Hunting And Fishing
REPLAY from Sports, December 23, 2000, page C2: The expiration date for Washington hunting and fishing licenses was incorrectly reported Friday in the Hunting and Fishing Report. Under a new system applied this year, Washington licenses expire March 31.
Licenses
If you’re not finished with your Christmas shopping, consider buying a fishing or hunting license or a combination fishing-hunting license for your husband, wife, son or daughter.
The 2001 licenses are available at scores of vendors. You can spend less than $20 for a fishing license or several hundred dollars for a non-resident hunting license.
The year 2000 licenses are no longer valid after Dec. 31. To find out prices of licenses, get a 2000 fishing or hunting pamphlet.
Upland birds
The pheasant seasons in both Idaho and Washington will end in nine days. It could be a good time to hunt the big, gaudy and usually wary birds. If the weather is mild and there’s no snow on the ground, the roosters probably will do a lot of running. If, on the other hand, snow falls and the temperature nosedives, hunters can track them to their hiding places.
Pheasants are scarce in most of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, but there are plenty of them in some areas, particularly the Snake and Clearwater breaks and in a few farming areas.
Hungarian partridge and quail populations are large enough to provide good hunting. The Huns are plentiful in agricultural fields above river breaks and there are quail coveys in nearly every brushy draw.
Steelhead
The weather can be abominable along the Snake River and its tributaries at times, but the steelhead fishing can be hot.
The key to hooking a steelhead or two during the cold winter months is to fish where the steelhead are biding their time before they migrate farther to their spawning water.
The most productive spots the last week or so have been the mid-Snake from Asotin to the mouth of the Grande Ronde, the lower Clearwater, confluence of the Snake and Clearwater, the Grande Ronde and the lower Tucannon.
With water temperatures now in the 30s, many steelhead anglers have joined the bait fishermen and are using jigs under bobbers in the slow-moving water, drifting bait or anchoring over steelhead water and plunking bait.
Fortunately for boat anglers, air temperatures have been above freezing along the Snake and its tributaries most of the time the last couple of weeks. However, there’s a likelihood that daytime temperatures won’t get above freezing during much of late December and in January.
When temperatures remain low during the daytime, many boaters carry buckets of sand so they can launch and retrieve their boats. Boat ramps can be coated with ice.
Jeff Smith, owner of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene, said that friends have been catching big steelhead along the Clearwater River in the Peck area. He said they used one-eighth ounce jigs with white heads and black bodies under slip bobbers. They tipped the jigs with small pieces of shrimp. Anglers who fished near Little Goose Dam during the week ended Sunday averaged 13 hours per fish, biologist Joe Bumgarner of the Fish and Wildlife Department reported. The fastest fishing was along the lower Tucannon, where anglers averaged 10 hours. Slowest fishing was near Ice Harbor, where fishers averaged 61 hours.
Salmon
Trollers are still catching chinook salmon at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Smith said.
He said that Rick Caddy took four clients fishing a few days ago. The clients caught six chinooks, the largest of which weighed 12 pounds. Most of the rest were about 7 pounds.
Caddy trolled helmeted herring near Powderhorn Bay in 100 feet of water.
Smith said some trollers have been catching chinooks in 120 feet of water in front of Bennett Bay and off Squaw Bay. They’ve used helmeted herring as well as minisquids behind flashers.
Waterfowl
Ducks and geese are moving around a lot these winter days. However, iced-over lakes and reservoirs and deep snow haven’t yet caused them to move to the lower Columbia River. The birds spend the days on Moses Lake and the reserves and often don’t fly to the harvested corn and wheat fields until just before or after shooting hours.
Some Spokane hunters, figuring that by mid-December thousands of ducks would be resting on the Columbia River above Ringold Springs, bagged only a few ducks during a recent trip to the area.
Maybe there will be large numbers of ducks on the Columbia this weekend. But maybe not. What will be certain, though, is that there will be lots of hunters sitting in their blinds waiting for birds to set their wings and head for the hunters’ decoys.
Most small lakes, potholes and creeks are now covered with ice. The ducks and geese are spending their time on Roosevelt, Banks and Stratford lakes when they are not feeding.
When the weather worsens, they’ll move to Ringold and the lower Columbia.
Meanwhile, some duck hunters have had good shooting at leased lakes and goose hunters have had excellent shooting at harvested wheat and corn fields, many of which are under lease by guides.
Smith said duck and goose hunting has been good in some bays around Lake Coeur d’Alene. Hunters have set out decoy spreads in Cougar and Loff’s bays and off the ice edges at Harrison.
Spiny rays
Most of North Idaho’s popular perch fishing lakes now are covered with enough ice for safe fishing, Smith said.
The biggest perch, measuring 10 to 11 inches, have come from Gamble Lake. However, the perch population seems small and fishers haven’t caught large numbers.
Other good fishing spots include Fernan, with perch 9 to 11 inches, and Round, 8 inches.
Rose Lake has been yielding small bluegills and some bass.
Anglers also are catching come perch through the ice at Sprague Lake and good numbers of fair- to good-sized perch at Moses Lake.
Trout, Washington
Eastern Washington’s winter fishing lakes are capped with enough ice to support anglers safely. However, fishers should test the ice periodically as they move around.
Snow has covered the ice at Fourth of July, Williams and Hatch lakes in the Spokane region and the winter lakes in Okanogan County. It isn’t deep enough at lakes in the Spokane region to make walking difficult. The snow will slow the thickening of the ice cover.
The last several days, fishing hasn’t been nearly as good at Fourth of July Lake as it was during the opening weekend. However, anglers have had little trouble taking home two rainbows in the 15-to 22-inch class.
Because the 11-inchers haven’t been very active yet, most anglers have had to be contented with two rainbows. The daily limit is five trout, only two of which can be over 14 inches.
Fishing at Williams has been fair to good since the ice hardened and anglers could trust it. Trout in Hatch are about 11 inches long.
Northern Pike
It’s tip-up time at some of North Idaho’s lakes. Smith said anglers are setting out as many as five tip-ups at Hayden, Fernan, Upper Twin and the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River.
The most consistent pike fishing has been at Hayden. Anglers have been using both herring and smelt to lure the pike at Hayden and the other lakes.
Whitefish
The Columbia River between the Vernita Bridge and the Priest Rapids Dam is the best area to fish for good-sized whitefish. Anglers, fishing from shore with flies baited with maggots, have been catching 12- to 15-inchers.
Whitefish in the Grande Ronde, Tucannon and the streams in the Yakima region aren’t nearly as large.
The largest whitefish are in Soda Lake south of the Potholes Reservoir. However, the ice hasn’t been thick and solid enough for all but a small number of anglers. When the ice is 2 or 3 inches thicker, the lake will be dotted with anglers, most of them after perch. Once in a while a fisher pulls at 15-to 18-inch lake whitefish through an ice hole.