Hunting and fishing

Fly fishing

This is a great time to hit Idaho’s upper Snake region, as Henry’s Lake fishing is at its finest. Look for fish cruising along the shoreline at Howard Creek, Pintail Point and the north shore. Island Park Reservoir is also fishing well. Try the Lakeside area or near the dam for the best action.

The South Fork Snake River is down to winter flows of about 1,100 cfs and fishing is fabulous. Try blue-wing olives or streamers. Zebra midges sizes 16 and 18 are also working. It is possible to wade most places. The Henry’s Fork of the Snake River is producing well.

Rocky Ford is about as close as you can get to a sure thing, Pat Way at Northwest Outfitters in Coeur d’Alene said. He said the local rivers are “hit and miss,” which seems to be a tendency this week for all fishing.

Trout and kokanee

Bait is the offering of choice for Rufus Woods triploids running 6-8 pounds. Fish as close to the net pens as possible.

Lake Roosevelt trollers are still nailing 15- to 25-inch rainbow through- out the system. The fish are not deep, and three colors of leaded line are about right. The usual muddlers and flashers are doing the damage. You could otherwise put out 100 feet of mono with a 1-ounce sinker.

Sprague Lake is giving up some really large trout. Boat anglers warn that the public access is mined with boulders.

Rock Lake is fishing well. The brown trout are close to shore and the rainbow are at midlake. Wedding Rings and Flatfish are popular lures.

Anglers fishing Omak Lake with guide Anton Jones of Darrel and Dad’s Family Guide Service reported red-hot action for Lahontan cutthroat. Fish were hanging between 8-15 feet.

The Medicare Beach area of Potholes Reservoir has been excellent for good-sized trout.

Salmon and steelhead

Steelhead fishermen say the bite on the Snake and the Idaho rivers has been erratic at best. The Clearwater Derby, which ends Saturday, weighed in 60 fish on Tuesday, and the catch rate seems to be averaging a fish every six hours. As of Wednesday, the largest fish weighed was 17.2 pounds. It stands to win the $2,000 first prize. All rivers were in good shape at midweek.

Steelhead fishing on the main Salmon River has been good. Salmon eggs, shrimp, night crawlers with corkies, and spoons are all being used and are catching fish. Catch rates in section 15 from the mouth of the Middle Fork Salmon River to North Fork were good last weekend at 9 hours per fish caught.

The lower Okanogan and the lower Methow have provided outstanding steelhead angling, and the main stem Columbia out of Pateros has also been good. The recent rain storms pulled some fish from the Columbia up the tributaries.

Spiny ray

Lake Roosevelt walleye are deep. A friend has caught them at 50 feet and deeper. Rufus Woods walleyes aren’t quite so deep, but the bite has slowed since last week,

It is still possible to catch a mess of Lake Roosevelt smallmouth, and anglers are getting quite a few that weigh 3 pounds and better.

Hunting

A deer check station will operate at the weigh station north of Deer Park on Sunday between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. A biologist will take samples to check for chronic wasting disease.

The Eastern Washington late buck season runs through the Nov. 19. Success has not been particularly good.

Duck and pheasant hunters are waiting for colder weather.

Snow will make pheasant chasing a little easier, though there aren’t a lot to be had.

The third of four scheduled rooster releases at Eastern Washington pheasant sites occurred early this week. The last of this season’s releases is likely to occur in the last week of November, WDFW officials said.

Usually, a few new birds have filtered into the area by Thanksgiving.

The Priest River check station checked 270 hunters last weekend with 22 whitetail and four mule deer, for a success rate of 9.6 percent.

Last year the success rate was 2.9 percent.