Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for Sept. 5, 2024

Thu., Sept. 5, 2024

By Alan Liere The Spokesman-Review

Tip of the week

If you are looking for areas to hunt this fall, information on private and public lands can be found on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Hunting Access webpage. Game harvest reports can also help with past harvest rates by district, and the Hunting Prospects web page has information on good places to hunt, hunter success, and wildlife populations. If you plan to sight in your rifle this month, remember to check for shooting closures. WDFW shooting ranges in eEastern Washington remain closed to all target shooting until Sept. 15, unless otherwise posted.

Overheard: Deer and elk hunting in Idaho looks promising after a tough season in 2023. Elk have stayed relatively healthy and stable. Mule deer numbers also appear to be improving after suffering from one of the worst winters on record in 2023. While scorching summer temperatures usually present the threat of epizootic hemorrhage disease in white-tails, there have been no signs of any significant outbreaks this year.

Fly fishing

The Silver Bow Fly Shop guide crew has reported decent Spokane River fishing. Droppers under chubbies or hoppers will fish well. Streamer fishing has been decent with sculpins and zirdle bug types.

Effectively fishing the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River means locating water with depth. Terrestrials will work. Run a dropper if you are fishing a Hopper or small chubby. The same will work on the St. Joe, the North Fork of the Clearwater and Kelly Creek.

Trout and kokanee

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game will be stocking several small waters in the Panhandle this month. Among these are the Gene Day Pond, also known as Osburn Pond, Kelso Lake, Post Falls Park Pond (for kids and anglers with special needs), Smith Lake and Spicer Pond.

Trout are still biting on Spring, Blue, Watson, Curl and Deer lakes on the W.T. Wooten Wildlife Area near Pomeroy in southeast Washington. Rainbow Lake, also on the wildlife area, is experiencing a blue-green algae outbreak. Check with the local health district before eating fish from an area with an outbreak or letting dogs or children swim in the water.

Lakes for rainbow trout in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge are the Pillar-Widgeon Chain (Pillar, Snipe, Cattail, Shoveler, Hourglass, Sago and Widgeon). These walk-in lakes are consistent producers of quality fish.

Steelhead and salmon

Bobber and bait steelhead anglers had a productive Sunday opener on the Snake/Clearwater confluence, but the bite failed to materialize again the next day. According to Joe Dupont, Clearwater regional fisheries manager, a lot more two-ocean fish are headed that way and the B-run should be better than the previous few years. Fall chinook fishing should pick up in a week or so when they drop the percentage of trapped fish at Lower Granite used for brood stock from 40% to 18%. IDFG is predicting the biggest steelhead run to the Clearwater River in the past 16 years.

Chinook fishing above Priest Rapids Dam opened on Sunday. The chinook fishing below Wanapum Dam is picking up as more fish arrive daily. Opening-day anglers did fairly well in the area where Crab Creek enters the Columbia.

Fishing for fall chinook is open in the Hanford Reach and should improve as the month progresses. The forecast for Hanford Reach fall chinook is around 65,000 fish. There is a one-fish limit this year. Some areas and seasons have changed in the Hanford Reach . The lower section near the mouth of the Yakima River from Highway 395 up to the Snyder/Selph Landing line is not open until Sept. 15. The Reach is open from the Snyder/Selph Landing line upstream to the cutoff line below Priest Rapids Dam. The upper portion will be open until Oct. 15. The lower section of the Hanford Reach (I-182 Bridge upstream to the old Hanford townsite powerline) is schedule to remain open through Dec. 31 to provide anglers the opportunity to target the late-returning coho to Ringold Springs Hatchery

Spiny ray

Year-round lakes around Spokane continue to provide good fishing for bass and panfish into the fall, including Silver and Newman . Both also have tiger muskie, which usually bite best when the weather is hot. Long Lake will be good for largemouth and smallmouth bass, yellow perch and walleye.

Jones Bay on Banks Lake is a good place to find walleye. Other spots are the Devils Punch Bowl, the back side of Steamboat Rock, Barker Flats, from the North Million Dollar Mile boat launch toward Rosebush and the sand flats just up lake from The Poplars. Boaters will find some tough launching conditions now due to low water.

Other species

The white sturgeon season on Lake Roosevelt opens Sept. 16 and runs through Nov. 30 from Grand Coulee Dam to the China Bend Boat Ramp (including the Spokane River from Highway 25 Bridge upstream to 400 feet below Little Falls Dam, Colville River upstream to Meyers Falls Dam and the Kettle River upstream to Barstow Bridge). The daily limit is one sturgeon, with an annual limit of two. It is legal to retain sturgeon between 53 and 63 inches fork length (measured in a straight line from the tip of the snout to the middle of the fork in the tail).

Hunting

Modern firearm general season for elk opens in Eastern Washington’s Elk Area 3722 from Sept. 14-29. Elk early archery general season also opens in Eastern Washington Monday in select GMUs. Archery hunters usually fare best in GMUs 172 (Mountain View), 175 (Lick Creek), and 154 (Blue Creek). In the central district around Spokane, archery hunters usually do best in GMUs 124 (Mt. Spokane) and 127 (Mica Peak). In northeast Washington’s District 1, archery hunters are most successful in GMUs 113 (Selkirk), 121 (Huckleberry) and 111 (Aladdin). All elk seasons, and what is legal to harvest in each GMU, is on the Summary of Elk Hunting Seasons web page.

Hunting for small game began Sunday throughout Washington for mourning dove, crow, cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, raccoon, fox and bobcat.

The fall black bear hunting season in Washington has been underway since Aug. 1. In northeast Washington, the best opportunities to harvest a bear are in Game Management Units (GMUs) 101 (Sherman) and 117 (49 Degrees North), mainly because of abundant public land open to hunting. Black bear hunters in GMUs 101 through 117, where protected grizzly bears are more likely found, are required to complete WDFW’s online bear identification test each year and carry proof that they have passed.

According to reports, dove hunting on the Sunday opener was good in the Columbia Basin and around Sunnyside and Yakima. Some hunters reported fast shooting around wild sunflower patches on the Snake River breaks. I hunted just north of Spokane but didn’t have many opportunities. As predicted, the cold weather last week sent a lot of birds packing.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com.