By Alan Liere
Salmon and steelhead
Snake River steelhead fishing is still the best show in town, with some anglers reporting as many as 15 fish every day. Bait fishermen aren’t doing as well as pluggers, but a friend fishing shrimp and bobber said he had good fishing from the shore at Wawawai this week. He found the fish at 8 feet.
The Clearwater River is almost too low for powerboats and steelhead angling has been slow. Fishing has been decent in the Salmon River system.
The Grande Ronde has been slow for fly fishermen, but pluggers are doing well.
At Starbuck, Verna Foley reported that steelhead fishing is fair off the wall at Little Goose Dam with several fish coming in at more than 15 pounds. The Tucannon River has yielded some nice catches of smaller fish, with some being caught right in town. The Tucannon is a small, clear river that can be fished with landowner permission for 2-3 miles.
The main-stem Columbia is giving up good steelhead catches for those who know the river. The fish are spread out and not necessarily hanging in the popular holes. Fishing in front of the fish ladder at Wells can be good as these fish swim around in circles along the rip-rap while they get their bearings.
Trout
Anglers casting Roostertails at points and structures in the bottom five miles of Rufus Woods Reservoir are catching a lot of 2-6-pound triploid rainbow. Anton Jones of Darrell and Dad’s Family Guide Service in Chelan suggests starting your post-cast retrieve by burning it fast for a half-dozen turns, pausing to let the spinner drop for a count of five, then resuming the retrieve at a more moderate pace. He says trolling just under the surface with Wooly Bugger-type flies is also very productive. There have been excellent reports from fly anglers of multifish days near the net pens, but there’s no need to limit fishing to just that area. Trout fishing is “crazy” from the net pens clear to Bridgeport, Gordon Steinmetz at Big Wally’s on Banks Lake said. He favors a 2-3-inch Berkley Gulp Grub with a black jig head.
Lake Roosevelt trollers are finding fish just under the surface and down to 10 feet. Use a Roosevelt Muddler tipped with worm 18-22 inches behind a dodger. The whole system is picking up, but fishing the bays from Lincoln down to Whitestone is a good place to start. Another popular spot for trollers this week has been the San Poil Arm near the log booms. At the Valley White Elephant, John Kallas said they have been selling a lot of orange-backed Rippin’ Minnows. He added that Roosevelt bank fishermen have been concentrating near Hawk Creek in the early evenings, throwing Power Bait from shore.
Spiny ray
Besides a continuing smallmouth bite, Banks Lake is also giving up some nice eating-size walleye to anglers plying 50-60-feet of water. Blue spinners have worked well recently. The large Banks Lake perch have been scarce, though anglers are taking plenty of little ones. Northern pike are providing a lot of fun for fishermen at Wolf Lodge Bay, Harrison and Harlow Point on Coeur d’Alene, and on Hayden, Killarney and Black lakes. Fish are biting aggressively. Try frozen smelt under a bobber, Husky Jerk Rapalas or lipless crank baits at the weed lines.
Hunting
My friend Mike Sweeney and I hunted near Winona on the Palouse River Tuesday and should have killed the limit on pheasants. We took home four. The birds were holding well and seemed to be bunching up already. Elsewhere in eastern Washington, bird hunters are finding pheasants and a few gray partridge around Rosalia, St. John, Colfax, Lamon and Spangle. Friends who hunted near Yakima this week said they saw very few pheasants.
Northern waterfowl are taking their time getting here. A visit with a game biologist in northern Alberta on Monday indicated the ponds are just beginning to get skim ice on the edges. He said this is one of the few times he can remember that hunters could still find ducks on the small sloughs in November.