Hunting and Fishing: Trout

There have been some good Roosevelt trout reports out of Hunters, with 16- to 24-inch fish taken on the troll. Rippin’ Minnows and Muddlers with an action disc have been equally effective. Fish are in the top 10 feet of water. Trollers are doing well from the 25-mile area up to the dam and shore anglers are catching fish from Fort Spokane downstream.

Sprague Lake Resort closes its gates after Saturday. A friend and I fished from the docks there at midweek, going two hours without a bite until 3 p.m., when a flurry of activity put three fish in the cooler in 10 minutes before things went dead again. Reports are that trollers are doing much better than shore fishermen.

Rufus Woods can go from excellent to poor over a single weekend, but on most days it’s difficult to keep fish off the hook. The “can line” near Chief Joseph Dam has been excellent for trollers, but the downstream net pens are also pretty consistent. There are many 1- to 3-pounders in Rufus, but it is not unusual this winter to take fish to 17 pounds, and the best time for big triploids is still ahead.

Roses Lake in the Chelan Valley is going great guns. It should be good for fat, foot-long rainbow until it ices up. Bank anglers fishing a slip sinker rig with power bait or worms are having good luck, as are trollers dragging Wedding Rings and dark Roostertails.

Several lakes in Okanogan County shifted to catch-and- keep rainbow trout fishing Dec. 1, including Green Lake near Omak, Rat Lake near Brewster and Davis Lake near Winthrop. All have a five-fish daily catch limit and bait is allowed. Good reports are coming from Rat Lake.

WDFW district fish biologist Chris Donley said there is “decent” fishing at Hog Canyon Lake in southwest Spokane County, with shore anglers averaging three rainbows each and boat anglers averaging limits of five fish. The south end was beginning to freeze at midweek. Most of the rainbow are a skinny 9-11 inches, but there are lots of skinny 12- to 13-inchers. Donley said there doesn’t seem to be any in the two-year-plus class.

Fourth of July Lake is disappointing. Anglers checked during the opening week averaged less than half a fish each, and no one had more than two fish.

“There were very few rainbow in the 20-inch range at Fourth of July,” Donley said. “Most averaged greater than 14 inches but were in poor condition. There were no tiger trout in the harvest despite our spring stocking of catchable-size fish.”

WDFW regional fish program manager Jeff Korth reported that many rainbow trout running 10-12 inches were stocked this fall in several year-round waters on the Seep Lakes unit of the Columbia Basin Wildlife Area. Canal, Windmill and Heart lakes, which lie south of Potholes Reservoir, are producing catches and could continue to be good fisheries after safe ice cover develops.

Korth also noted that Beda Lake, a year-round selective- gear fishery just south of Winchester Wasteway, was recently stocked with some catchable-size rainbows and should fish well until the ice comes.

Beda Lake and several other year-round Grant County lakes south of Interstate 90 were recently reopened after being closed earlier this year.

Steelhead, salmon

Steelhead fishing has been excellent almost everywhere in the Clearwater and Salmon river drainages, with hours per fish in single digits. From Lower Monumental to Little Goose Dam, steelheaders are spending an average of 14 hours per fish caught.

Steelhead near Bridgeport are averaging 7-9 pounds, most coming on plugs or the bobber jig combo tipped with shrimp. Steelheading has been good on the Columbia River from Rocky Reach Dam to Wells Dam, with a catch rate of about 121/2 hours per fish.

WDFW Okanogan district fish biologist Bob Jateff reported a few fish are still being caught on the Methow and Similkameen rivers. Give the Okanogan a try from the mouth on up to the town of Oroville.

Catch per angler hour at Ringold was only slightly lower than the week before, with bank anglers averaging one steelhead for each 14 hours of fishing and boat anglers averaged one steelhead for 81/2 hours of angling. Steelhead angling is good for boat anglers in the John Day Arm of the Columbia.

Winter-run hatchery steelhead are moving up Northwest rivers in increasing numbers. The Bogachiel and lower Hoh rivers are already giving up good numbers of fish, and other steelhead fisheries are expected to come alive in the weeks ahead.

WDFW Chelan district fish biologist Art Viola reported that insufficient numbers of wild steelhead have entered the Wenatchee River to meet requirements of the NOAA Fisheries permit to open a fishing season this year. “Unfortunately, it just doesn’t look like we are going to be able to open a steelhead fishery on the Wenatchee this year,” Viola said.

Spiny ray

Walleye fishing on Potholes Reservoir is “pretty darn good right now,” according to WDFW enforcement captain Chris Anderson. “Lots of 22-inch and bigger fish are being taken around MarDon’s Resort,” he said.

A decent walleye bite continues on Lake Roosevelt, and Banks Lake is still good for a fish or two.

Other species

Razor clam digging began Thursday at Copalis and Mocrocks and continues through Sunday at Copalis, Mocrocks, Long Beach and Twin Harbors. The next dig is tentatively scheduled to begin Jan. 8.

Anglers are still catching legal-size sturgeon downstream from the Interstate 5 Bridge on the Cowlitz River. Sturgeon fishing has generally been slow on the Columbia River. Sturgeon fishing will reopen Jan. 1 from Bonneville Dam upriver to McNary Dam under a new annual quota.

Hunting

WDFW waterfowl specialist Mikal Moore of Moses Lake reported strong numbers of ducks in the Columbia Basin, although not as many as last year at this time. Ducks, especially mallards, are heavily concentrated on reserves such as the Winchester Wasteway, northern Potholes Reservoir and portions of Moses Lake, particularly on the north end near the mouth of Rocky Ford Creek. Goose hunting in the Basin is excellent. Without snow cover, the geese are not concentrated in any one area.

“The Frenchman and Wanapum reserves aren’t holding as many birds because there’s only about 30 percent of normal ice cover for this time of year in those areas,” Moore said. “Columbia River waterfowl hunting is not great, at least not for the diving ducks because they’re still so spread out.”

There are also many birds using the flooded cornfields of the hunt clubs in northern Franklin County, Lower Crab Creek and the Eagle Lakes area of the Basin. Land adjacent to private clubs is benefiting from those concentrations.

With the exception of the December archery season, deer hunting is almost over for the year in Washington and Idaho. Deer hunting was poor in the Panhandle. Jim Hayden of IDFG noted that this was the second-worst deer hunting in the last 25 years. Only 1997 was worse – by just a hair.

A final release of farm-raised rooster pheasants will be made at WDFW’s Sherman Creek and Fishtrap Lake sites before Christmas.