Alan Liere’s hunting and fishing report for Sept. 11, 2025

Thu., Sept. 11, 2025

By Alan Liere The Spokesman-Review

Tip of the week

Tip of the week: There are conflicting views about washing down a big game animal with water after it is skinned. Most professional meat processors agree that using clean, cold water to remove animal hair and dirt is a good practice if the carcass air dries quickly so that the water does not encourage bacterial growth. A cold-water spray can also hasten the cooling process.

Overheard: Following investigation by Bureau of Land Management law enforcement, two recreational shooters will pay more than $24,000 to the BLM after firing illegal exploding ammunition that sparked the 2024 Leeds and Chalky Butte fires in southwest Idaho. Together, the fires scorched more than 700 acres of public land, underscoring the costly risks of illegal ammunition use.

A prehistoric creature called the Pacific lamprey inhabits the Clearwater and Salmon River systems. These eels have lived in these waters for over 400 million years. Pacific lamprey were a major source of food for the Native tribes, prized as a food source because they are incredibly high in fats and protein. The oils from their bodies are even considered to have medicinal purposes. Pacific lamprey are an alternative food source for species that prey upon salmon and steelhead. They have a life similar to that of a salmon–hatched in fresh water, returning to the ocean as juveniles, living there a couple years, returning to the river of their birth, reproducing and then dying.

Heads up: The 10th Annual Steve Koziol Memorial Salmon Derby on Wanapum on the Columbia River is scheduled for Saturday and the numbers of fall chinook over Bonneville are looking better, so fishing above Wanapum should improve soon. The derby starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m. The weigh-in is at 3 p.m. at the Wanapum Dam Park. There will be prizes for the top five fish as well as raffles. The entry fee is $40 with kids under 12 free. To sign up, email Cole Gunter at cole1975@gmail.com, or Jamie Gifford at jgifford831@gmail.com.

Trout and Kokanee

Lake Coeur d’Alene is still producing near-limit catches of 12-14-inch kokanee, and occasionally, fish up to 17 inches are hooked. The fish have been deep – 45 feet down and more. A lot of fish are on the south end of the lake, many in the vicinity of Powder Horn Bay.

Trout fishing has been fair on Potholes Reservoir for anglers trolling a #9 Flicker minnow or spoon at 2 to 3 mph near Medicare Beach or from MarDon Resort to Blythe Point.

Many seep lakes in Grant County are open year-round. Just south of Potholes Reservoir, Janet, and East and West Sage lakes should all fish well this fall. Corral Lake, located immediately south of Potholes Reservoir, offers excellent opportunities for rainbow trout, largemouth bass, and crappie. Blythe Lake, located just south of Corral Lake, can provide excellent fishing for large rainbow trout.

Steelhead and salmon

Friends who fished the Snake/Clearwater confluence with shrimp and bobbers for steelhead several times during the past two weeks reported minimal success, only catching two hatchery fish in about six trips. They hooked no chinook. Both steelhead and chinook are slowly making their way from Bonneville Dam to Lower Granite, and the best is yet to come. Some B-run steelhead are already showing along with the more numerous A-runs.

Reel Time Fishing says fall chinook fishing on the Columbia River has been excellent, with Buoy 10 providing some of the best fishing their guides have seen in a long time. Charters are available on the mid-Columbia, Hanford Reach and on the Snake River out of Clarkston where fishing has just started to heat up. The counts over Priest Rapids are 70 to 90 fall chinook per day so it’s a little early there, but the local diehards catch a fish now and then.

The Huntzinger boat launch below Vantage is seeing a lot of activity, but while the water level is low, there have been no problems launching and salmon are being caught. A bar not far from the launch area is visible and showing in two places. Boaters will want to watch out for this as they make their run downriver to the Priest Rapids backwaters. Most of the boats have been heading to the mouth of Crab Creek.

Pink salmon fishing has been excellent for several weeks, and they are now moving into the rivers. Coho salmon are next to return to the rivers.

Spiny ray

Lake Roosevelt walleye fishing has been good near Kettle Falls. Bottom walkers and spinners tipped with a nightcrawler have been effective.

A friend reports catching some really large perch on Lake Spokane while trolling for walleye.

MarDon Resort on Potholes Reservoir reports that bass fishing has been excellent. Fish topwater early and late and make sure to have a wacky rigged Senko or drop-shot rig ready to throw at missed fish. Fish from the State Park up the face of the sand dunes and into Crab Creek. Lots of 1-to 3-pound fish are being caught with a few in the 4-to 5-pound range.

Also at Potholes, walleye fishing has picked up, and there have been reports of bluegill, crappie and some big perch coming in from the face of the sand dunes as well as on the humps in front of the dunes. Trolling a #5 jointed Flicker Shad across the face of the sand dunes is a good way to locate schools of fish.

Park and Blue lakes in Grant County are very popular with trout anglers, but this time of year, perch fishing takes off and both lakes have been known to produce excellent catches of large perch.

Hunting

Chronic wasting disease testing is mandatory in Idaho Units 23, 24, 32A and 63A for all deer, but it does not apply to elk and moose taken in those units. Because these units are not within the CWD Management Zone, carcass transportation restrictions do not apply.

Idaho Fish and Game has confirmed a case of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) in a white-tailed deer in Game Management Unit 11, southeast of Lewiston. Two more animals are suspected of dying of EHD at the same location. Additional reports of deer exhibiting symptoms consistent with EHD have subsequently been received in Unit 8A near Kendrick and Unit 8 near Potlatch. Deer that recover from an EHD infection are safe to eat, but animals with an active EHD infection should not be consumed.

Doves are still hanging around in Spokane County, but that could end soon with the upcoming rainy days. There are still plenty of birds in Grant, Lincoln, and Whitman counties, and a friend who hunts the orchard country around Yakima says he is having a banner year. Good dove reports also come from wheat stubble adjacent to fruit orchards around Wenatchee.

Idaho ranks third in the western United States in both dove hunters and doves taken. Hunting has been good. Large numbers of the birds are shot in harvested grain and along the Snake River.

The special four-day early pheasant hunt for seniors 65 years old and older will be held Monday through Friday next week. Youth hunters may hunt this Saturday and Sunday for any quail, grey partridge, chukar or pheasants. There will be a lot of young birds.

Idaho’s chukar and gray partridge season opens Sept. 21. Chukar populations have responded well to the hot conditions. Biologists have observed very good survival of young and robust populations in the Salmon and Snake River drainages, suggesting excellent hunting prospects.

Idaho grouse season is already open, but hot weather is keeping hunter effort down. Best success for ruff grouse will be low and around water. The Washington forest grouse season opens Monday.

Fall turkey hunting is not my thing, but I am seeing more and more good-sized flocks chasing grasshoppers near my home on Wild Rose Prairie. They are either naïve or quite bold, as I have to literally chase them out of my yard and garden each morning. There are a lot of young birds that are only slightly larger than a mature ruffed grouse.

Contact Alan Liere at spokesmanliere@yahoo.com