Hunting & Fishing

Ice fishing

It’s ice-fishing time again at many of the region’s lakes, including Hog Canyon and Fourth of July.

Ice isn’t thick and hard enough at many lakes to support anglers safely, but fishermen are drilling holes in 3 to 4 inches of ice at several lakes. Some anglers, as usual, are risking cold dunkings by fishing through ice that’s little more than 1 inch thick.

Anglers who like to do their fishing through ice welcomed this week’s sub-freezing temperatures, knowing the ice will thicken fast as long as it isn’t covered with an insulating blanket of snow.

Many lakes in Idaho’s Panhandle are covered with more than 2 feet of snow. Most lakes in the Spokane area and the Columbia Basin had little or no snow cover.

Both Hog Canyon and Fourth of July were partly covered by ice soon after the opening of the winter season Dec. 1. Anglers who tried to push boats through thin ice at the upper end of Fourth of July in order to get to open water gave up and fished from shore. At Hog Canyon, however, fishermen were able to break through thin ice at the public access area and fish from boats.

Ice was thin early this week on Hog Canyon and Fourth of July, as well as Hatch, east of Colville. As the ice thickens, fishing pressure likely will increase as long as deep snow doesn’t block access to the lakes.

Hog Canyon apparently is loaded with enough rainbows to provide good fishing through the winter. Fourth of July may not have as many fish, but it holds a large number of 18- to 22-inch rainbows.

Thickening of the ice will encourage hundreds to fish for perch, kokanee, trout and northern pike in North Idaho. Popular lakes in the Panhandle will be Hauser, Fernan, Cocolalla and Round, for perch and trout; Spirit, small kokanee; Hayden, pike; and the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River, pike and perch.

Ice wasn’t thick enough at mid-week at Idaho lakes for safe ice fishing, but Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop, said it should be thick enough at some lakes for safe fishing by this weekend.

Idaho anglers can fish with five lines at lakes covered by ice. Washington fishermen are limited to one line each.

Fishermen soon may be ice fishing for perch, bluegills and walleyes at Sprague; perch at Eloika, and perch, bluegills and whitefish at several Columbia Basin lakes.

Waterfowl

Icing of lakes in North Idaho and Eastern Washington will change plans of waterfowl hunters. As ice forms on small lakes and potholes, ducks will move to big lakes and eventually to the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Some geese will remain in areas where they can find food; they don’t mind landing and resting on ice-covered lakes. Already, deep snow has forced thousands of ducks and geese out of North Idaho and much of the Spokane region. Smith said thousands of geese that were on Lake Coeur d’Alene left last week.

Although there are only a few hundred geese along the Pend Oreille River in northeastern Washington, several thousand last weekend were still resting on Sprague Lake at night and flying out to winter wheat and harvested wheat fields during the day to feed.

Most of the snow that covered harvested fields in the southern Columbia Basin melted last week, but there’s still a few inches of snow on the ground in the northern Basin. Thousands of ducks and geese were feeding in harvested corn fields last weekend. State and federal wildlife biologists flew over the northern Basin last week and counted 290,000 ducks. Of those, 200,000 were mallards.

Places where the largest concentrations of mallards were counted: Scooteney Reservoir, 8,100; Eagle lakes, 125,150; Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, 14,600; Frenchman Reserve, 1,500; Winchester Wasteway, 1,965; Moses Lake, 22,180; Billy Clapp Lake, 1,000; Chief Joseph pool, 4,600; Wells pool, 1,340; Wanapum pool, 2,100, and Wanapum reserve, 9,200.

Freezing of the smaller lakes likely caused considerable shifting of mallard flocks, especially to the Columbia River near Umatilla and in the Ringold Springs area.

Duck hunting was excellent Saturday along the face of the sand dune islands at the Potholes Reservoir, Mike Meseberg of the Mar-Don Resort said.

By Sunday, Meseberg said, ice was around the sand dune islands and hunters had to set up next to the open water. Hunting was poor.

Meseberg said most small lakes and some large lakes may be ice-covered by this weekend.

“We need a chinook to melt some ice and keep the birds in the area,” he said.

Steelhead

The Snake and its tributaries could be fairly clear this weekend. The Snake and Grande Ronde were extremely high and off-color last weekend as the result of rainstorms and the Clearwater was muddy below Potlatch Creek.

Jay Poe of Hells Canyon Sports at Clarkston said fishing was spotty last weekend. Most anglers are fishing with shrimp and steelhead roe in the deep holes along the Columbia, Snake, Clearwater and Grande Ronde rivers. Some guides, Poe said, are still having their clients back troll Hot Lips and other lures.

Steelhead stop migrating after water temperatures drop a degree or two below 40. However, the water is warm enough for the fish to continue their migrations, especially after rainstorms.

Anglers continue to fish shrimp below bobbers above and below Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams. As usual, the most popular area is in the vicinity of the Lyons Ferry hatchery.

Upland birds

College and high school students home for the holidays will join other hunters the next couple of weeks. They’ll discover there are more pheasants, partridges and quail in prime habitat than during the last couple of years.

Hunters who have hiked along good cover the last couple of weeks have seen large numbers of pheasants, but they have had trouble getting close enough to roosters for a few shots. Pheasants are as wild as they ever get.

Salmon

Trolling for chinook salmon, some weighing more than 15 pounds, has been surprisingly good at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Smith said. However, the sub-freezing temperatures apparently have discouraged most anglers.

Smith said the largest salmon boated last weekend was a 15-pound, 12-ouncer caught by Larry Ross of Kellogg.

“Several salmon weighing 10 to 11 pounds, as well as some 6-pounders, were caught,” he said.

Most are trolling lures and bait at 50 to 80 feet. Those who fish deep have been using mini-squids behind flashers and those who fish shallow are trolling helmeted herring.

Mica Bay and Driftwood Point have been the most productive areas. Some salmon, however, have been caught in the Silver Beach-to-Tubbs Hill area.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN - Fishing & Hunting Report