Hunting & Fishing

Upland birds, Washington

A few days ago, a friend, Gene Hackney, called from his home in St. John and said, “Don’t bother to come down here on opening weekend to hunt pheasants. There aren’t any.”

He was exaggerating just a bit. There undoubtedly are a few birds in the St. John area. Not all hens failed to produce chicks, but most apparently didn’t.

When my son, John, and grandson, Jess, and I hunted with Hackney early last season, pheasants were everywhere we hunted. We had excellent shooting, and so did most other hunters.

Some of the best pheasant hunting in Eastern Washington last year was in the St. John to Central Ferry area. And there were enough pheasants in the Columbia Basin for fair hunting in some areas.

But something happened during the pheasant nesting season this year. As a result, pheasants are scarce most everywhere in Eastern Washington. Wildlife biologist Jim Tabor of Ephrata speculated that unseasonably low temperatures chilled pheasant eggs. Many of the chicks that survived apparently starved to death. Bugs, chicks’ bread and butter the first few weeks of their lives, were scarce.

There weren’t any significant rains, usually the cause of nesting failures, during the nesting season. And cover was adequate.

As usual, there are areas where pheasants succeeded in raising good-sized broods. Every year, hunters discover isolated areas where there are fairly large numbers of pheasants.

Tabor was so pessimistic about the nesting disasters he said the best hunting this fall will be on the pheasant release sites. The Fish and Wildlife Department will release 25,000 hatchery-raised birds on numerous Eastern Washington sites.

If you’re interested in hunting one of the sites, get information from a Fish and Wildlife Department office.

Upland birds, Idaho

Idaho hunters can start shooting pheasants Saturday. Largest pheasant populations in North Idaho are in Benewah and Nez Perce counties. Wildlife biologists expect hunters who have good bird dogs to find enough roosters for fair hunting.

Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, said he’s heard different reports from hunters about this year’s pheasant population in the Panhandle.

“I guess we won’t know for sure how many pheasants we have until we start hunting,” he said.

For the first time since Idaho opened its season on partridges and quail Sept. 18, hunters were able to hunt mornings and afternoons last weekend. Temperatures before last weekend were too high after 9 a.m. for most hunters to hike the steep talus slopes of the Snake, Clearwater and Salmon rivers.

Quail hunters have had excellent shooting in brushy draws along the Clearwater and Snake River drainages.

Deer, elk

Some North Idaho game management units will open Sunday to hunting deer and elk with any weapon. Most Panhandle units will be open to bull elk hunting. The either-sex season is short, opening Oct. 15 and closing on Oct. 19.

Smith said archers, who have been hunting elk for several weeks, have reported seeing lots of bulls. Because of hot weather most of the time, they didn’t do as well as they had hoped.

Units 4 and 7, which cover the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe river drainages, will open to deer hunting Sunday. Smith said to expect excellent hunting, although many hunters will wait for a snowfall or two before deciding to put venison in their freezers.

Waterfowl

Thousands of Eastern Washington waterfowl hunters, who have been looking forward to the opening of this year’s duck and goose seasons, will start banging away at the birds early Saturday.

Wildlife biologists have predicted excellent hunting for Washington-raised birds. Both ducks and geese brought off large numbers of big broods this year.

Because most ducks will be on waters where they started life, hunting will be good at hundreds of lakes, reservoirs and potholes. Among the most popular public waters will be the Pend Oreille River, reservoirs behind dams, the Potholes Reservoir, Moses Lake and wasteways.

The problem for freelance hunters will be the competition. At the Potholes Reservoir, for example, scores of hunters will set up blinds on the sand-dune islands. In many cases, groups of hunters will be too close to one another.

Many of the ducks hunters see opening weekend will be from North Idaho. Idaho opened its waterfowl season last weekend and some birds, shot at by hunters, moved to Eastern Washington waters.

It won’t take long for ducks that are shot at opening weekend to become wary of decoy spreads and the calling of hunters who haven’t mastered the art of talking to ducks. As usual, they’ll start gathering in big flocks and head for big water. Then hunters will have to wait for the arrival of migrants from Canada.

Most goose hunters will hunt fields where the geese are eating. That means they’ve already made arrangements with landowners to hunt on the property. It’s virtually impossible to get permission to hunt on private property the day before the opening of a season.

Idaho waterfowl hunters had fair to good hunting when their season opened last weekend.

As usual, large numbers of hunters showed up at the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River.

Smith, who hunted one of the lakes with friends, said he and his hunting partners had fairly good shooting. However, he felt there weren’t as many mallards as in previous years.

“There were lots of wood ducks and widgeons,” he said. “In fact, one member of our party shot five wood ducks. He deliberately targeted wood ducks so he could get at least two males and two hens so he could have them mounted for a coffee table display.”

Smith said those who hunted other areas in the Panhandle said they had fair to good shooting.

Hunters averaged slightly more than two ducks each at the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge near Bonners Ferry when the waterfowl season opened Saturday, refuge manager Dan Pennington reported. They averaged three ducks each Sunday. A few geese were bagged each day. Hunting success is expected to improve as migrants arrive from the Canadian provinces.

Steelhead

If you’ve been thinking of fishing for steelhead, now is the time to head for the Snake and Grande Ronde rivers. Fishing may be fair to good along the Clearwater River this fall, but the best fishing usually doesn’t start until the latter part of October.

But more than 65,000 steelhead are in the Snake River and its tributaries. The Corps of Engineers has counted more than 50,000 at Lower Granite Dam.

Water temperatures have dropped low enough for good fishing. The Snake’s temperature 10 miles upstream from Asotin a few days ago was 63 degrees in midafternoon. The Grande Ronde was much cooler, 51 degrees.

Fishing has been fair to good in many places along the Snake.

Fishing was sensational along the Walla Walla and Tucannon rivers during the week ended Sunday. Fisheries biologist Steve Martin said anglers averaged 2 hours per steelhead along the Tucannon and 5 hours on the Walla Walla.

The Snake above Clarkston also provided outstanding fishing, with fishermen averaging 7 hours per steelhead. Other checks: Grande Ronde, 15 hours; Snake at Little Goose, 15 hours, and Snake at Ice Harbor, 47 hours.

Salmon

This is the peak period to fish for chinook salmon along the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River. More than 100,000 adult chinooks have been counted at McNary Dam. At Bonneville Dam, 300,000 salmon have been tallied.

However, Indian fishermen have caught many of the salmon between Bonneville and John Day dams. The male salmon are turning dark. It won’t be long before the flesh turns pale and will be suitable only for jerky or giving to an unsuspecting “friend.”

Some will continue to fish for the chinooks after they’ve turned dark, releasing all they hook.

Smith said fishing for immature chinooks in Lake Coeur d’Alene was good last weekend. Many anglers took home two-fish limits.

He said guide Rick Caddy’s clients took five to six chinooks a day. Most of the salmon were 4 to 5 pounds.

Most effective method for hooking the salmon was trolling mini-squids behind flashers at 75 to 80 feet deep. Trollers worked the main lake in front of Carlin and Turner bays and Arrow Point.

Trout

Fishing has picked up at Eastern Washington’s trout lakes. With surface water temperatures in the 50s and 60s, trout are feeding actively on midge pupae, late-hatching mayflies, leeches and terrestrial insects.

As usual, most productive fishing has been at the selective gear and fly fishing-only lakes. Among the most popular have been Dry Falls, Blue (Sinlehekin), Chopaka and Amber.

Many lakes are closed until spring. Anglers should check their fishing regulations before fishing a lake that might be closed.

The Coeur d’Alene River was still providing good fishing last weekend in the Kingston area, Smith said. Fly fishers hooked and released numerous cutthroat to 17 inches.

Kokanee

Although fishing is still fairly good at Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Dworshak Reservoir, most anglers soon will be turning to hunting or fishing for species other than kokanee.

Smith said the kokanee in Lake Coeur d’Alene were still in good enough shape last weekend for good eating. Fishing was excellent, he said, with anglers taking home 10 to 15 of the 14-inchers.

“The fish are 20 to 40 feet deep and they’re scattered throughout the lake,” he said.