the Clearwater River and are considerably larger than A-run fish.

Indications are the B-run will be one of the smallest, if not the smallest, runs on record.

Idaho cancelled its catch-and-keep season on the Clearwater. Only a few anglers, a good percentage fly fishers, are fishing it. Although only 1,500 steelhead are expected to move up the river, fly fishers are there to get away from the crowds elsewhere.

Incidentally, this year’s run up the Methow apparently will be one of the smallest on record. Fewer than 1,000 steelhead have been counted at Wells Dam. A few years ago, nearly 20,000 were counted at the dam 7 miles below the Methow’s mouth.

Big game

Time is running out for the region’s deer and elk hunters. The general buck seasons for southeast Washington and the Columbia Basin ended last weekend. The season for Okanogan and Chelan County ends today.

The general buck season for northeast Washington will end Tuesday. However, the late buck season for many game management units will open Wednesday and continue through Nov. 19.

With several seasons closed, hunters will be concentrated in units 105-124 the next few weeks. Only whitetail bucks will be legal targets during the late buck season.

Below normal temperature and winds have opened up whitetail habitat in northeast counties. In addition, periodic rains have kept ground cover damp, enabling hunters to move quietly.

Hunters holding Blue Mountain elk tags have until Nov. 5 to fill their freezers with elk meat.

The Yakima bull elk season won’t open until Nov. 5.

Most of Idaho’s general elk seasons have ended, but a few units remain open. When the seasons are closed, Idahoans will turn their attention to deer. Most Panhandle units will open Wednesday.

Upland birds

Pressure on upland birds has dropped dramatically since opening day. Only die-hard hunters, who have good dogs, are pounding cover to find a few cock pheasants.

There are isolated areas in North Idaho and Eastern Washington where enough young birds survived the cold, rainy nesting season to provide fair hunting.

Quail are plentiful enough along brushy draws for fairly good hunting.

Waterfowl

The region’s duck hunters are doing a lot of pass shooting. Nearly all the ducks in North Idaho and Eastern Washington are “locals” that have seen decoys since the opening of the season.

The ducks are extremely wary. They fly fast and high over decoy spreads and rarely respond to calling by frustrated hunters.

So far, hunters say, flights out of Canada haven’t materialized. Hunters will know when they start arriving. The “northerns” haven’t seen decoys or heard hunters calling and are not wary until after they’ve been shot at a few times.

Traditionalist duck hunters don’t expect the northerns to start arriving until about the second week of November.

Jim Reynolds, assistant manager of the Kootenai National Refuge near Bonners Ferry, said there hasn’t been a big movement of northern to refuge waters. Duck numbers have been holding steady at 10,000.

Hunting was fairly good at the refuge last Saturday, with hunters averaging 3.18 ducks each. The average dropped to .87 Sunday.

There are plenty of geese in North Idaho and Eastern Washington for good hunting. The big birds, however, are much warier than when the season opened.

Veteran goose hunters have been doing well, often taking four Canada geese a day.

Trout

Big rainbows are near the surface at Lake Pend Oreille and a few to more than 20 pounds have been boated the last week or so.

Most anglers are fishing flies and lures off planing boards.

This is the time to jig for mackinaw trout at Priest Lake, said Jeff Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene.

The macks are schooling and, when located, will take jigs readily, he said. He suggested anglers use sonars to locate schools and toss out marker buoys.

“You can catch 10 to 15 a day this time of year,” he said.

Trolling for the rainbows in Lake Roosevelt seems to be picking up. Some anglers say they’ve caught five-fish limits. The trout are fairly near the surface.

Best trout fishing in Eastern Washington is at the selective fishery lakes, including Dry Falls, Lenore, Amber, and Lenice and Nunnally.

The Bitterroot and lower Clark Fork rivers are yielding some nice rainbow and brown trout, Gary Westerland, manager of Streamside Anglers at Missoula, said.

Blue-winged olive and Mahogany Dun mayflies and midges have been hatching along the streams, he said, adding that fly fishers should carry Baetis cripple, Adams parachute and Wulff patterns.

Salmon

Best chinook salmon fishing in the Inland Northwest is at Lake Coeur d’Alene. Smith said trolling for immature chinooks ranging in size from 4 to 12 pounds has been surprisingly good the last week. The average salmon is 6 pounds.

“The catch rates are the best of the year,” he said. “A fisherman has a good chance of catching a couple of chinooks a day.”

Smith said the chinooks are suspended at 60 feet deep. The salmon are scattered around the lake, but concentrations have been found off Arrow Point, Sanders Beach and in front of Mica Bay.

Smith recommended using dodgers or glow Hot Spot flashers ahead of herring.

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