Hunting & Fishing

Grouse hunting

Grouse hunters could bag a few more birds than they’ve taken home in recent years. At least, that’s what some hunters who have been scouting grouse habitat say.

Hunters in Washington and Idaho will discover how plentiful or scarce the grouse are when the seasons open Tuesday.

As usual, a high percentage of ruffed grouse hunters will drive forest roads until they see birds, get out of their vehicles and hope to flush them within shotgun range. Some drive hundreds of miles a day.

Hunters with good bird dogs, on the other hand, will work the habitat for both ruffed and blue grouse. Stevens County is traditionally the top ruffed grouse producer in the state. Okanogan County is the most productive blue grouse county.

In 1996, the last year for which figures are available, hunters killed 13,700 ruffed grouse in Stevens County. The kill in Pend Oreille County was 5,600; in Ferry, 4,200.

Hunters bagged 8,600 blue grouse in Okanogan County in 1996. Ferry County also was a good place to hunt; the kill was 3,137. Incidentally, Okanogan not only was a good blue grouse producer, it was a good county to hunt ruffed grouse. The 1996 kill was 6,368.

If the woods are dry, hunters will find most of the grouse near water. Savvy hunters will concentrate their efforts around springs and along small streams.

Seasons for both Washington and Idaho end Dec. 31. Washington’s daily bag limit is three and the possession limit is nine. Idaho’s daily limit is four and the possession limit is eight.

Dove hunting

For the first time, you’ll have to buy the $6 Washington state migratory bird stamp to hunt doves for the season starting Tuesday.

The stamp, formerly known as the “migratory bird stamp,” is in addition to your state hunting license. You won’t have to buy a federal waterfowl stamp to hunt doves.

The new requirement, for those 16 or older, also extends to coot and snipe hunting, which opens with the duck season in October.

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Department said funds from stamp sales to dove hunters will be dedicated to state habitat enhancement projects for mourning doves and band-tailed pigeons.

Dove hunting isn’t nearly as popular in Washington as it is in many other states. For example, in 1996, 11,000 hunters killed 111,000 doves in the state.

About half the doves were killed in Adams, Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties. Only 12,600 were killed in the Spokane region.

Most Washington hunters go after doves fewer than a half-dozen days each season. In the Spokane region, dove hunting is usually a two-day affair.

Doves have been banding up in big flocks the last week or so. Those that are shot at a few times often leave the places where they’ve gathered in big flocks. The limit is 10 a day and 20 in possession in both states.

Steelhead

Steelhead fishing almost certainly will be poor when the catch-and keep seasons open Tuesday along the Snake, Grande Ronde and Salmon rivers.

The run up the Columbia River system either is much smaller than normal, or steelhead are waiting for cooler water temperatures before moving over the fish ladders.

Water temperatures at Bonneville Dam hit 74 degrees a few weeks ago and remained at that level for a long time, leading some fisheries biologists to assume most steelhead, and salmon, were waiting for temperatures to drop below 70.

Many of the thousands of steelhead counted at Bonneville this month apparently moved up such tributary streams as Oregon’s Deschutes and Washington’s Klickitat.

A few Spokane-area steelheaders reported hooking and releasing numerous steelhead while fishing the lower Deschutes River.

Anglers probably won’t know until mid-September whether this year’s steelhead run is much smaller than normal or whether the temperature block stopped most of the fish from moving over the dams.

Usually, anglers start hooking fair numbers of steelhead at Ringold Springs along the Columbia and along the lower Snake River by early September. Not enough steelhead have moved over McNary Dam to indicate fishing will be good in those areas next month. It’s possible that steelhead fishing won’t pick up along the Snake, Salmon and Grande Ronde until late October or November.

Big game

Idaho archers will start hunting deer and elk in most of North Idaho’s game management units Saturday and Washington archers will start hunting mule deer bucks and whitetail deer Tuesday.

In addition, holders of special Washington elk permits will start hunting Tuesday.

Trout, Washington

Fishing could be surprisingly good at some of the 10 lakes in the Pillar-Widgeon chain when they reopen to fishing Tuesday.

Those who fished the lakes when they opened last spring caught numerous 9-inch rainbows at some of the lakes. Most of those fish probably were released last fall after cormorants and mergansers left the area.

The birds have eaten most of the trout fry the Fish and Wildlife Department stocked during the spring. The trout may be 13 to 15 inches long now.

The lakes, which are on the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, include Cattail, Gadwall, Hourglass, Lemna, Pillar, Poacher, Sago, Shoveler, Snipe and Widgeon. The Hampton lakes just south of Widgeon were closed July 31 and will remain closed.

Warden and South Warden are open until the end of September, after which the Fish and Wildlife Department intends to treat them with rotenone to kill perch and other spiny rayed fish that compete with trout for food. They hold some rainbows and brown trout.

Lake Roosevelt almost certainly will attract trout fishermen the next few weeks. Trollers have been taking limits of deep-bodied 12- to 16-inchers in areas where there are net pens. One of the most productive areas has been off the mouth of Hawk Creek.

Trout, Idaho

Now is a good time to fish North Idaho’s top cutthroat streams. Don’t delay: water temperatures will be dropping dramatically and fish will migrate to deep holes.

Most productive streams are the upper St. Joe, the Lochsa, the lower Selway and Kelly Creek.

As Lake Pend Oreille’s surface temperature drops, big rainbows will move up and anglers will return to trolling flies off planing boards.

Priest Lake will continue to yield two-fish limits of small mackinaw trout, as well as an occasional fish weighing more than 10 pounds.

Hauser usually attracts spin, fly and bait fishermen every October.

Trout, Montana

Most of Montana’s “blue ribbon” trout streams are expected to start producing good fishing by early September. Fishing was tough during much of the hot weather.

However, water temperatures have dropped and some bugs are hatching in good numbers again.

The most popular destinations for Eastern Washington anglers will be the Clark Fork, Bitterroot and Blackfoot rivers and Rock Creek in the Missoula area; the Missouri River north of Helena, and the Madison in the West Yellowstone area.

Salmon

The mature chinook salmon in Lake Coeur d’Alene will provide some fishing as they move toward their spawning streams, but many will fish for the immature chinooks that weigh 1 to 3 or 4 pounds.

It’s too early to fish the Hanford Reach for the “upriver bright” chinooks. Only a few hundred have moved up the Columbia to the Pasco area.

Spiny rays

With water temperatures cooling, most spiny rayed species are on the prowl again.

Anglers have been hooking fair to good numbers of bass and crappies at North Idaho lakes and bass and walleyes at Eastern Washington lakes and reservoirs.

Expect good walleye fishing at Sprague and Roosevelt lakes and the Potholes Reservoir.

Perch fishing has been fair to good at numerous lakes and reservoirs, including Spokane (Long) in Washington and Hauser, the Twins, Cocolalla, Round, Fernan and Hayden in Idaho.

Kokanee

Loon and Deer lakes in the Spokane area, Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho and Koocanusa Reservoir in Montana are still providing fair to good kokanee fishing.

Loon and Koocanusa are the most productive, but limits now are the exception rather than the rule. Kokanee fishing at Lake Coeur has been slow for a month.