Hunting + fishing

Fly fishing

Anglers looking to fish the St. Joe or Coeur d’Alene rivers have enjoyed open roads and plenty of easy access on both rivers. Fishing has been steady but not spectacular.

Smaller flies under float indicators are taking Methow River steelhead.

Trout

Rufus Woods may be picking up after a slow January. It seems most anglers are coming home with at least one big fish. A friend fished the reservoir Tuesday, throwing everything from spoons to jigs to Roostertails. Not until he began trolling a big Rapala did he have any luck, eventually boating a 3- and 10-pounder.

Lake Roosevelt has been kind to some and fickle with others. Some of the best reports have come from the San Poil arm. This is not the lights-out trolling of two weeks ago, but on some days it can still be good. Small Apex Lures in green, red or orange have been popular this week with successful trollers. One fishing party swears by orange back Rapalas right on top along the south shore from Spring Canyon to the Dam. They said the trick is to get it as far behind the boat as you can and zigzag at 2.5 mph.

Ice on lakes throughout most of the region remains questionable. Bill Baker, WDFW northeast district fish biologist, said the two winter-season rainbow trout lakes – Williams and Hatch in Stevens County near Colville – remain iced over and a few folks are fishing through the ice. But ice fishing is definitely at your own risk, he said.

Chris Donley, WDFW central district fish biologist, said there is open water at the northeast end of Sprague Lake, and anglers continue to catch the lake’s big rainbow trout.

Rock Lake browns and rainbow are lurking in shallow water. Try casting plastics and plugs toward shorelines.

WDFW fish biologist Matt Polacek recommends Banks Lake in Grant County for good fishing opportunities for rainbow trout and kokanee. He said the main lake is ice free but a small group of anglers are catching whitefish and perch through the ice on the south end of the lake.

Several of Idaho’s smaller lakes have provided some good ice fishing. Spirit Lake has produced great catches of kokanee and a few perch.

Boaters looking to fish the big Idaho lakes have found ramps are accessible and in great condition around the region. To fish the south end of Pend Oreille, launch at the Eagle ramp at Farragut State Park. The boat basin and Pringle Park near Hope are in good condition for anglers fishing the north end. The mackinaw bite has been good for small fish. Priest Lake has been good for small macks. Go deep.

Steelhead and salmon

Clearwater steelhead anglers averaged about a fish every nine hours last week except on the South Fork where the average was closer to 20 hours per fish.

The Grande Ronde water conditions are excellent, but steelhead fishing was a little slow this week. There are still a few big slabs of ice along the banks, but most of it is clear. Other Snake River tributaries like the Touchet, Tucannon and Walla Walla have had good steelheading.

The main stem of the Columbia is slow for steelhead, but the ice is off the Methow and Okanogan rivers and there are fish in all the holes. Drift boats can launch at Omak and take out at the second bridge in Okanogan. Jig and bobber setups are working for the gear fishermen.

On The Dalles Pool, bank and boat anglers averaged 1.5 and 1.0 steelhead per rod, respectively, last week. About 70 percent of the fish caught were wild and had to be released.

At Ringold, the January catch and harvest were higher than any of the past six years and the remainder of the fishery should follow this pattern of slightly above normal catch and harvest.

Spiny ray

Lake Roosevelt walleye are beginning to stage for their annual run up the Spokane arm and anglers are finding them in 35-40 feet of water. Blade baits and jigs are taking fish near structure breaks along the flats.

Ice on Idaho’s chain lakes has become marginal. Cocolalla, Gamble, Avondale, Fernan, Hauser, Round and Kelso, however, are giving up a variety of species, including perch, trout, crappie and bluegill.

Three friends and I tried Eloika on Monday and had fair ice fishing through 6 inches of good ice just north of Jerry’s Landing. About 75 percent of the catch was male perch. Ice is breaking away from the shore, but in some places a long step will find you more solid footing.

Patterson Lake in the Winthrop area is still producing catches of perch and the ice is OK. A rainbow is taken now and then. Patterson is loaded with perch and the game department is hoping for enough angling pressure to thin them out.

Walleye fishing in the Tri-Cities area and upstream in the Snake River is beginning to pick up. Anglers are reporting fair catches below and above McNary Dam and in the Snake River below Ice Harbor and Little Goose dams.

Other species

WDFW has tentatively scheduled an evening razor clam dig at several ocean beaches in late February, pending the results of marine toxin tests. Shellfish managers are optimistic that elevated levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) – which disqualified Long Beach from a dig in late January – will have dissipated by then.

Catch rates of legal-size sturgeon have picked up above Bonneville Dam in recent days, likely triggered by warming water temperatures. Sturgeon fishing in the lower river remains slow, but that could change if smelt return to the Cowlitz River in greater numbers than expected. Three out of 14 boat anglers fishing the John Day Pool on the Columbia River took home a legal-size sturgeon, according to a creel survey conducted the last week of January.

Hunting

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission met recently and decided to open the chukar and grey partridge season this year on Oct. 1 rather than mid-September. The limit was reduced to six. The proposal to reduce the price of a nonresident deer tag for 2010 failed on 4-3 commission vote. The department intends to introduce legislation to allow the bundling of a wolf tag with elk and deer tags