Alan Liere’s weekly fish and game report for Dec. 23

Wed., Dec. 23, 2015

Tip of the week

Late in the season, most ducks are already paired, and drakes like to settle down with hens on secluded waters where there's little competition from other males. To mimic this natural behavior, set out only four decoys – two drakes and two hens deployed in separate pairs several yards apart, preferably on a small pond.

Heads up

The Post Falls Cabela's store has scheduled a big game measuring event Feb. 13-14 during store hours. Once measured, trophies can be taken home. Before the event in Post Falls, the Kootenai Valley Sportsman Association has a gun and horn show Feb. 5-7 at the Boundary County Fairgrounds in Bonners Ferry. In order to have a certified measurement, all antlers, horns and skulls must first dry at room temperature for a minimum of 60 days.

Fly Fishing

The North Fork Coeur d'Alene River is an option on the lower stretches below Prichard. Slow inside bends have been productive with nymph rigs or streamers dead drifted or fished on very slow swing. Silver Bow Fly Shop in Spokane recommends leggy nymphs and says small Copper Johns have been the No. 1 pick.

Overheard

Bear Lake in southern Idaho has one of the state’s most unique fishing opportunities for a whitefish-like species, the cisco. Dubbed the "Cisco Disco," people gather to dipnet cisco from massive schools which arrive in mid-January. You can dipnet cisco both wading or through the ice.

Salmon and steelhead

Steelhead anglers sidedrifting scented yarn ball or cured eggs are having decent luck on the Snake River around Heller Bar. The Clearwater River is also producing.

The Wenatchee River dropped down into shape this week and reports indicate the steelhead fishing is fair. Steelheaders are also doing fair off the bar at the mouth of the Entiat River and at Bridgeport. Jigs drifted under a bobber have been best at both places.

The Chinook fishery on Lake Coeur d’Alene is better now than it was in November, which is usually the best time. The fish are hanging right off the bottom where the usual mini squids and flashers are bringing the strikes.

The Grande Ronde River is getting slushy and there were no steelhead reports from there this week.

Trout and kokanee

Fourth of July Lake has ice in some places, but not enough to safely walk on. Many thin ice areas are covered with snow and look good, but they’re not. Fishing, however, is still available from shore in spots, and reports indicate the big rainbow are willing biters. Worms and marshmallows or Power Bait work well.

Sprague Lake was wide open when I drove by on Tuesday afternoon, but there were no boats visible and the last reliable report came from an angler plunking bait from shore at the public launch. He had two large rainbow and a 15-inch steelhead. Hog Canyon was booting out good numbers of rainbow last week, but the road in was not plowed early this week and would definitely be a tough go for non-four wheel drive vehicles. Rock Lake anglers are still taking browns and rainbow with bait right at the launching area.

Lake Roosevelt trout and kokanee anglers have not had the light-out fishing since the river went up 10 days ago, but it is coming down again and fishing will pick up. Two friends and I fished the Keller area last Friday and found the fishing slow. We trolled a variety of lures, catching a 19-inch kokanee on a pink hootchie, a 17-incher on an Apex, and three rainbow on flies. An angler I talked with afterward said he has had his best luck on Flicker Shads.

Anton Jones, of Darrell and Dad’s Family Guider Service, says there has been a decent bite for kokanee recently on Lake Chelan. He has been fishing around Colyar Ledge with forays as far up lake as Mitchell Creek or 25 Mile Creek. The usual trolling speed of around 1 mph is best, but sometimes the fish will only respond to a slower speed and sometimes to one faster.

Spiny ray

The Spokane Arm of Lake Roosevelt has been very good for small-to-medium walleyes in about 30 feet of water. Blade baits and jigs have been effective, but anglers say the bite is very light.

A few nice walleye have been caught recently off the main lake humps on Potholes Reservoir. The sand dunes area has ice, limiting accessibility for both fishermen and duck hunters.

Eloika Lake could be dangerous now as it is covered with thin ice with lots of snow on top. It is going to take a lot of cold weather to freeze the water below the snow covering.

Several Idaho Panhandle lakes offer good ice fishing for northern pike when ice conditions are favorable, but right now, they’re not. Jeff Smith at Fins and Feathers in Coeur d’Alene says Upper Twin is one of the first to freeze, but he wouldn’t venture out at this time. He also said the water has dropped so much in the big lake that many of the bays are just mud flats, making fishing from shore futile. He said there are “possible” pike opportunities from shore at Wolf Lodge Bay or Turner Bay.

Other species

Burbot anglers are finding the eel-like fish in several spots on Lake Roosevelt now and say the fish are running a little larger than last year ,with fish up to 5 pounds. The best bite is after dark.

In Idaho, the North Fork Coeur d’Alene, the lower Lochsa, the Selway, and the Clearwater rivers are all providing good opportunities to catch whitefish.

The WDFW has approved the Copalis Beach razor clam dig, scheduled Thursday through Saturday, after marine toxin tests showed the clams are safe to eat. All other beaches remain closed to recreational razor clam digging. Razor clam digging will remain closed on Washington’s other coastal beaches until domoic acid levels drop below the threshold (20 parts per million) set by state public health officials. Recreational crabbing is open in all of Washington’s coastal waters and in Puget Sound, where marine toxins in crab have not been a problem, and the commercial season opens Jan. 4.

Hunting

With the snow, coyotes are more easily seen, and if the population near my home just north of Spokane is any indication, they are numerous. Just this week, a few hundred yards from my front door, I saw one pack of six stalking wild turkeys and two separate three-animal groups digging for gophers. Moscow Hide and Fur is paying up to $50 for each whole coyote carcass with good feet, good fur and no big holes. If you have ever tried to skin out a coyote yourself, you know this is a good deal. The address is 1760 N. Polk Exit in Moscow. If you are going to the warehouse, general hours are Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm. There is not a buyer on-site full time. Call (208) 882-0601 to make an appointment to sell.

The snow has made flocks of gray partridge and quail easy to spot in the stubble fields of the Palouse and pheasants have moved into the brushy draws where there are trees big enough to roost in. Hunter participation is at a seasonal low just as the opportunities are increasing.

Moses Lake resident Cindy Kalamikis says the big lake has an ice covering in most of the bays. Perch fishermen in boats are having fair luck, but most areas of the lake have a thin coating of ice and the launches are brutal. It is impossible now to fish from shore near the I-90 Bridge. Kalamikis says ducks seem to have come and gone but large flocks of geese are using harvested corn fields around town. There appear to be a lot of quail in the brush and cattails around the lake, near Crab Creek and in the sand dunes.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com