Hunting & Fishing

Youth Duck Day

Washington and Idaho youngsters under 16 will have a chance to bag a few ducks Saturday.

Each state has scheduled a one-day special duck hunt. The youngsters, who must have state hunting licenses but not federal or state waterfowl stamps, must be accompanied by a non-hunting adult at least 18 years old.

The limit is seven ducks. Youngsters should check the recently issued waterfowl hunting pamphlets for details on the limit and other rules.

Prospects are for good hunting in both Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The lower Coeur d’Alene River boat launch and campground on Killarney Lake, a popular staging area for North Idaho waterfowlers, has been closed for about three weeks for construction.

Although only a few early migrating birds have arrived in the region, there are plenty of ducks, particularly mallards, for outstanding hunting.

Upland birds

Scatter gunners will continue hunting partridges and quail in North Idaho. The season opened last Saturday.

Weather was too warm during the weekend for hunters and their dogs. Indications are that temperatures will be much lower this weekend.

Salmon

Now is the time to fish for the big chinook salmon in the Hanford Reach. More than 50,000 salmon have climbed the fish ladders at McNary Dam and are in the water that will be fished heavily by anglers the next couple of weeks.

Don’t expect to take home a couple of salmon every time you fish. Even when there are thousands of salmon in the reach and you see them rolling at times, they often ignore everything that fishermen troll or drift past them.

Then, for only a reason a fish understands, the salmon suddenly will strike at lures and fishing will be good to fantastic.

You can launch a boat at the White Bluffs ramp, Vernita Bridge or just below Priest Rapids Dam. If you launch at White Bluffs, you’ll fish upstream nearly to Vernita Bridge most of the time. If you launch at the bridge, most of your fishing time will be down from the bridge; be sure your motor is reliable or you will have to drift, down to the White Bluffs launch and that means you’ll have to get your vehicle down to the ramp.

You’ll have plenty of company. In fact, you’ll be tested for your ability to maneuver your boat in and out of the big fleet.

You also can fish near the mouth of the Deschutes River, but you’ll have a lot more competition there than in the Hanford Reach. When I drove past the mouth of the Deschutes on Sunday, there were more than 100 boats anchored just off the river’s mouth.

But the salmon are fresher and brighter in the lower Columbia than they are in the Hanford Reach.

Steelhead

Steelhead fishing has picked up along the Snake, Clearwater and Grande Ronde rivers.

Jay Poe of Hells Canyon Sports at Clarkston said fishermen are doing fairly well along the Snake from Clarkston to the mouth of the Grande Ronde and in the lower Ronde, as well as in the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers and the lower Clearwater.

More than 20,000 steelhead have climbed the fish ladders at Lower Granite Dam and water temperatures have dropped low enough to encourage the fish to move steadily up the Snake.

Fishing above and below Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams has been fair to good. Many anglers have been fishing near the Lyons fish hatchery.

Trout, Washington

Numerous lakes in Eastern Washington are yielding fairly good fishing as the result of a drop in water temperatures.

Wildlife agent Dan Rahn said fly fishers did exceptionally well when he visited Lenice Lake last weekend. Most fly fishers hooked and released several rainbows each while he was watching.

Few fished nearby Nunnally, he said. However, Nunnally holds a good population of rainbows. Most anglers prefer to fish Lenice because of easier access.

Chopaka is providing good fishing for big rainbows. Fly fishers who fished the lake in recent days said they hooked and released several rainbows to 20 inches.

Amber Lake south of Spokane and Bayley Lake on the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge are good choices in late September and all of October.

Trout, Idaho

Several North Idaho lakes are providing good fishing for rainbows, Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, reported.

Among them are Hauser, Fernan, Cocolalla and Kelso. Hayden is expected to start yielding good numbers of hybrid rainbow-cutthroat trout in a week or so.

Hauser is a popular lake with the region’s fly fishers in late September and all of October. The 14- to 15-inch rainbows feed on hatching chironomids during the period, providing the anglers with good dry-fly fishing.

Anglers, particularly fly fishers, are still doing well along the upper St. Joe River and the Lochsa and Selway rivers. Although water temperatures have been dropping, this week’s above-normal temperatures may have stopped the dropping of water temperatures for a brief period.

Look for October Caddis along the St. Joe the next couple of weeks.

Most of the anglers who trolled Lake Coeur d’Alene for chinook salmon earlier this year are now trolling for big rainbows at Lake Pend Oreille, Smith said.

Most of the rainbows in Pend Oreille are still not feeding near the surface during midday hours, he said, but are moving to the top as the water cools. Anglers are hooking the rainbows near the surface early and late in the day. They’ve been trolling big plugs.

Trout, Montana

Big October Caddis are hatching in good numbers along the Bitterroot River, providing excellent dry fly fishing, Brooks Sanford, operator of the Clark Fork Tackle Shop at St. Regis, Mont., reported.

A few also are hatching along the Clark Fork, he said. One fly fisher last week hooked and released 17 rainbows and cutthroat using a Yellow Humpy, sometimes used to imitate the October Caddis.

The two rivers are providing good fishing for fly fishers, he said.

Besides the October Caddis, he reported, Blue Winged Olive, Mahogany Dun and Callibaetis mayflies are hatching along the Clark Fork. The BWO, Mahogany Dun and Trico mayflies are hatching along the Bitterroot.

Hottest fly pattern for the Bitterroot is called the Elvis Fly, developed in the Darby area. Created to imitate the October Caddis, it has a pheasant tip tail, yellow/orange body, white calf tail post and a grizzly hackle.

Spiny rays

You can catch nice-sized perch at Sprague Lake and along the Spokane River in Idaho.

Anglers are catching lots of 8- to 12-inch perch at Sprague Lake, Monika Metz, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort, said. Walleyes are taking anglers’ lures, she said, but fishing for them hasn’t been nearly as good as it was last spring.

Also, some anglers have caught good numbers of catfish to 16 inches.

Smith said perch along the Spokane River from Templin’s to the lake aren’t as big as they were last year, but they still average about 9 inches. He suggested anglers fish in coves along weed beds.

Pike fishing has been good at Lake Coeur d’Alene. Smith said he took out Rod, Mike and Dave Meseberg, operators of the Mar-Don Resort at the Potholes Reservoir, and they caught several big pike.

Bass are on the prowl as waters cool, he said, and anglers can expect some excellent bass fishing at North Idaho lakes the next few weeks.

Some huge channel catfish have been caught lately at Fernan Lake, he said. There are lots of 3-pounders and some 10- to 15-pounders. The largest he has weighed was 16 pounds.

Kokanee

Kokanee in Lake Coeur d’Alene are close enough to the surface for anglers to use standard kokanee gear to catch them, Smith said. He recommended fishermen put out about three colors of leaded line.

Most productive areas have been Beauty and Squaw bays in the north and the Conklin park area and in front of Windy Bay in the south. The kokanee are 10 to 12 inches long, with the average at 11 inches, he said.

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