Hunting+Fishing

Salmon and steelhead

This week’s rain has produced a spike in water flows in the Grande Ronde River. Expect steelhead to follow.

Coeur d’Alene chinook are small but numerous, said Jeff Smith at Fins and Feathers, but the good fall bite is just getting started. He suggests dragging a Mini-Squid behind an 8-inch flasher at 2 mph at 80 feet. Arrow Point on the north end and Carlin Bay downlake have been productive.

Chinook fishing remains fair near Bridgeport, with most of the fish coming on plugs such as the Hot-Shots and Kwik-Fish. The fishery is running late, said Rod Hammons at R&R Guide Service, but he anticipates it picking up. Below Well’s dam, it is already improving at the lower hole, 2 miles downriver on the right.

The Yakima River chinook fishery is still slow, said WDFW biologist Paul Hoffarth. Earlier, there were a lot of anglers fishing at the Chandler powerhouse, but effort is just beginning to pick up below Horn Rapids Dam.

In the lower Columbia River last weekend, fishing was fair for coho and steelhead and good for chinook (catch and release). Anglers must release any chinook they catch on the mainstem Columbia River from Rocky Point to Pasco, but opportunities are still open for fall salmon on most area tributaries. Growing numbers of coho are also pushing up many of those rivers – notably the Cowlitz, Lewis and Kalama.

Bonneville Pool remains open to fishing for coho and hatchery steelhead. Wild coho must be released from Bonneville Dam to the Hood River Bridge.

Chinook fishing still has been slow at Hanford Reach. A few steelhead are being caught and released in the Ringold area (season opens Oct. 1).

Spiny ray

Anglers had a rough time of it at last week’s Two Rivers Walleye Tournament, with a lot of good fishermen getting skunked. Banks Lake has been better, and the Columbia Basin lakes, Moses and Potholes, are picking up.

Some of the best crappie and perch fishing is happening at waters such as Long Lake, Downs, Bonnie, Eloika, Diamond and Waitts. Large perch are reported on the south side of the I-90 Bridge over Moses Lake. Perch and a few large crappie are showing on Potholes Reservoir and the mouth of Frenchman Wasteway. MarDon Resort is hosting its annual Marathon Dock Fishing Tournament beginning today at 6 p.m. The tournament runs until 11 a.m. Sunday. Call 1-509-346-2651 for details.

Trout and kokanee

Record low numbers of kokanee salmon in Coeur d’Alene Lake have prompted Idaho Fish and Game to close kokanee fishing there. Because fall is a time when kokanee are especially vulnerable to fishing pressure, little time was available for public comment. IDFG feels kokanee population in Lake Coeur d’Alene should bounce back quickly. Numbers of fry and 1-year-old fish have been near normal levels.

If you are in need of a kokanee “hit,” you are almost out of time as most fish are starting to color. Launching at Dworshak is difficult because of low water, Roosevelt has been stingy, and the jumbo kokes near Chief Joseph Dam haven’t shown yet. In Montana’s Koocanusa Reservoir, most of the kokanee being caught are 2-year-old fish, 7-10 inches. The Koocanusa rainbow bite is picking up.

At Loon Lake, anglers are still taking kokanee on the troll almost anytime during the day using 4 1/2 colors of leaded line, and night anglers say the bite is still good in 36 feet of water. Loon kokes are turning some, but are still in good shape. Anglers are catching lots of rainbow on top, or by still-fishing in 30 feet of water at both Loon and Deer.

Fly casters have one more week to fish Medical Lake before the season closes Sept. 30. Barry Pipella of White’s Outdoor said fishing a bloodworm pattern on the bottom takes patience, but he’s had some big rewards.

Amber Lake will remain open for catch-and-release fishing through November. Even in Wednesday’s nasty weather, Pipella reported catching 11 rainbows up to 21 inches, casting water boatman patterns to shore as well as fishing bloodworm patterns.

Roosevelt guide Lenny Mayo said his clients are taking plenty of 13- to 15-inch rainbow trolling a 65 series Ripp’n Minnow at 3.2 mph just below the surface. He said perch-colored streamer flies are also effective.

A fishery that hasn’t received much attention is sea-run cutthroat trout on the Cowlitz River, from Blue Creek downstream. Anglers can catch and keep five hatchery cutts, which often measure 12-20 inches.

Fly fishermen throwing terrestrial patterns and nymphs are finding good fishing. The Big Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, upper St. Joe and Clark Fork are all worth trying.

Other species

Pikeminnow bounty anglers on the Columbia and Snake rivers have caught 194,900 fish since May as part of the sport reward season that ends Oct. 1. The program pays $4 to $8 for each of the pikeminnow delivered to receiving stations. BPA officials say the program has reduced juvenile salmon losses to prey by 25 percent in recent years. Info: (800) 769-9362 or http://www.pikeminnow.org.

Hunting

Washington’s fall, either-sex turkey season opens Saturday in units 101-124 and runs through Oct. 6. That includes most of Stevens County, where turkey densities are believed to be among the greatest in the West.

Fall permit hunts in several other units will also begin.

A two-day youth goose hunt opens in most units Saturday, as does a statewide youth duck hunt and an Eastern Washington youth upland bird hunt. This will include releases of pheasants at the traditional Sherman Creek site in Ferry County and Lincoln County’s Fishtrap Lake sites. The release site on the Sherman Creek Wildlife Area isn’t affected by recent road closures from the Bisbee Mountain fire.

North Idaho’s youth waterfowl hunt is Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

(Outdoors editor Rich Landers contributed to this column.)