Hunting & Fishing

Upland birds

If you hunt pheasants regularly, you know that few roosters will remain in cover once you start working it with your dog. Most will run and fly out of gun range.

Because this year’s pheasant population is considerably larger than those of the last few years, the birds have been hunted hard in prime habitat, such as south Whitman County, the breaks of the Snake River and in Grant and Adams counties.

Hunters have killed a high percentage of roosters since opening day. The roosters still alive are extremely wild, making it necessary for hunters to try to block their escape routes.

If temperatures drop and snow falls the next few weeks, hunters will be able to track the birds to their hiding places. However, it takes several inches of snow to stop the pheasants from running.

The big quail population has hardly been dented since opening day. Only a small number of upland bird hunters, it seems, go after the little birds. Most want birds that make a dinner for a family.

Only the physically active hunters are pursuing chukars.

If you like to hunt Hungarian partridges, wait until there’s some snow on the ground. The gray birds often are visible against snow.

Steelhead, salmon

The hottest steelhead fishing lately has been along the Grand Ronde River in Washington and the Little Salmon in Idaho. Anglers averaged 8.2 hours per fish along the Ronde and 11 hours at the Little Salmon.

Jerry Dedloff of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department’s Snake River laboratory reported these averages for Washington streams for the week ending Sunday: Walla Walla River, 22.6 hours; Snake near Monumental Dam, 23.9; Snake near Little Goose, 19.1; Snake near Lower Granite, 25.6; mid-Snake, boaters, 11.1; and mid-Snake, shore, 31.6.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department reported these averages for last weekend: Lower Clearwater, 25 hours; Snake, 43; Salmon, Whitebird to Riggins, 28; and Little Salmon, 11.

Temperatures of the Clearwater and Grande Ronde rivers are in the 40s. When they drop into the 30s, the steelhead will settle into deep holes for the winter.

Meanwhile, fishermen will continue to catch good numbers of steelhead by trolling and back-trolling.

For a few weeks, the Snake’s temperature will remain a few degrees higher than those of the Clearwater, Grande Ronde and smaller tributaries.

Anglers have been doing well by trolling and back-trolling plugs above and below Lower Monumental and Little Goose dams. At times, they have done well near Lower Granite.

Boaters are fishing from Clarkston to the mouth of the Salmon River, but the Snake just above and below the mouth of the Grande Ronde still is the most popular and productive area.

Movement of steelhead through the Columbia and Snake river systems has slowed. The Corps of Engineers has counted 185,000 steelhead at Bonneville and nearly 65,000 at Lower Granite. Fewer than 9,000 of those tallied at Lower Granite were wild steelhead.

Trollers are catching some 3- to 7-pound chinook salmon in Lake Coeur d’Alene, Steve Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop reported. The immature chinooks are 70 feet deep, he said. Anglers are trolling helmeted herring and small, bright squids behind 8-inch flashers.

The largest salmon are being caught off Driftwood Point. However, some of the best fishing has been in the Kidd Island-Tubbs Hill-Arrow Point area.

Waterfowl

Tens of thousands of ducks, mostly mallards, have arrived in North Idaho and Eastern Washington from the Canadian provinces, creating good hunting opportunities.

However, because most of the small potholes and lakes in Eastern Washington are leased by “duck clubs,” freelance hunters are having a hard time finding spots where there aren’t numerous other hunters. In North Idaho, however, leasing isn’t nearly as big a problem for those who can’t afford to spend several hundred dollars to join duck clubs.

For Washington hunters who aren’t duck club members, the Columbia Basin is the best place to go. The Potholes Reservoir, Moses Lake and the wasteways attract large numbers of ducks and they’re open to the public. The Pend Oreille River in northeastern Washington attracts large numbers of ducks and geese, and those who know the river do well.

Later, when lakes and reservoirs are covered with ice, ducks and geese will move to the Columbia and Snake rivers. Hunting will be good in the Ringold Springs area and on the Umatilla Wildlife Refuge.

In Idaho, duck and goose hunters set up on Coeur d’Alene, Pend Oreille and numerous smaller lakes in the Panhandle. And the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge near Bonners Ferry is open to hunting waterfowl.

Deer

This might be a good time to hunt bucks in northeastern Washington’s high country. Most deciduous trees have lost their leaves and there may be snow on the ground in the high country, enabling hunters to spot bucks more easily.

The late buck season ends Nov. 22. Hunters who didn’t tag bucks during the general season and those who hunt for trophy bucks likely will be out in force this weekend.

Some game management units are open to hunting any buck, and others are open only to whitetail bucks with three-point minimum antlers.

Elk

The general elk season ended Sunday. Only a few hunters were in the Blue Mountains the last few days of the season.

An unusually high number of hunters - perhaps 30 percent more than last year - turned out for the opening of the West Side modern firearms elk season last weekend, according to field reports from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

This year, regulations were changed to allow hunting for three-point or better bull elk on the West Side. In addition, the two-day waiting period was dropped for permit applicants; all modern firearm elk hunters, whether they applied for a special permit or not, were able to start hunting opening day (Saturday).

Turnout was heavy in southwest Washington. Enforcement officers checked more than 700 hunters in the field with 65 legal bulls. In the St. Helens elk herd area, agents checked 595 hunters with 73 elk. Most were large mature bull elk.

West Side elk hunting runs through Sunday.

Spiny rays, pike

Pike fishing was fair at Lake Coeur d’Alene last weekend, Smith said. As long as the weeds in the bays are standing, he said, pike will be prowling around for food fish.

Some fishermen have been trying for bass at Panhandle lakes, Smith said, but fishing has been slow. Water temperatures have dropped dramatically the last couple of weeks.

Trout

Only a few trout lakes are open to fishing. Among them are Amber, Dry Falls and Lenore. All three will close at the end of this month.

However, numerous mixed species lakes are open year-round. Most productive the last few weeks has been Lake Roosevelt. Most anglers who have the right tackle and know how to troll for trout have been taking limits of rainbows that average 16 inches long.

Some anglers have done well by trolling for netpen-reared rainbows at the Potholes Reservoir. If you’ve been planning to troll for big rainbows at Lake Pend Oreille, now is the time to do so, Smith said.

Small lakes, such as Hayden, Fernan, Kelso and Hauser, are continuing to yield some rainbows.