Hunting & Fishing

Trout fishing

Fourth of July and Hog Canyon lakes are still the best bets in Eastern Washington for catching several good-sized rainbows.

Ice has been forming at the lakes, but it’s too thin for safe ice fishing.

The two lakes have been fished hard since they were opened Dec. 1, but not hard enough to cut deeply into the fish populations.

Anglers have been amazed at the size of the fish in Fourth of July. Some have caught 20- to 24-inchers. Because it’s been difficult to catch trout under 14 inches, many have gone home with only two fish. The limit is five a day, with no more than two over 14 inches.

Average size of the rainbows in Hog Canyon is between 12 and 14 inches. There are some trout longer than 14 inches, but not so many that fishermen have to worry about the size limitation in a five-fish limit.

A few fly fishers have been fishing for rainbows in Rocky Ford Creek, a fly fishing-only spring creek north of Moses Lake. The Fish and Wildlife Department released young rainbows in the stream this year to boost the trout population.

Midges and Baetis mayflies are hatching in the mile-long section below the upper Trout Lodge hatchery.

Anglers are catching rainbows to 7 pounds at the Potholes Reservoir, Elisabeth Mills of the Mar-Don Resort said. They have been still-fishing with bait near O’Sullivan Dam and the state park, along the wasteways and in Lind Coulee.

Some, she said, have been catching keeper walleyes by trolling Rapalas and Hot Lips Fire Tiger lures near the dam and casting lures from the rocks at the dam.

Most productive trout fishing in North Idaho is at Priest Lake. Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers Shop at Coeur d’Alene, said anglers have been catching 3- to 12-pound mackinaw trout in 180 feet of water. Most are trolling plugs but some are jigging.

It’s necessary to have a downrigger cable at least 200 feet long to get down to the macks.

Priest will close to trout fishing at the end of the year, Smith said. Smith also said bait fishermen have been catching 16- to 24-inch rainbows along the Spokane River from just below Post Falls Dam to the Washington-Idaho border.

Steelhead

Fishermen are continuing to do well along some sections of the Snake River and its tributaries. Nearly all boat anglers are back-trolling plugs.

The best fishing was along the Tucannon River. Jerry Dedloff of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department’s Snake River Laboratory reported that anglers averaged 4.6 hours per steelhead during the week ended Sunday.

Anglers who decide to fish the Tucannon should know that access to the most productive sections is controlled by private property owners. Getting permission to get to the stream can be difficult.

Fishing was almost as good along the Grande Ronde (4.9).

Other averages: Lower Monumental Dam, 8.3; Touchet, 30.8; and Little Goose, 20.3.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department reported that anglers averaged 16 hours per steelhead along the lower Clearwater River Friday through Sunday.

Waterfowl

There are a record number of ducks in the Columbia Basin, but hunters who had poor shooting last weekend are wondering why they’re not seeing birds over their decoys.

Duck and goose hunting was poor last weekend in much of Eastern Washington, particularly at traditional hunting areas, such as the Potholes Reservoir, Moses Lake and Ringold Springs.

So where are the ducks? Matt Monda of Ephrata, state waterfowl biologist, said most of them have been resting on reserves during shooting hours and then, at dusk, flying to corn fields.

He had these suggestions for hunters who aren’t members of a duck club:

“Go to a reserve and wait for the birds to fly out to where they’ll be feeding. If the weather is mild, they won’t fly out until after shooting time. The next day try to find a pothole or lake between the reserve and the field where they were feeding and set out decoys.”

That’s what a lot of hunters who live in the Basin do, he said.

This year has been a strange one as far as biologists and duck hunters are concerned. The birds have been moving around a lot. In some cases, they haven’t been staying in traditional spots.

For example, thousands of ducks have been staying in the Gloyd Seeps and Rocky Ford Creek area, which biologists consider unusual.

Weather conditions for good hunting haven’t been good. What’s needed are snowstorms, wind and low temperatures. Of course, too much snow will cover up their food and too-low temperatures will freeze resting spots.

In that case, they’ll move south, first to the Umatilla refuge along the Columbia River and then, if the weather is very bad, farther down the Columbia and perhaps as far south as California.

Monda said an aerial count last week showed there were 332,800 ducks in the northern Basin, a record for this time of year. There were 103,000 on Moses Lake, 33,000 on the Columbia refuge, 50,000 in the Eagle Lakes area and 41,000 on the Wanapum Reserve.

Since then, he said, the ducks have been moving around; however, thousands can be expected on such reserves as the Columbia refuge and Wanapum.

Small lakes and potholes are either partially ice-covered or entirely covered with ice, forcing birds that had been resting on them to move to big waters.

Upland birds

If there’s fresh snow on the ground in pheasant areas this weekend, you might have a good chance of bagging a rooster or two.

Unless the snow is more than 6 inches deep, however, you can’t expect the birds to hold still while you walk up to them. Roosters run through snow 2 to 4 inches deep. When it gets much deeper, though, they’ll hold in cover.

But you can track birds to their hiding spots in fresh snow an inch or so deep.

Because the wild roosters are extremely wary of hunters, you can expect them to run out of cover and fly 300 to 400 yards ahead of you. If you hunt with one or more friends, one hunter can block exit spots.

Expect more competition than usual until the end of the year. College students will be home for Christmas vacation and some will be hunting upland birds.

Quail hunters have had good shooting along the brushy draws of the Palouse and Snake rivers.

The pheasant season will end Dec. 31. Quail and partridge seasons end Jan. 11.

Salmon

Trolling for chinooks in Lake Coeur d’Alene has been fair to good, with anglers boating 3- to 12-pounders.

Smith said some fishermen are using helmeted herring. Nearly all were trolling mini-squids behind small flashers until last week.

The chinooks have been taking herring at 60 feet, he said. Most who fish the mini-squids have been trolling at 80 feet.

Pike

Nearly everyone has given up fishing for pike at the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River until the ice is thick enough to support them safely. , DataTimes The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN - Fishing and Hunting Report