Alan Liere’s fishing-hunting report for Dec. 20

Salmon and steelhead

The Snake River is the best option for steelhead fishing, but plan to put in a lot of hours for your one-fish limit. Trollers are having fair luck, but eggs or shrimp bounced on the bottom do a little better.

At Fins and Feathers in Coeur d’Alene, Jeff Smith said the chinook fishing has been decent for small fish on the north end. The fish are at around 105 feet down, hitting minisquids. Friends this week caught an 8- and 9-pound chinook near Tubbs Hill.

Trout and kokanee

Waitts Lake is probably the most consistent trout producer close to Spokane as the fishing has hardly slowed down from this summer. Rainbow and browns of about 14 inches are numerous. It would be hard to beat a trolled muddler minnow and a piece of worm, with or without a flasher.

Anglers fishing from shore at Fourth of July Lake are taking some large rainbow from open water, but the bite has been slow. Power Bait on the bottom seems to be the most popular.

Fishing for triploids at the net pens on Rufus Woods has been slow, but some anglers are finding a decent bite at Brandts Landing on the upper end. Rufus Woods has a 14-inch minimum on trout this year.

Lake Roosevelt has been generally good for trout fishermen. Bank anglers have done well at times at Lincoln, Hawk Creek and Seven Bays, and trollers are finding their fish in the same general vicinities. One of the most consistent bites has been in front of the swimming area at Fort Spokane and slightly downstream from there. Kekeda flies, muddlers, rapalas, koke-a-bows, old goats, apexes – they all seem to be working. You shouldn’t have to go deeper than 15 feet. Anglers have been enthusiastic about the fighting ability of the large redbands they are catching, but some are disgruntled at the number of “wild” unclipped fish they are hooking.

Anglers plopping bait from shore at Medicare Beach on Moses Lake are catching rainbow trout over 4 pounds.

Hayden Lake kokanee anglers are catching fish on the troll. Most are around 11 inches. Chelan Lake kokes are available for trollers, but the fish are spread out and smaller than last year.

Spiny ray

Blue Heron Park on Moses Lake in the vicinity of the Interstate 90 Bridge over the lake is the destination for perch anglers. They report sporadic to good fishing for perch up to 13 inches with most going 9-10 inches.

Pike fishing on the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene is still a decent bet as many of the weed beds have yet to die down. The fish are in 12-18 feet of water, hitting a variety of swimbaits and jerkbaits on a slow retrieve.

Other species

Spokane arm burbot have been moving around, and sometimes anglers can find them in 35 feet of water rather than the usual 90 feet. Some good catches have come between Hawk Creek and Seven Bays.

The next round of evening razor clam digs is set to begin Thursday, and digging will be allowed Saturday at Long Beach, which has been closed for much of the season to give the high number of juvenile clams a chance to grow. Tentative digs are also scheduled through February, beginning with a proposed five-day dig starting Jan. 2. The upcoming dig is approved on the following beaches, dates and evening low tides:

• Thursday, 4:51 p.m.; -0.3 feet; Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
• Friday, 5:35 p.m.; -1.0 feet; Twin Harbors, Copalis
• Saturday, 6:20 p.m.; -1.4 feet; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Mocrocks
• Sunday, 7:05 p.m.; -1.6 feet; Twin Harbors, Copalis

Hunting

A little bit of snow would make the coyote hunting a lot easier, but hunters are seeing a lot of them in Spokane, Lincoln and Whitman counties. If you want to drive farther, the sagebrush country around Sunnyside and Yakima is loaded with song dogs.

Some snow would make pheasant hunting easier, but the birds are conspicuous in stubble fields in the evening around St. John and all the way to Colfax.

Getting close to them is another story as they are probably at their wildest. I haven’t fired my gun on my last three trips, but the dog doesn’t seem to mind as she is pointing fair numbers of hens. If the mild winter continues and we get a decent spring, the 2019 hatch could be the best in many years.

Water levels in the entire Coeur d’Alene drainage are way down, making waterfowl hunting difficult. The small ponds south of Spokane had just enough ice this week to keep ducks looking for larger water. I saw huge numbers of geese close to the public launch on Rock Lake last week. For a change, no one was hunting.

The Washington goose season in Management Area 4 will be open Monday through Jan. 1 before going back to the regular Wednesday/ weekend schedule until Jan. 20, when it will remain open every day through Jan. 27. Goose Management Area 5, which borders Area 4 on three fronts, remains open seven days a week until the end of the waterfowl season on Jan. 27. In Idaho, Canada geese in Area 1, which comprises most of the state, remains open through Jan. 25.