Hunting+Fishing

Fri., May 18, 2007

Alan Liere Correspondent

Tip of the week

Most anglers fillet their spiny ray and gut their trout. It's the way it has always been done. If you haven't tried it, however, trout are easier to fry if they have been filleted. The process takes a few seconds longer than the more traditional method.

Braggin' Rights

Following a "lights out" trout fishing expedition on Fishtrap Lake, Valley White Elephant's John Kallas and his son-in-law, Brett Miller from South Dakota, fished Sprague Lake with "The King of Sprague Lake," Bill Blosser. Naturally, the trio lost the largest fish at the boat, but they still landed catfish of 10, 13 and 14 pounds.

Overheard

Bear Lake, just north of Spokane, has just been planted with 8,000 8-to 12-inch rainbow, and fishing is expected to be excellent. Juvenile anglers younger than 15, licensed adults accompanied by a juvenile angler, and those with a disability license can fish Bear Lake.

Heads up

Klink's Resort on Williams Lake is hosting its fourth annual family fishing derby Sunday. All proceeds benefit the Shriner's Hospital. Info: 235-2391.

“This is the birthing season in the outdoors, and most likely that fawn or duckling you have stumbled upon has not lost its mother. The best way to help young wild animals is to leave them alone, give them a wide berth, and restrain pets that might harass them. Cats, in particular, left to roam outdoors, are detrimental to ground-nesting birds.

“There will be a two-fathom depth restriction for recreational bottomfish or lingcod beginning Monday through Sept. 31 at La Push and Neah Bay. The restriction does not apply on days when halibut are open.

“Applying early for Idaho controlled hunt drawings and fishing licenses will help avoid last-minute congestion on license vendor computer terminals as the IDFG switches to a new licensing contractor. Anglers who don't have a 2007 Idaho fishing license and who don't want to be part of the rush should buy their licenses before the Memorial Day weekend fishing opener.

“The application period for this fall's Idaho deer, elk, pronghorn and black bear controlled hunts runs through June 5, but hunters who get their controlled hunt applications in by Sunday will be eligible to win $450 in the May 25 drawing. Controlled hunt applications and fishing licenses are available by phone at 1-800-554-8685 or 1-800-824-3729, at Fish and Game offices, license vendors or on the Internet at: www.fishandgame.idaho.gov.

Trout and kokanee

According to district fish biologist Chris Donley, if you can’t catch trout now at Spokane-area lakes, you’d better take up needlepoint. He mentioned Williams, Badger, Fishtrap and West Medical as being some of the best. West Medical has been especially good for fly fishers. At Marshall Lake, Clarence Grimes said cutthroat are biting well on worms and salmon eggs in 60-70 feet of water.

Upper Twin in Lincoln County is good for rainbow, but the lake also has good crappie and bass fishing. Diamond Lake continues to be excellent for rainbow, and some big browns are coming out of Liberty. Anglers at Spokane County’s Clear Lake should be reaping the benefits of extra catchable-size rainbows recently stocked in the lake.

Rainbow trout fishing at Blue and Park lakes in Grant County is good, said fish biologist Jeff Korth. Both lakes are maintaining the catch rate of about two trout per angler. Burke Lake, on the Quincy Wildlife Area, is still seeing fair catch rates.

Roses and Wapato lakes in the Chelan area are excellent. Rainbow, spiny ray and largemouth bass are all biting. Roses Lake has some nice brown trout.

Loon Lake kokes are becoming a little more active, but it is a trolling game. South of Spokane, Chapman Lake, which warms up quickly, is already giving up 10- to 11-inch kokanee to nighttime still-fishermen.

Dworshak Reservoir kokanee fishing has improved with the warmer weather. Anglers are catching these landlocked salmon at depths of 30-50 feet. The reservoir is closed above Grandad Bridge until May 26.

Spiny ray

At midweek, smallmouth bass were bunched up and hammering white, purple or dark green tube jigs off rock points on the Spokane Arm of Lake Roosevelt. The lake is coming up 6-12 inches a day and the water temperature approaches 60 degrees. Roosevelt has a 10-bass limit with no minimum size and one more than 14. The launches at Porcupine Bay and Fort Spokane are usable.

Lots of walleye are coming from Roosevelt north of Kettle Falls, but few from the south. Now should be the beginning of the best time to fish walleye in the big waters of the Columbia Basin. The fish are done spawning and are back on the feed. Moses and Banks are good, and Potholes should be coming on.

In Idaho, the Chain lakes, Hayden, Hauser and Coeur d’Alene are fishing well for crappie, pike, large and smallmouth bass and the occasional trout. It was also reported that a large tiger muskie was caught at Hauser this week. Hayden’s crappie limit is 15 fish, 10-inch minimum. Bass fishing is catch-and-release only until July 1.

Downs Lake may have the best fishing for large perch in Spokane County. The fish are spread out, but they should soon be schooling in the lily pads. In the meantime, the trout fishing is excellent.

Snake River smallmouth bass are a little harder to find this week than last, but the fishing is still good. Bass anglers continue to take some big smallmouth from Dworshak Reservoir in Idaho, especially near Canyon Creek and the Dent area.

Smallmouth have practically been leaping into anglers’ boats in the John Day Pool. Sixteen boat anglers fishing there during the week ending May 13 reported catching a total of 232 bass. Thirty-eight boat anglers fishing the same waters also reported catching 50 walleye.

Spokane-area bass lakes are fishing well this week. There have been numerous positive reports from Liberty, Newman, Eloika, Downs, Clear and Long.

Big crappie continue to thrill anglers on Long Lake. Felton Slough and the island area across from the old Forshees Resort have been most popular. Eloika has a good population of crappie spawning in the shallows, and the inlet to Rock Lake can be good this time of year.

Steelhead and salmon

The Clearwater salmon opener was slow, with only 11 fish checked last Friday and a similar number Saturday. Fishing improved somewhat Sunday and Monday. Fish counts Tuesday at Lower Granite would indicate the run is improving.

On the Snake River near Little Goose Dam, salmon fishing has been pretty good, according to Verna Foley at Darver Tackle in Starbuck. Foley said most anglers are fishing off “The Wall,” where a lot of cooperation is required because of “a terrible, huge, backward swirl.” She said a lot of the caught fish are jack-size, but some big ones have come in. There were 466 adult chinook and 198 jacks counted at Little Goose on Tuesday.

The sport fishery for spring chinook salmon reopened Wednesday on the lower Columbia River from the Interstate 5 bridge downstream to the Tongue Point/Rocky Point line – the same day that fishing for shad and hatchery steelhead opened in the lower river. The fishery is scheduled to remain open through May 31.

Bank anglers on the lower Cowlitz River are catching some spring chinook while boat anglers near Blue Creek are catching winter-run steelhead. On the Kalama River, anglers averaged an adult spring chinook per every four rods. Wind River boat anglers averaged a fish every six rods. The Lewis River was best, with an average of one adult chinook per every other rod.

Drano Lake anglers averaged an adult spring chinook per every four rods last week with lots of jacks observed in the catch. The Klickitat River was slow. Harvest picked up a bit at the Ringold chinook bank fishery.

Other species

The halibut fishery off Westport and Ocean Shores reached their quotas early and closed, but Marine Area 1 off Ilwaco is still holding steady seven days a week. Anglers are generally catching their daily limit, with fish averaging 14 pounds.

Top prize in the seventh annual Port Angeles Halibut Derby on May 27-28 is $5,000. Ticket information is available at www.swainsinc.com or (360) 452-2357.

Shad fishing is open from Bonneville Dam to the mouth of the Columbia. More than 17,000 shad were counted Tuesday at Bonneville Dam.

“The best time to hit them is when the counts start running to 20,000 to 50,000 per day,” said WDFW fish biologist Joe Hymer, noting that information about catching and preparing shad is available on the WDFW Web site: wdfw.wa.gov/outreach/fishing/shad/shad.htm.

Hunting

Copies of the 2007-08 big game hunting rules pamphlet are available at license vendors and WDFW offices. The special deer, elk, moose, mountain goat, bighorn sheep and early fall turkey hunting permit application period began Tuesday and runs through June 28.