Weekly hunting and fishing report

Thu., Sept. 25, 2014

By Alan Liere spokesmanliere@yahoo.com

Tip of the week

When jigging for smallmouth in the fall, use a variety of retrieving styles and speeds until you have determined what the fish want on that day. Sometimes slowly dragging the bottom and sometimes hopping the jig along the bottom will be the ticket. Remember, if you’re not getting hung up and losing tackle, you’re not fishing the right area. In the fall especially, smallmouth will be in the rocks.

Braggin’ rights

Cheney residents Tom and Leslie Allen hunted the Palouse area near Revere on Monday, the first day of the over-65 early pheasant opener. It was hot and dry with a lot of heavy cover, but the Allens and their yellow Lab put in a long day and brought home four roosters. “You couldn’t shoot unless you heard the bird cackle,” Tom Allen said. “There wasn’t much color.” Both Allens agreed there are a lot more pheasants this year than last.

Overheard

“Contrary to what some might think, most of Okanogan County did not burn,” Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife North Central Regional Director Jim Brown said. “Many great outdoor opportunities remain, even in some areas touched by the fires.” Most areas that were temporarily closed are accessible. WDFW is recommending 32 proposed sport fishing rules move forward for public comment. The rules are specific to the mainstem Columbia River, its tributaries or lakes within the basin. To review and comment, visit WDFW’s website at wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations /rule_proposals/. Comments will be accepted through Oct. 16.

Heads up

The Yakima River is closed to salmon fishing through Oct. 22 from any floating device from the Grant Avenue bridge in Prosser, downstream to the westbound Interstate 82 bridge. The river at this location is narrow and will not accommodate bank anglers casting from shore and boat anglers who anchor in midchannel.

Fly fishing

The North Fork Coeur d’Alene is low and clear, but some large fish are being fooled with small flies and light tippets. The St. Joe is about the same, but mornings there are cooler and the bite begins a little later.

The Spokane River is still fishing pretty well in the riffles and current seams. On the upper river, try the water around Sullivan Road. As always, nymphing is most consistent.

Grande Ronde fly fishermen are catching steelhead in medium to fast water from Shumaker to the mouth. There aren’t a lot of fish, but they are definitely there and the smallmouth fishing is still excellent. The Clearwater and Snake are also producing.

Trout and kokanee

Several popular Eastern Washington lakes close after Tuesday. These include Badger, Downs, Fan, Fish, Fishtrap, West Medical and Williams. Amber Lake goes from catch and release only to catch and keep – two trout, 14-inch minimum. Trout with a clipped adipose fin must be released. Plenty of local lakes remain open through October, or year round. Clear Lake has been known to produce good catches of brown trout as autumn takes hold.

Waitts Lake remains one of the best trout destinations around. With rainbow running up to 14 inches and browns to 17, trollers are finding action trolling flies tipped with worm 25 feet down in 40-65 feet of water. Friends who fished there last weekend said they lost twice as many as they landed but eventually got limits. They said trout were rising all day long everywhere on the lake.

Low catch reports from Diamond Lake indicate the trout fishing remains poor as the fall season advances.

The Long Lake rainbow triploids planted by Avista in June are averaging 12 inches and are fairly well dispersed in the reservoir.

Rainbow success was reported this week from Lake Roosevelt in the vicinity of Split Rock. Go down about seven colors with a Double Whammy and flasher. Anglers fishing there reported catching as many carryovers over 3 pounds as the smaller 16-inch spring plants. A good report also came from the Two Rivers/Seven Bays area where worm-tipped muddlers were taking the smaller trout.

The brookies are beginning to show in Twin Lakes near Inchelium as they begin to school up in shallow water prior to spawning. Many of these fish are 2-pounders. Twin Lakes rainbow running about 16 inches are also available.

Sullivan Lake trout and kokanee are biting well despite the low water. Even from shore, anglers are catching rainbow and cutthroat. The kokanee are mostly small, but some will go as large as 11 inches.

Salmon and steelhead

Salmon fishing was fair this last weekend at Hanford/Vernita bridge. The bite was fairly steady until noon. There are lots of fishermen, most trolling Super Baits for chinook up to 30 pounds.

Chinook and steelhead fishing has been fair to good on the Snake River from Clarkston to the confluence of the Clearwater. Two friends fished there three days recently and lost quite a few at the boat before returning with 10 fish – three of which were salmon. One weighed 32 pounds.

There has been a good early-morning fall chinook bite off the mouth of the Klickitat River. “Hover fishing” is popular there – a method in which gob of eggs under a heavy weight is raised a couple of cranks above the bottom while the boat slowly moves down river.

While most ocean salmon fisheries are closed, a portion of Marine Area 3 will open again Saturday through Oct. 12.

Spiny ray

A 1/32-ounce white jig will account for good numbers of Grant County’s Soda Lake crappie. Wapato Lake in Chelan County has also seen some good days for crappie.

Silver Lake largemouth are hitting drop-shots or tubes in the deeper water. Nothing terribly big was reported, but there were several in the 3-pound range.

The Potholes sand dunes are yielding nice catches of big walleye to anglers trolling the usual Slow Death hook and nightcrawler as well as a variety of small plugs. The same methods and locations are dredging up both smallmouth and largemouth to five pounds as well as some steelhead-sized rainbow trout. If fishing Potholes for the first time, hiring a guide is a good idea. Shelby Ross at Ross Outdoor Adventures (509) 750-7763 really knows the lake.

Friends who fished for walleye near Kettle Falls last weekend didn’t do well. The Ball and Chain walleye tournament is scheduled for this weekend.

Long Lake perch are beginning to bite again, but it will get much better into late September and October. Rumors of walleye catches are persistent with photo documentation and first-hand reports. There are probably not enough ’eyes to get excited about yet, but the toothy fish seem to be all over the reservoir.

Other species

WDFW has stocked 1,000 channel catfish in Bear Lake in north Spokane County, 3,100 in Liberty Lake and 4,000 in Sprague Lake. All were 8-9 inches long. Limit is set to be five daily with no minimum size.

Hunting

Grouse hunters are finding some decent concentrations of dusky grouse in and near huckleberry patches in the hills above Colville. Ruffed grouse are in the bottoms. Grouse hunting overall has been fair.

Things are looking up for Montana antelope with populations continuing to recover from previous years’ winter mortality. There are even a few more special licenses available reflecting that reduced but improving status. Montana’s antelope archery season will close Oct. 10, and the general rifle season for antelope will run Oct. 11–Nov. 9.

The fall turkey seasons are running in Idaho and Washington and success has been good. You’re more likely to find a large flock than a single bird.

The hot weather evidently kept a lot of Idaho chukar hunters at home. There were a few reports that indicated the birds were low.

The final, early archery season for eastern Washington deer closes this weekend, opening the door for early muzzleloader hunters with valid tags on Saturday.

An early muzzleloader hunt for elk begins the following week on Oct. 4 in designated game management units throughout the region.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com