Hunting & Fishing
Bears and cougars
Temperatures may be in the 90s when Washington’s bear and cougar hunting seasons open Saturday, but you can be certain a lot of hunters will be in the woods before dawn.
Nearly all will hunt bears. However, because hunters can buy a cougar tag for only $5, many will carry cougar tags on the off chance they’ll encounter one of the elusive cats.
The Fish and Wildlife Commission decided to open the bear and cougar seasons in August instead of early September and reduced the prices of bear and cougar tags after voters decided to ban the use of hounds to hunt the animals and also the use of bait to hunt bears. Before the initiative was passed, hunters had to pay $18 for a bear tag and $24 for a cougar tag. The bear tag is now $15.
The commission approved a reduction in tag fees as a possible incentive for more hunters to hunt the animals. Wildlife biologists had predicted bear and cougar populations would increase when the use of bait and hounds was banned.
Wildlife biologist Steve Zender said some hunters will head for the high country Saturday, believing bears will be in huckleberry patches. Those who do, he said, will learn that huckleberries in the high country aren’t ripe yet.
Zender said bears have plenty of berries to eat in the valleys. Serviceberries, chokecherries and mountain ash berries are plentiful.
Although hunters were disappointed when voters approved the initiative banning hound hunting and bear baiting, Zender said, many went back to the old tried-and-true and found effective techniques that were in vogue before hound hunting and baiting became popular.
Zender said hunters should be aware that thousands of acres of forest in northeastern Washington are closed to black bear hunting to protect grizzly bears. He said hunters should check the hunting pamphlet to learn which areas are closed.
Bear and cougar seasons in North Idaho won’t open until Sept. 15.
Kokanee
Loon Lake is still one of the Northwest’s most productive lakes for good-sized kokanee.
If you have the appropriate equipment and are willing to troll from dawn to 9 a.m., you have a good chance to take a limit of 10 kokanee ranging from 10 to more than 18 inches long. You can catch kokanee all day, but early morning is the best time to fish. Besides, your boat won’t be rocked by water skiers and speeding boats.
A sonar can help you find kokanee schools, but if you don’t have one, troll in the vicinity of those who are catching fish. Don’t get too close to other boats; you might hear some harsh language.
You should get your baited lure down 30 or more feet and troll slowly.
If you know anything about still-fishing at night, you have a chance to take a limit. However, you should know that only a small percentage of those who fish at night are successful. If you can’t catch kokanee, at least you’ll be cool.
Kokanee fishing has been so slow at Lake Coeur d’Alene that few, if any, trollers have been able to catch 25, Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, said.
“Fishing is improving very slowly,” he said, “but it’s still not good. However, the fish are nice-sized this summer, averaging about 11 inches. A few to slightly more than 12 inches have been caught.”
Most kokanee anglers are concentrating their efforts in the south end of the lake.
A high percentage who have trolled for kokanee at the Koocanusa Reservoir the last week have put 20-fish limits in coolers, Mike Singer of the Koocanusa Resort said.
The kokanee are deep, requiring fishermen to let out five to six colors of leaded line plus 1 to 2 ounces of lead. Most have been fishing out from the resort north for a mile or two and then returning to the resort area.
They’re catching fish in two age classes: 9 to 10 inches and 12 to 13.
Fishing has been spotty at Lake Mary Ronan, according to Mark Thomas of Camp Tuffit. Nearly all anglers are still-fishing from 7:30 p.m. to twilight. The “bite” lasts about 35 minutes. Kokanee are 10 to 14 inches long.
Trout, Montana
All the blue-ribbon trout streams in the Missoula area are low and clear. However, hatches of big bugs are over and only small mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies are hatching. Best fishing, you may discover, could be in the late afternoons and early evenings.
However, grasshoppers are starting to appear along such streams as the Clark Fork, Blackfoot and Bitterroot and Rock Creek. Be sure to carry good imitations of hoppers.
A spokesman for Grizzly Hackle International at Missoula said fly fishers are getting some trout on hopper, PMD and caddisfly imitations. When the sun is high in the sky, the most productive patterns are nymphs or hopper imitations.
Trout, Idaho
Priest Lake is one of the most consistent trout producers in the Panhandle, Smith said. Anglers who know how to troll for mackinaw trout and how to jig for them are taking two-fish limits. Nearly all the macks are small; a fish weighing more than 10 pounds is a rarity.
Smith said some anglers are jigging for macks in deep water, primarily around the islands and in Cavanaugh Bay. They use 3/4-ounce to 1-ounce glow jigs to get down to the bottom.
It’s been too hot for many anglers during mid-day hours to wade the Panhandle’s cutthroat streams. When the temperatures have reached the mid-90s, hiking up trails has been debilitating. So has scrambling down rocks to fish what looks like productive water.
Despite the heat, pressure on the St. Joe has continued heavy, with a high percentage of anglers from Washington and Oregon.
The St. Joe, Lochsa and lower Selway rivers and Kelly Creek have been the most productive streams. Virtually the only anglers who fish the upper Selway are those who float the roadless sections.
Most of the cutthroats anglers are hooking along the Coeur d’Alene River, including the catch-and-release sections, are small. The mature fish apparently have migrated to small, cool tributary streams.
Spiny rays
Possibly to escape the heat, some are fishing Idaho lakes at night for big channel catfish.
Smith said Fernan and Cocolalla have been popular with catfish anglers. Most of the channel cats in the lakes average 4 to 5 pounds. However, an angler occasionally catches a big one. The largest reported caught this year weighed 19 pounds; it was taken at Fernan.
Anglers bait their hooks with everything from chicken livers to nightcrawlers.
Crappies continue to take anglers’ lures at some North Idaho lakes, including Hauser, Hayden, Swan and Fernan.
Trout, Washington
Some multiple-species lakes continue to be among the best trout producers in Eastern Washington.
Anglers concentrated on the trout-only lakes during the early part of the season and effectively cut populations by 80 to 90 percent. As a result, fishing has been tough at most of the lakes in recent weeks.
However, such lakes as Sprague, Clear, Silver and Waitts and the Potholes Reservoir have been providing fair to good fishing.
Most who fished Sprague last weekend went after trout and did well, according to Mike Mielke, co-owner of the Sprague Lake Resort. Nearly all still-fished, using salmon eggs, corn and Berkley power bait.
The rainbows are good-sized, most longer than 12 inches; a few weigh more than 4 pounds.
Clear, Silver and Waitts have good numbers of brown trout, as well as rainbows.
The Potholes Reservoir is providing better trout fishing than spiny ray fishing. Anglers have been taking limits of rainbows raised at the Mar-Don net pens. A lot of trout stayed near the resort after they were released from net pens.
Salmon
Fishing for small chinook salmon was good at Lake Coeur d’Alene during the weekend, Smith said. Nearly all the salmon boated weighed 2 to 5 pounds.
Most productive area of the lake is the south end. Anglers are trolling flashers and small squids, dodgers and flies and helmeted herring.
Squaw and Hudson bays have been good places to troll.
Pike
It’s been tough to hook northern pike during the hot weather, Smith said. Most have been taken along the deep-weed lines.
Most pike anglers have been concentrating their efforts at Lake Coeur d’Alene, but Hayden seems to have a good population of pike to 15 pounds despite the lack of a limit.