Hunting and Fishing
Salmon and steelhead
Columbia River summer chinook salmon season opens today, and WDFW District Fish Biologist Art Viola says the run looks pretty good.
On Washington’s lower Columbia River tributaries, chinook returns are larger than the preseason forecast. In addition, most summer run steelhead hatchery returns are as good or ahead of last year.
Anglers averaged a summer steelhead per every 6 rods last week on the lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam. Best catches were from Longview downstream where boat anglers averaged one steelhead for every three rods during the first few days of July. A few hatchery summer run chinook were also being caught.
Says Regional Biologist Joe Hymer, “There are quite a few fish around, and both effort and catch should keep increasing for the rest of the month.”
As water temperatures warm, the steelhead are likely to start heading into cooler tributaries such as the Cowlitz, Lewis, and White Salmon rivers and Drano Lake. Anglers headed for Drano Lake are reminded the lake’s boat launch is scheduled to remain closed through the end of July while Skamania County completes improvements.
Lake Washington opens July 17 for a one-day sockeye season. The projected non-treaty harvestable share is 17,500.
Trout and kokanee
On a midweek expedition to Loon Lake, two friends and I caught 22 kokanee and nine rainbow, in addition to perch, sunfish, and bullheads. We took all our fish from 30 feet of water. That’s the good news. The bad news is, the bite didn’t begin until midnight, and we had been on the lake since 7 p.m.
On Lake Coeur d’Alene, the kokes are on the move and you’ve got to search for them. Most recently, there have been good catches in the vicinity of Tubbs Hill and Squaw Bay. If trolling, try to get to the 20-25-foot level. Also in Idaho, Priest Lake and Lake Pend Oreille are giving up mackinaw, though both Rich Lindsey at Priest and Kurt Artner at Pend Oreille, admit fishing was “tough at midweek.” Lindsey did add, however, that his boat has taken eight fish over 20 pounds recently, and a client also caught a 10-pounder with a 16-inch kokanee in its gullet. Both Lindsey and Artner are optimistic about the return of kokanee seasons to their lakes, both saying “There seem to be lots of kokes.”
Badger Lake rainbow are looking for damselfly patterns, and don’t ignore the other southern lakes either, particularly at the edges of light. Fly fishermen are using soft hackle flies on a swing for excellent trout action from the Big Spokane. At the Blue Dun Fly Shop in Spokane, Jan Sadlo says there have been good catches from Jump Off Joe, Waitts, and the chain of lakes off the Tiger Highway, including Starvation and Black. Browns Lake, across the bridge from Usk, has been fishing fairly well, as have Skookum and Marshall. Most fish are small.
The St. Joe River should be at its best the next two weeks. Justin Kimberling at Fins and Feathers in Coeur d’Alene said the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene is also fishing very well. Both rivers are dropping, and the trout are pulling down into the deeper holes.
Last weekend at Browns Lake, numerous volunteers replaced and refurbished informational signs on the fish-viewing platform.
Downriggers are becoming more popular on Lake Roosevelt as the water warms. Trout and kokanee are hitting in the mouth of the San Poil and from Keller to Swawilla Basin. Experiment with depth. There have been reports of good catches at 50 feet, but a lot of fish are shallower than that.
WDFW District Fish Biologist Curt Vail reports rainbow fishing at Curlew Lake in Ferry County is going great, with many fish topping 16 inches or better in length.
Walleye and bass
Boat anglers averaged nearly two walleye and five bass per rod on the John Day Pool last week.
Anglers are catching many small walleye throughout the Roosevelt system, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing and suggests good times to come. Expert walleye fishermen such as Homer Midtlyng of Spokane, have taken plenty of “keepers,” and enjoy the action even if they are releasing more than they put in the cooler. Midtlyng did very well this week near Hunters, but has taken fish all over the system of late. He prefers spinners and nightcrawlers behind a bottom bouncer in 12-20 feet of water.
I fished Potholes last Saturday evening with Gary Russell of Moses Lake, but we got blown off before finding fish. Potholes is still high, but dropping, and good bass fishing has been reported back where the dunes are just beginning to reappear. Sunday morning, three of us caught about a dozen walleye from Moses Lake, mostly near the Off-Road Vehicle Park. Three were keepers, and all took crankbaits.
In Idaho, both largemouth and smallmouth have “gone ballistic,” in Hayden Lake according to Justin Kimberling at Fins and Feathers in Coeur d’Alene. He also says Twin and Spirit largemouth are on the bite.
Other species
Good crab fishing has been reported on the northern end of Camano Island (Marine Area 8-1) and near the mouth of the Snohomish River and the Everett-to-Mukilteo shoreline (Marine Area 8-2). Crabbing in marine sub-area 7 East (Anacortes to Bellingham) is scheduled to open today.
Coeur d’Alene pike are on the prowl at the south end of the lake. Try spinnerbaits or spoons along the weed lines.
Curlew’s tiger muskellunge are visible near weed beds and partially submerged logs where they’re preying on the smaller fish that use underwater structure. Many are still below the legal minimum size of 36 inches, but some larger fish have been taken on big lures that might typically be used for northern pike fishing.
Bullheading is a great way to spend a hot summer night. There are good populations of these delicious, whiskered fish in most local lakes that have not been recently rehabilitated. Loon and Deer both have bullheads, though those at Deer seem to be larger. Also consider Lake Spokane (Long Lake), Newman, Liberty, Sprague, and Clear. Dock fishing or casting from shore with nightcrawlers is effective, as the fish move into very shallow water at night.
Many first-timers to the sport are intimidated by a bullhead’s “bite,” when trying to remove the hook, but the fish really has no teeth to speak of. True, they clamp down and their jaw strength is impressive, but it’s more surprising than potentially harmful. Do be careful of the pectoral and dorsal spines, however, as they are sharp and contain a mild toxin. Grasp the bullhead by sliding the “V” formed by the spread of the middle and index finger behind the dorsal while the thumb and ring finger slide in behind the pectoral fin.
Hunting
Duck hunting for the upcoming season doesn’t look good. During their annual spring breeding population and habitat survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pilot biologists found a 24 percent decline in May ponds and an 11 percent drop in the breeding population of ducks across the traditional survey area that includes Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alaska, Yukon Territory, the Dakotas and western Montana.
The spring breeding population of mallards dropped to 7.4 million from last year’s 7.9 million, 1 percent below the long-term average. The spring mallard population is the lowest it’s been since 1994, the year the most recent drought ended. The total duck population dropped to 32 million from 2003’s 36 million.