Hunting & Fishing

Duck hunting, Idaho

Thousands of scatter-gunners will start shooting ducks a half-hour before sunrise Saturday in North Idaho.

The Panhandle’s goose season opened a week ago. Now it’s time for the duck season to open.

As usual, the heaviest pressure during the opening weekend will be on the lakes adjacent to the lower Coeur d’Alene River. Hundreds of shooters will converge on Killarney and other lakes an hour or so before dawn.

By opening hour, the valley will reverberate with the booming of hundreds of shotguns. By noon, most of the hunters will head for home, many with limits.

Most of the ducks that will be taken at the chain lakes will be mallards, but many will be wood ducks.

Other popular areas will be on and near the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge, on Coeur d’Alene and Pend Oreille lakes and at the numerous other Panhandle lakes.

Inasmuch as the exodus of ducks out of Canada is just getting underway, with early migrators leading the migration, nearly all ducks that will be bagged will be “local” ducks.

The locals will quickly become wary and hard to decoy. Many will raft up on big lakes; many more will move to Eastern Washington.

The daily limit this year of six ducks can’t include more than one hen mallard, two pintails, two redheads and one canvasback. Most gunners will hope to bag six greenhead mallards.

For the first time in several seasons, there is enough water around blinds at the Kootenai refuge for good hunting, Jim Reynolds, assistant manager, said.

About 15,000 ducks, most of them mallards, are using refuge waters.

Reynolds said goose hunters had good shooting on opening day. About 3,000 geese were on the refuge when the shooting started. Hunters averaged more than a goose each. By Monday, only 200 geese were in the area.

Many hunters have taken their limits of four Canada geese at Lake Coeur d’Alene and on and near other lakes.

Deer, Elk, Idaho

Numerous game management units in North Idaho will be opened to deer and elk hunting next Tuesday. Most hunters will try to fill their elk tags before they get serious ab out deer hunting.

The following GMUs will be opened to elk hunting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4A, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8A, 9, 10A, 11A, 14, 15 and 16.

Antlered elk will be legal targets in all of the units during the first five days of the season. Antlerless animals can be taken in many units starting Oct. 15. However, hunters can’t shoot antlerless elk in most of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness Area.

Both bucks and does can be killed starting Tuesday in units 4, 7, 8, 8A, 9, 10, 10A, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

Upriver brights

Plenty of big chinook salmon are now in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River for fairly good fishing.

Some anglers caught their two-salmon limits last weekend and this week, but, as usual, the majority went home skunked. Even when the fishing peaks, many anglers don’t hook salmon.

The salmon were in good condition last weekend, but they’ll be deteriorating fast as their spawning time approaches. Most are turning dark, but they still have red meat. Eventually, their flesh will turn pale.

The easiest spot to launch a boat is at the Wahluke Recreation Area. Access road to the launch is about 17 miles west of Othello. The graveled areas have been made rough by washboard surfaces; the paved section has a few dozen deep chuckholes that can break an axle.

Many anglers launch at Vernita Bridge. They drive over good-sized rocks to launch their boats in a current.

Fishermen have been hooking chinooks on a variety of lures, including Magnum Wiggle Warts and Blue Fox spinners, as well as on herring. Many use downriggers to get their lures and bait down near the bottom.

The best time to fish for the chinooks is from dawn to about 10 a.m. The fish often get lockjaw from late morning until evening. Migrating chinooks settle down in deep holes when the sun goes down. Some anglers fish the holes during evenings.

Because lines form at the Wahluke and Vernita Bridge launch areas long before the sun rises, it’s best to be in line by 6 a.m.

Steelhead

Now is the time to fish for steelhead along the Snake, Clearwater and Grande Ronde rivers. Some anglers have been doing exceptionally well in some areas.

More than 60,000 steelhead are now in the Snake River system. At least 35,000 are above Lower Granite Dam.

Anglers have been hooking steelhead in the Wallula area, near Little Goose and Lower Monumental dams, near the mouth of the Tucannon, along the Snake above Asotin, in the Grande Ronde and in the Clearwater.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department reported that 212 anglers checked along the Snake Sunday averaged 30 hours per steelhead. That indicated relatively slow fishing.

Some of the fastest fishing has been in the lower Clearwater and Ronde rivers.

Jill Koch of Beamers Hells Canyon Excursions said her firm is just starting fall steelhead fishing trips. She said clients have done well along the Snake.

Trout

This is a good time to jig for mackinaw trout at Priest Lake, Jeff Smith of the Fins & Feathers shop at Coeur d’Alene said.

He suggested that anglers use 3/8ths- to 1-ounce jigs baited with crawlers or perch meat and jig off Indian or Hunt creeks or near rocky shores. The macks are in a spawning mood and are starting to move to their spawning areas.

Eastern Washington’s lakes are cooling fast and some anglers report good catches.

Salmon, Kokanee

Mature chinooks are now up the creeks spawning, but immature fish, most of them 3 to 10 pounds, are taking trollers’ lures at 60 feet at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Smith said.

Spiny-rayed fish

If you get in the right spot at Sprague Lake, you can catch some good-sized perch and a few crappies and bluegills, Mike Mielke of the Sprague Lake Resort said.

Most of the perch anglers catch are 6 to 7 inches, but there are spots, particularly in deep water, where larger perch can be caught. Fishing pressure has been light at the lake.

Northern pike are still hitting anglers’ lures at Lake Coeur d’Alene, Smith said. The pike are hanging around the deep weed beds.

Kokanee

If you want to catch 25 small kokanee, troll Lake Coeur d’Alene. Smith said it’s still possible to take a limit and the fish are still in good condition.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN - Fishing & Hunting Report