By Alan Liere

Fri., Feb. 23, 2007

The Spokesman-Review

Tip of the week

A friend of mine has a slick way of cleaning panfish with a pair of scissors-like kitchen shears. He cuts the back fins out by holding the shears horizontally and snipping the flesh under the fin from tail to head. Then he turns the fish over and does the same thing on the belly fins, also cutting horizontally through the stomach. The head is snipped off, the intestines fall out, and grabbing a flap of skin with the fingers and pulling it toward the tail finishes the job. The whole process takes about 30 seconds.

Braggin' rights

A 1-pound, 9.3-ounce triploid rainbow was the fish of a lifetime for Rich Blain of Oroville, Wash. He participated in last Saturday's third annual Northwest Ice Fishing Festival on Sidley Lake near Molson, Wash., in the Okanogan Highlands. Blain won the 14-foot Lund boat grand prize for biggest fish.

Overheard

Potential shortages of bait-size herring from Puget Sound and Canada may push retail prices to $8 to $11 per dozen this season. Smelt, too, will be in limited supply, with eight or fewer selling for $5.99.

Heads up

Starting with Wednesday's meeting, the Spokane Walleye Club will host seminars for beginning walleye anglers on the last Wednesday of each month. Meetings will begin at 7 p.m. at the Northwest Wildlife Council Building (6116 N. Market). The first meeting will cover jig fishing, the March 28 meeting will cover bottom bouncing, the April 25 meeting explains drop shotting, and the May 30 meeting will deal with plugs for walleye.

•Because of a recent regulation change, Spectacle Lake will open to fishing on April 1, rather than March 1 as in past years

•Steelhead fishing on the Columbia above Wells Dam has been slow with few fish being caught in recent weeks. Anglers are reminded to check the WDFW Web site for updates, since the season can close at any time when wild fish take limits are reached.

Steelhead and salmon

Steelhead anglers last week averaged a fish every eight hours on the Clearwater above Orofino, and 13 hours per fish from the Orofino Bridge to the confluence.

The Grande Ronde was running high at midweek, but there are new fish in the system and they are beginning to congregate near the Cottonwood Acclimation Pond. Fishing should remain good if heavy rains don’t develop.

The Dalles Pool may be the best place in the region to catch steelhead while areas farther west recover from a week of heavy rain. In creel surveys conducted through Sunday, boat anglers fishing the Columbia River behind The Dalles Dam averaged nearly one steelhead per rod.

West of the Cascades, periods of wind and rain haven’t hampered the blackmouth salmon fishery in Puget Sound, where anglers continue to do well from Point No Point to the San Juan Islands. This has been one of the best blackmouth seasons in the last five years. Anglers also have their pick of a several marine areas open for hatchery chinook salmon, with another Marine Area 13 (South Puget Sound) opening Thursday.

Time is running out for West Side steelheaders. A number of area rivers, including the Snohomish, Nooksack and Skykomish, close to steelhead fishing at the end of the month.

Trout and kokanee

Triploid Rainbow fishing on Rufus Woods Reservoir has been fair. Bait casters are taking fish near the second set of net pens, but trollers are also finding success uplake from there and along the “can line” of Chief Joseph Dam.

Thursday will mark the opening of the Tucannon River impoundments in Columbia County, and barring another cold snap, it looks like all the lakes will be ice-free and freshly stocked with catchables and “jumbos.” For current conditions, call The Last Resort at (509) 843-1556.

Ice fishing is about over at Fourth of July and Hog Canyon Lakes in Spokane County as there is considerable water around the edges. They remain open to fishing through March, however, and could provide some good open-water angling soon.

Sprague Lake ice has a blue tinge to it – a sign it is getting rotten. Ice fishing is probably over there.

Waitts Lake in southern Stevens County closes Wednesday, but Amber Lake in Spokane County opens Thursday for a catch-and-release until the general fishing season opener in late April. Anglers can expect to catch cutthroat and rainbow, but the ice wasn’t off yesterday. North Silver, another Spokane County lake that opens Thursday, was stocked with trout last fall.

Coffeepot Lake in Lincoln County also opens Thursday, but though full of water, it, too, is ice-covered at this time. There are some big rainbow in Coffeepot, as well as perch, bass and bullheads. Coffeepot is a selective-gear lake, and the trout limit has changed this year. Anglers will be allowed to keep but one trout per day, and it must be more than 18 inches.

Burke and Quincy lakes may be the best of the Columbia Basin lakes that will open Thursday. Limits of 10- to 12-inch rainbow are anticipated. Upper Caliche Lake was stocked with larger fall fingerlings, with should run about 9 inches by the opener. Upper Caliche received 9,500 fingerlings, Lower Caliche 5,000 and West Caliche 500.

In Martha Lake, cormorants and sunfish have been a problem for fingerling survival, but up to 5,000 catchables (12-inch rainbow) have been stocked. Martha Lake was also stocked with 11,200 rainbow fingerlings last spring.

Success rates vary lake to lake at the Quincy Walk-in Lakes on the west side of the Wildlife Area. Yearlings range from 9-12 inches, with carryovers 14-18 inches. Crystal, Cup and Spring lakes have been the most consistent.

Dusty Lake offers good numbers of 16- to 20-inch rainbows, with some whoppers remaining from the 2004 triploid rainbow plant. Tiger trout have also been stocked since 2004 and, more recently, brown trout. Dusty Lake is managed under the selective fishery rules.

In Lenice and Nunnally lakes, sunfish have taken a toll on fingerlings, but yearlings should run 14 inches and both lakes have received regular plantings of 1- to 1.5-pound triploid rainbow. There are also brown and tiger trout stocked in small numbers. The last two state records for tiger trout have come from these waters. Selective fishing regulations are in effect on both lakes.

Lake Lenore is carrying as many cutthroat as ever. Three- to 4-year-old fish, weighing 3-5 pounds, should be numerous. Lake Lenore has selective fishery regulations, with catch-and-release requirements in effect from March through May.

On the north end of the region, Spectacle Lake in Okanogan County opens Thursday, and could provide some decent ice fishing. Anglers are still catching good numbers of fish on iced-up lakes in the northern part of the region, said Bob Jateff, a WDFW fish biologist based in Omak. Patterson Lake, near Winthrop, is producing rainbow trout as well as yellow perch. Anglers fishing Bonaparte Lake (east of Tonasket) are catching eastern brook trout and kokanee.

Other lakes, such as Pampa Pond in Whitman County and Fishhook Pond in Walla Walla County, will also open Thursday.

Year-round lakes scheduled to receive plants by Thursday include Bennington, Quarry, Lions Park and Jefferson Park juvenile fishing ponds in Walla Walla County, and Golf Course and West Evans ponds in Asotin County.

Spiny ray

Two friends and I fished Eloika Lake through 12 inches of solid ice Tuesday and caught more than 75 perch between dawn and 10:30 a.m. when the bite abruptly quit. I have been fishing Eloika Lake for 50 years and, at 8-10 inches, these perch averaged larger than any I have caught there. A large florescent white Swedish Pimple baited with maggots worked best in 11 feet of water north of Jerry’s Landing. Parking there cost $3, but the public access to the south has open water around the edges.

Fishing was fair for walleye this week at Rufus Woods and Lake Roosevelt. The water is still a little cold and fish were mostly in the 40- to 50-foot range.

Boat anglers are catching walleye at Bonneville and The Dalles pools, but the smallmouth haven’t started yet.

Other species

The sport oyster fishing season at Cushman Park in Mason County on the west side of Hood Canal opens Thursday. Info: Alex Bradbury, WDFW Point Whitney Shellfish Laboratory, (360) 586-1498, ext. 208.

Hunting

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to set big-game seasons in Boise, March 7-9, at Fish and Game headquarters, 600 S. Walnut. The three-day meeting kicks off with a public comment period at 7 p.m. March 7 in the Trophy Room at Fish and Game headquarters.