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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hunting and Fishing

Alan Liere, Correspondent The Spokesman-Review

Salmon and steelhead

The steelhead count for Bonneville Dam is nearly identical to the count on this date a year ago. On Lower Granite, it is about 4,500 fish fewer. The number of steelhead returning to Idaho since June has already exceeded the preseason forecast of 112,000. Idaho biologists are predicting the number will be near the 10-year average (126,000) by the end of the year. On the Clearwater River, anglers are averaging a steelhead every 13 hours. Some of these are B-run fish. On the Snake, the average is 8 hours per fish.

Steelhead guide Tim Johnson of Clarkston said fishing has finally broken loose above Heller Bar, and plugs seem to work better than bait. He recommended booking trips now for November. Info: 888-548-8896.

The Grande Ronde was slow for fly fishermen and pluggers alike last week, but there are fish in the river all the way to Oregon, and plug fishing picked up again earlier in the week. At Boggan’s Oasis, Bill Vail said the water flow is around 600 cfs. He said a couple of hundred feet more will bring a lot more fish into the system.

At Starbuck, Wash., Verna Foley at Darver Tackle reported a 19-pound, 5-ounce steelhead was taken off the wall at Little Goose Dam. Turbine work at Little Goose Dam has slowed fishing there, but most other areas are producing. There’s been little use of the Tucannon River, despite an average catch rate of about 4 hours per steelhead. Foley said the Toucannon is a little low yet for wade fishing.

The Walla Walla River had a 12-hours-per-fish catch rate last week, and steelheaders on the mainstem Snake from Ice Harbor dam to Lower Monumental dam averaged almost 14 hours of effort per fish caught. At Ringold, bank anglers averaged a steelhead per every six rods this week. Some fall chinook were also caught.

Keeping chinook salmon is again allowed on the mainstem Columbia River from Buoy 10 upstream to the Highway 395 bridge.

Recent rains in western Washington have drawn thousands of coho salmon up that area’s rivers. Fishing has been good on coastal streams, but rivers that flow into northern Puget Sound are generally running high and muddy.

Trout

The Clark Fork is providing consistent afternoon dry fly action, and streamers are also providing action at tributary mouths. On the St. Joe, the best action has been in afternoons. Fish are migrating downstream, so the best success has come by moving from pool to pool.

Juli Anderson, Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area manager, reported fly fishing at Z-Lake, a walk-in only water west of Telford Road, is excellent north of the shallow end, with “nice, pink-fleshed” rainbows ranging up to 14 inches.

Lake Lenore is hot for Lahontan cutthroat trout, said Barry Pipella at White’s Fly Shop. The average cutthroat there is 3 pounds, he said, with the big ones running up to 7 pounds. He had a recent 17-fish day casting Bionic Worms and black chironomids in small sizes. Lake Lenore is a selective regulation fishery with a one-fish daily limit.

At Valley White Elephant, John Kallas reported that last Saturday was “the best day in a long time” for Roosevelt rainbow. He and a friend took limits of 14- to 15-inch trout, plus one four-pounder. They were trolling a triple-0 dodger in front of “a big old brown Muddler Minnow” tipped with nightcrawler on two colors of leaded line and 50 feet of leader. Kallas said they graphed a lot of fish in the 15- to 20-foot range and mainly fished the bays below Lincoln near Whitestone.

Spiny ray

Waterfowlers who packed a fishing rod while hunting last weekend reported they had fun fishing for largemouth in the Potholes sand dunes. A client hunting and fishing with guide Gary Russell of Moses Lake caught two 5-pound largemouth off a beaver hut right in front of the duck blind.

The deer and duck openers have cut the number of walleye anglers on Roosevelt, but the few still at it said the fish are hitting at medium depths. The mouth of the Colville, on the edge of the sand flats, and Northport toward the dam are popular destinations this time of year.

Potholes and Moses Lake walleye anglers aren’t doing particularly well. Potholes is rising as much as 4 inches a day, and unsuccessful fishermen speculate there is so much feed, the fish can be more selective.

Bonnie Lake, south of Cheney, is putting out buckets of big perch for anglers plying the north end of the lake. Bonnie is open year-round.

Other species

Bank anglers just below Bonneville Dam averaged a legal sturgeon kept per every two rods this week. Bank angling effort is high in the gorge.

Hunting

Region 1 wildlife biologist Joe McCanna said quail and pheasants in the Palouse are more numerous than in the past 10 years. The pheasant season opens Saturday in Washington, and indications are it will be one of the best.

WDFW district wildlife biologist Jim Tabor of Moses Lake said the Columbia Basin seems to have slightly more birds. The increase is relative, however, and needs to be kept in perspective, especially by longtime Basin pheasant hunters who remember the “glory days” of the 1980s.

The general eastern Washington deer opener got good reports from both whitetail and mule deer hunters. The Deer Park check station reported a 14 percent success rate from hunters returning from northern units – about the same as last year. At Colfax, where the emphasis was on examining bucks for chronic wasting disease, nearly everyone who stopped had a buck. This is not to say success was that high. The Colfax station is new this year, and hunters are not used to stopping there.

The traditional Chewuch River check station saw a 5.5 percent success rate over the opening weekend. That percentage is misleading, however, since some of the best hunting conditions are ahead. By season’s close, overall success rate will be four times as high.

Following the short closure this week, duck hunting is again open beginning Saturday, except for canvasbacks, which are not legal targets again until Nov. 30. Remember, too, that only one pintail per day is allowed in the total bag. The season for all eastern Washington waterfowl will run to Jan. 29. Goose Management Area 5 is open seven days a week, while Goose Management Area 4 is open Wednesdays, weekends, and on specified dates around holidays before Jan. 23. It then remains open daily until the end of the season.

WDFW eastside waterfowl biologist Ron Friesz of Ephrata checked duck hunters on the Desert Wildlife Area during opening weekend. He contacted 59 hunters with 178 ducks along the Winchester and Frenchman Hills wasteways.

Elk hunters can expect about the same opportunity and success as in past years throughout the region. A new any-elk hunt in the Rattlesnake Hills unit in Benton County near the Hanford Reservation opens Oct. 29, but much of the land is private, and permission must be secured ahead of time.

Colockum elk numbers are still below objectives. Hunters who plan to head for the Whiskey Dick, Quilomene and Colockum wildlife areas, be aware that traffic is congested because of construction on the wind turbine farm in that area. Although through-traffic will be allowed on the Beacon Ridge Road, hunters should look for alternative routes.