Hunting & Fishing

Deer, Washington

Whitetail deer may be somewhat scarce in some agricultural areas of Stevens and north Spokane and Lincoln counties as the result of a severe dieoff the last few weeks.

Those who hunt deer on private agricultural land in the areas this weekend may wonder why they don’t see many deer in their favorite places. The answer is that hundreds of whitetail deer, nearly all of them adult animals, died of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) starting about Labor Day, according to wildlife biologist Steve Zender of Chewelah. The disease apparently has run its course.

The general buck season for rifle hunters will open Saturday. In addition, holders of the hundreds of antlerless permits for game management units in northeastern Washington will go after does.

This fall is the first time EHD has hit the deer herds so hard since 1992. It has killed large numbers of whitetails around Spokane the last few years.

The virus breaks out during dry fall months, Zender said. It occurs where large numbers of deer concentrate on agricultural land with drying, mud-rimmed ponds. Tiny gnats carry the virus and transmit it to the deer.

“The deer literally bleed to death,” Zender said. “Their capillaries break down and their tongues turn blue. They become disoriented, bump into fences and fall down. They die quickly.

“The outbreak this fall is very serious. In some agricultural areas, one-half to two-thirds of the whitetails apparently got the virus and died.”

The virus affects only adults. Fawns seem immune. An adult that survives the virus seems to become immune.

Zender said those who hunt agricultural land should check with the landowners to find out whether they’ve had dieoffs. If there have been dieoffs, he said, hunters can change their plans.

The virus hasn’t been reported on forested land where there aren’t farms and stagnant ponds.

It’s possible there are still sick whitetails in agricultural areas, he said. “Hunters should not shoot an animal that doesn’t behave normally.”

The Fish and Wildlife Department will have a check station at the weigh station just north of Deer Park on Sunday. Zender said officials hope hunters will stop to provide information on deer they see, as well as check their bucks and does with officials.

Upland birds

Except for release sites, pheasant hunting in nearly all of Eastern Washington last weekend was a bust.

Hunters who have good bird dogs worked hard for a wild rooster or two in the Columbia Basin, the upper Spokane region, Whitman County and in counties south of the Snake River.

Basin regional wildlife manager Mark Quinn said wildlife agents and biologists who checked hunters came up with an average of .017 birds per hunter. And some of the hunters who had birds bagged them at the pheasant release sites.

“The opening weekend turned out the way we thought it would,” Quinn said. “There aren’t many wild birds in the Columbia Basin.”

Many hunters headed for release sites, but many left, not wanting to hunt so close to other hunters.

Indications are hunters didn’t do any better on wild birds in the Spokane region, even along the Snake River breaks, which in past years have yielded many limits.

Hunters averaged fewer than one rooster each on opening weekend in the Spokane region, Madonna Luers, spokeswoman for the Spokane regional office of the Fish and Wildlife Deparment, reported.

No hatchery birds were released on the release sites for the opening. A few of the roosters released for juvenile hunting earlier were bagged by hunters.

Waterfowl

Fish and Wildlife Department officials checked 256 hunters with an average of 2.38 ducks each in the desert and potholes area of the Columbia Basin last weekend, Quinn said.

That compares with 163 hunters who had 3.8 ducks each last year.

Nearly all the checks were on public land and water.

Quinn said he got the impression there were more duck hunters out last weekend than there were last year.

Hunters should do as well the next three weeks. Quinn said most of the locally raised ducks usually move after the big weekend shootout. Some move back to Idaho, some move to Oregon.

Quinn said duck hunting will improve in two to three weeks, or when potholes start to freeze over and the ducks move to big waters, such as the Potholes Reservoir, Moses Lake and the Columbia River. The big migration out of Canada will get under way the second week of November.

Luers said wildlife agents checked 70 hunters with more than 300 ducks and nine geese on and near the Pend Oreille River.

Steelhead

Idaho’s lower Clearwater will be dotted with steelhead anglers’ boats this weekend. The river opened to catch-and-keep steelhead fishing today.

Opening of the season usually attracts hundreds of fishermen, most of them boaters. However, the most productive time for catching steelhead in the Clearwater starts in November.

Steelhead fishing has been sensational along some sections of the Snake River and along some tributaries the last three weeks. Number of hours per fish has been almost unbelievably low.

The Walla Walla and Tucannon rivers have been among the most productive tributaries.

Those who fish above and below Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams have a good chance of hooking steelhead. Fishing has been slow at Lower Granite Dam.

A hot spot has been where the Clearwater and Snake rivers converge at Lewiston. At times, boaters, fishing wobbling lures and even jigs under bobbers, have limited in an hour or two.

Fishing also has been good along the Snake between Asotin and the mouth of the Grande Ronde.

Trout

Trout are on the prowl for food at the region’s lakes and streams.

Although hatches are not what they were last spring, fish are keying in on the few insects that are hatching. They’re also going after immature damselfly, dragonfly and mayfly nymphs, as well as leeches, crawfish and terrestrial insects.

Fishing has been excellent at many lakes, primarily at the selective-gear and fly fishing-only lakes in Eastern Washington. What’s more, there are no longer big crowds of anglers at the lakes. In some cases, two or three fishermen have had lakes to themselves.

Amber, a selective-gear lake, has been attracting Spokane-area fly fishers who don’t want to drive long distances to catch fish.

Both fly and spin fishers have been hooking large numbers of 11- to 20-inch trout at Dry Falls Lake. Most of the fish they hook are rainbows, but a few have been brown trout. Fishing has been slow at some selective-gear lakes, including the Lenice-Nunnally group. However, it’s been excellent at Blue (Sinlahekin), Aenaes and Chopaka lakes in Okanogan County.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department has released 11-inch-plus rainbows in several Panhandle lakes, including Fernan and Hauser. Incidentally, this is the time of year when fly fishers do well on midge patterns at Hauser.

Deep-trolling anglers have been catching their limit of small mackinaw trout at Priest Lake.

Some Idaho and Montana streams continue to provide good fly fishing. Now that recreationists no longer float the Coeur d’Alene River, anglers who don’t mind releasing the cutthroat they hook have had the lower river to themselves.

Indications are that most of the big, mature cutthroat that have been living in the upper St. Joe are moving down the river to deeper holes, where they will spend the winter.

Hardcore fly fishers no longer have to compete with hordes of other fly fishermen along many of Montana’s famous “blue ribbon” trout streams. For experienced fishermen, this is a good time to fish the Clark Fork, Bitterroot, Blackfoot, Missouri and other streams.

The Kingfisher fly shop at Missoula reported the Clark Fork has been “providing excellent dry fly fishing lately.” Hatching have been Tricos, Blue-winged Olives, Mahogany Duns and Pale Morning Duns and a few October caddisflies.

Fly fishers have been luring trout on size-12 Parachute Adams, sizes 14 and 16 Mahogany Dun thorax patterns, sizes 16 and 18 Parachute Blue-winged Olives and size-10 Royal Stimulator. A size-12 Parachute Adams has been productive all day along the Bitterroot. Sometimes, a size-14 Mahogany Dun thorax pattern will take the reluctant trout.

Mahogany Duns, midges, Blue-winged Olives and caddisflies have been hatching along the Missouri.

Salmon

Although more than 100,000 adult chinook salmon have climbed the fish ladders at McNary Dam, fishing along the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River has been frustrating at times for the scores of anglers who have spent 6 to 8 hours on the river.

Some anglers, however, have caught limits nearly every time they’ve fished the river. For example, three Spokane fishermen, fishing above Vernita Bridge one day last week, caught six chinooks. The next day, though, they could catch only three.

High water has made it difficult for fishermen to get their lures down to the bottom when they drift Silver Fox spinners or bait. Most anglers have added weight to their lines to get the lures and bait on the bottom.

Male chinooks are dark. None of the salmon being hooked are bright after they’ve been in coolers an hour or so.

If you want to catch a bright chinook or two, troll Lake Coeur d’Alene. Justin Kimberling of the Fins & Feathers shop said “anybody can catch one or two now.”

The salmon are 80 to 110 feet deep. Most anglers have been trolling minisquids behind dodgers. Some are hooking salmon on helmeted herring behind dodgers.

Spiny rays

Walleye fishing has been fair to good at Lake Roosevelt and Sprague Lake. It’s still slow at the Potholes Reservoir, although once in a while an angler brings in a fish weighing more than 5 pounds.

Idaho fishermen have been catching small perch at several Panhandle lakes.