Hunting & Fishing

Bear, cougar seasons

The usually alert Fish and Wildlife Department overlooked one big, potential problem that developed when the earlier-than-usual bear season opened.

The agency’s officials didn’t take into consideration that large numbers of huckleberry pickers would be in bear country in August and that the pickers, unlike hunters, wouldn’t be wearing fluorescent orange vests or jackets and therefore would be at risk of being shot.

Now the agency’s public information division is advising pickers to invest in hot orange clothing to protect themselves.

A hunched-over picker wearing dark clothing can easily be mistaken for a bear, especially in high huckleberry bushes.

Huckleberries were just starting to ripen in many places in Eastern Washington when the bear season opened Aug. 1 and pickers were checking out their favorite places.

Hunting conditions this month have been anything but perfect. Grasses and bushes are much higher and thicker than usual as the result of spring rainstorms, and temperatures have soared to 100 degrees, creating meat spoilage problems.

Despite the conditions, many of the region’s most dedicated hunters have put their tags on bears.

The high, dense vegetation has made cougar hunting even more difficult than hunters would like. Hunters no longer can use hounds to run down the big cats and seeing a cougar in the heavy cover is nearly impossible.

Biologists and wildlife agents doubt that hunters will kill more than a few cougars the next few months.

Trout, Washington

If you have a fishing license, you can take home all the fish you can catch at Eastern Washington lakes that will be treated with rotenone in September and October. The problem is, even catching a few at nearly all of the lakes will be difficult.

Anglers have caught most of the trout in seven Columbia Basin lakes where you can kill as many trout as you can catch until Sept. 15. However, you have a fair chance of hooking a few big trout at North North Windmill and North Windmill. Windmill, the lowest lake in the chain, has been fished hard because it’s near a road. You have to hike into the other two Windmill lakes.

Don’t expect to do well at June, Heart, Canal and Pit. They’ve been milked of trout populations.

From today until the end of September, you can start killing all the fish you can catch at 19 other lakes, including several in the Spokane region.

You may be able to catch more than five trout at Jump Off Joe Lake, which is full of goldfish and spiny rayed fish, as well as some trout. The FWD has been releasing catchable-size trout into the lake yearly for several years. You have a chance to catch brown, rainbow and brook trout.

Five lakes in the Little Pend Oreille chain are to be rehabilitated. You have a chance to take more than five cutthroat and rainbow trout at Heritage, Thomas, Gillette, Sherry and Leo.

Tiny Halfmoon in Pend Oreille County probably isn’t a good choice. Anglers have removed most of the fish.

A dozen lakes in Grant County will get the rotenone treatment in October. Your best chance of exceeding the five-fish limit probably is at Corral, Blythe, Chukar and Scaup.

Other Grant County lakes that will be treated and that have small trout populations are Aztec, Desert, Dune, Lizard, Meadowlark, Sedge, Tern and North Desert. They’re all walk-in lakes.

Aeneas in Okanogan County is the only specially managed lake that will be treated. A fly fishing-only lake southwest of Tonasket, Aeneas has been going downhill the last few years as the result of infestation by sculpins, which compete with trout for food.

A few lakes in northeastern Washington have been yielding limits, despite the hot weather. Fly fishers, using fast sinking lines, have been hooking cutthroat at Browns Lake in Pend Oreille County and rainbows at Bayley Lake, fly fishing-only waters. Yocum also has been providing good fishing for both cutthroat and rainbows.

Trout, Idaho

Best cutthroat fishing is along the St. Joe, Lochsa and Selway rivers and Kelly Creek. If you don’t like big crowds, fish the Lochsa and Selway. A paved highway parallels the Lochsa.

The rivers are still a little high for this time of year. Despite the higher water, fishing has been fair to good. Some who have fished the St. Joe have done well; others have had poor luck.

The Lochsa isn’t nearly as crowded as the St. Joe. A fisherman can fish several good spots before others do.

Priest Lake is still the most consistent producer of trout in Idaho’s Panhandle. An experienced troller usually can take three small mackinaw trout in 3 to 4 hours of fishing.

Some anglers are trolling for big mackinaws in Lake Pend Oreille, each hoping to boat one big enough to win one of the top cash prizes in the mackinaw derby. For information on the derby, call the Hope Marine Services at (208) 264-5105.

Salmon

Planning to fish for salmon at the mouth of the Columbia River? Your best chances of hooking a big chinook or two or a couple of coho salmon are during the last two weeks of August.

Chuck Tracy, a fisheries biologist at the Fish and Wildlife Department’s office near Ilwaco, said more salmon will be in the Buoy 10 area during those two weeks than at any other period of the season.

The Buoy 10 area was opened to salmon fishing Aug. 1. As expected, fishing was only so-so. Trollers averaged less than one salmon per boat. And nearly all were 3- to 5-pound cohos.

Tracy said fishermen have been catching as many mackerel as chinooks, but that should change as more chinooks start moving up the Columbia River.

Tracy said chinook fishing should be good the next two weeks as the so-called “upriver brights” move up the Columbia. This year’s run is expected to be considerably larger than those of the last couple of years.

The fall chinook derby at Lake Coeur d’Alene will end Sunday. The person who catches the largest salmon will win $10,000.

Spiny rays

The dog days of August aren’t the best days to fish for spiny rayed species, but knowledgeable fishermen still can hook good numbers of walleyes, perch and bass.

The Snake River is a good choice for smallmouth bass. Anglers, casting jigs with grubs, have been hooking 8- to 14-inchers from Hells Canyon to Lower Monumental Dam.

Walleye fishermen will be using baited jigs, bottom walkers, spinner baits and weed-line rigs. As usual, the best fishing will be early and late in the day, but the most dedicated anglers will try to figure out ways of hooking the predator fish during midday hours.

Bass won’t be in shallow water during hot, sunny days. Veteran bass anglers will fish from dawn to 8 a.m. and again from sunset to dark. They’ll often find the bass in and around weed beds in 12-14 feet of water.

Crappies can be caught in August, but most fishermen give up trying to find them.

Kokanee

Kokanee that spawn early in some lakes are turning dark and the males have developed hooked jaws, signaling the beginning of the end of the kokanee fishing in the Inland Northwest.

The male kokanee in such lakes as Loon and Mary Ronan already have lost their silvery color and are showing signs of entering the spawning cycle. The two lakes, however, will continue to be popular with numerous kokanee fishermen for a couple more weeks. In such waters as Coeur d’Alene and Koocanusa, however, the kokanee will remain bright well into September. Kokanee in those lakes don’t spawn until near the end of the year.

Trout, Montana

Grasshopper patterns and small flies that suggest Pale Morning Dun, Trico and Baetis mayflies and caddisflies, as well as bead head nymphs under indicators, will be the most popular patterns along Montana streams the rest of the month.

When the sun shines and temperatures are high, best fishing will be in the evenings. There’s one exception. The tiny Trico mayfly spinners usually fall on the water late each morning at several streams, the best known of which is the Missouri. It’s then that fly fishers cast to rising trout and hope their ultra-thin tippets will hold the fish they hook. , DataTimes The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN - Fishing & Hunting Report