Field Reports

FLY FISHING

Local courses enrolling

Local courses on fly fishing are gearing up to educate anglers before the spring seasons:

“Free fly fishing clinics for kids 10-15 years old are being offered on Jan. 7 and March 4 through Swede’s Fly Shop, 1611 N. Ash.

Each clinic will feature a 30-minute video overview of the sport, an introduction to fly tying and a casting lesson. The clinics will be offered 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. taught with help from members of the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club.

For information and pre-registration (each clinic limited to eight students), call 323-0500.

“A school taught by the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club runs Mondays Jan. 23-March 6, with 7 p.m. classroom sessions at Ferris High School plus an unscheduled Saturday casting session. The course will cover equipment, lake and stream fishing, simple entomology and fly patterns. The $62 fee includes an instruction book and equipment if needed.

Sign up through the Spokane Falls Community College Institute for Extended Learning, 279-6000, and ask for course No. 7316.

“The Spokane Fly Fishers are taking registration for their 23rd annual Fly Fishing School, which starts Feb. 16. The school involves one evening session a week and some weekend outdoor casting sessions through March 30.

Classroom sessions will be held Thursday evenings, 7 p.m.-9 p.m., at St. Francis School, 1104 W. Heroy

Cost is $70 for adults and $40 for kids 16 and under. The course, designed for beginner and intermediate fly fishers, covers equipment and fly selection, stream and lake fishing, plus when and where to go for the best fishing.

Also included is a six-month membership in the club, which schedules regular group outings to some of the region’s best fishing waters.

Info: Steve Bohrer, 464-1090, Louie Martin, 328-5803 or on the Internet at www.spokaneflyfishers.com.

“Fly tying classes for beginners will be taught by G.L. Britton at White’s Outdoor, 4002 E. Ferry Ave., starting at 6 p.m. Jan. 3 and running weekly through Jan. 31. Cost: $65, includes tools and materials. Class limited to eight. Call 525-1875.

“Intermediate and advanced fly tying techniques will be taught at White’s by Britton in a similar schedule starting Feb. 7 along with a steelhead fly-tying class that starts Feb. 9. Sign-up: 525-1875.

“Several fly-tying classes at different North Side venues will be taught in January, February and March at the Spokane Falls Community College Institute for Extended Learning. Each eight hours of instruction costs $37 and covers a different topic, such as basic patterns or advanced sessions in tying emerging patterns or deer hair patterns. Sign up: 279-6000

“A rod building class taught in two sessions by Steve Moran Jan. 4 and 11 at White’s Outdoor. The $60 fee does not include rod blank and components. Sign-up: 525-1875.

Rich Landers

HUNTING

Turkey hunts canceled

With wild turkey populations booming throughout much of the West, the unthinkable has happened in southwest Idaho, where fall turkey-hunting seasons will not be allowed for the next two years.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission recently eliminated the fall general seasons in hunting units 33 and 39 because of declining hunter success in recent years, indicating the turkey populations are declining.

About 30,000 hunters tried to get a turkey in 2005, up from 25,000 in 2004. There are an estimated 30,000 wild turkeys in Idaho.

Charlie Henry, president of the Idaho State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation, said the decline is the first for a local turkey population.

Staff and wire reports

NORDIC SKIING

Telemark series

The 4x4 Telemark Racing Series, sponsored by Mountain Gear and Ski Inland Northwest, will begin Jan. 7 during the Teledaze events at 49 Degrees North.

The annual series has a place for all levels of cross country downhill skiers, with men’s and women’s categories in the open, novice masters and junior divisions.

“Even though some of the competitors are world class athletes, the environment is almost non-competitive,” said Rick Dethman, race coordinator. “You race against yourself.”

Other races in the series are set for Feb. 4 at Silver Mountain, Feb. 11 at Mount Spokane and Feb. 18 at Lookout Pass. All races except for Mt. Spokane will start at 11 a.m. The Tele-Stars Race at Mt. Spokane will start at 6 p.m.

For a $30 advanced registration fee per race, participants will receive a lift ticket, the chance to demo the latest skis and equipment from top telemark manufacturers, including an opportunity to participate in a free telemark ski clinic, and a chance to win prizes. Cost is $20 when a race is held at a mountain for which a participant has a season lift pass.

Info: www.mountaingear.com/ retail or call 326-8180, extension 262.

Rich Landers

BIRDWATCHING

Waterfowl numbers vary

Eleven Moses Lake birdwatchers who braved frigid temperatures last weekend for the Audubon Christmas Bird Count confirmed what waterfowl hunters had already experienced in Central Washington.

“Numbers were way down for a variety of species, particularly waterbirds,” said Doug Schonewald, Moses Lake count coordinator. “The total tally of ducks, geese, and swans did not equal last year’s mallard count. Species normally counted in the thousands were counted in the low one-hundreds. Many duck species were represented by counts of fewer than 20.”

“On Lake Pend Oreille, however, Idaho Auduboners found huge rafts of diving ducks.

At the south end of the Long Bridge alone, the group saw an enormous concentration of perhaps 10,000-15,000 scaup and other Aythya, wigeon, mergansers and coots, in the bay to the east,” reported Lisa Hardy.

“On Lake Coeur d’Alene, Auduboners counted 32 double-crested cormorant, the highest count in the five years they’ve shown in that area.

Rich Landers

FISHING

PdO kokanee update

Higher winter pool levels are providing a significant improvement in kokanee egg to fry survival at Lake Pend Oreille, according to Idaho Fish and Game Department researchers. The 9 percent survival rate in 2004-2005 was up from 2 percent in 2003-2004, the department said.

Unfortunately, the gains are being eaten by predatory fish, said Ned Horner, department regional fisheries manager.

“Survival rates of kokanee 1 to 2 years old are declining,” he said, noting other factors that point to a collapsing kokanee population. Meanwhile, lake trout populations have been increasing significantly in the past two years, he said.

“It’s increasingly clear that we will not be able to control lake trout expansion in Lake Pend Oreille with a sport fishery alone,” he said.

A public meeting to present the research findings and discuss alternatives for reducing lake trout and rainbow trout will be held 8 a.m.-noon, Jan. 21 at the Sandpoint Community Center, 204 S. First Ave.

Research on lake trout and lake whitefish on Lake Pend Oreille will resume in February, when researches set out gillnets to sample the fisheries.

Fishing regulations were changed in 2000 in an attempt to reverse the kokanee decline. Kokanee fishing was closed, rainbow trout limits were increased to six of any size and the limit on lake trout was removed. A commercial rod and reel fishery on lake trout was authorized in 2003.

Nevertheless, angler support is low for the researchers’ recommendation to reduce rainbow trout numbers.

Anglers released 70 percent of the fish they caught this year during the Lake Pend Oreille fall fishing derby, the highest percentage since 2000 when Fish and Game officials began encouraging anglers to kill more rainbows to help save the kokanee.

Rich Landers

HUNTING

Landowners courted

Concerned about the steady loss of private lands open to hunting, Washington Fish and Wildlife commissioners recently approved incentives for timber companies and other landowners to open their gates to hunters.

If funding is authorized by the Legislature, the policy would:

“Provide financial incentives to landowners who allow hunting on certain lands.

“Allow some landowners to sell permits for game that would be hunted on their land in return for allowing free access to randomly drawn permit hunters.

“Significantly increase the fines imposed on hunters who take game without permission from lands enrolled in the new access program.

A similar program was considered last year, but the legislature failed to approve the $5 hunting license surcharge required to fund it.

Rich Landers