Alan Liere’s fishing-hunting report for Dec. 19

Fly fishing

Rocky Ford is probably the best fly fishing option around. A lot of the fish are small – less than a foot – but some 20-inchers are being taken on streamer patterns.

Steelhead and salmon

Lake Coeur d’Alene chinook are small, but the numbers are good and a few legals are caught each week. Currently, they are suspended at 90-115 feet and trollers are taking them with small flashers and hoochies.

Usually, the Tucannon River is good for a few steelhead this time of year, but recent reports indicate steelhead (and steelhead fishermen) are scarce.

Trout and kokanee

Austin Moser of Austin’s Northwest Adventure said he is trolling kokanee gear on the surface of Lake Roosevelt for some big kokanee and trout. The trout are running 18-21 inches and the kokes are slightly smaller. John Kallas of the Valley White Elephant said if you are trolling for kokes with leaded line, 2 1/2 colors and 50 feet of mono with no dodger is the way to go. Rapalas in perch, firetiger or orange colors have worked best.

The kokanee bite between Seven Bays and Hawk Creek on Lake Roosevelt has been good, and the Keller area is still producing. Banks fishermen have had good luck casting Power Bait at Fort Spokane for trout.

Pend Oreille rainbow are beginning to spread out and go deeper. The torrid surface bite is probably over, but the big trout will still bite if you can find the right depth.

Spiny ray

At their meeting Friday and Saturday, the Washington Wildlife Commission supported WDFW’s recommendation and adopted an option which includes changes to size and daily limits of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, channel catfish and walleye in 77 lakes around the state. These changes included the following:

Largemouth bass: Change from five- to a 10-fish daily limit; only one fish may be over 17 inches.

Smallmouth bass: Change from 10- to a 15-fish daily limit; only one fish may be over 14 inches.

Channel catfish: Change from a five- to a 10-fish daily limit.

Walleye: Change from eight- to a 16-fish daily limit; only one fish may be over 22 inches.

Walleye fishing is still good around Hunters. Look for the sand flats and fish the edges. Walleye anglers have also done well recently by heading downriver from Fort Spokane and fishing the humps in 35 to 50 feet of water. Most of the fish are being caught on jigs, but blade baits and drop shots are also finding takers.

Blade baits are taking some nice-sized walleye on Potholes Reservoir. Potholes and Moses Lake don’t have much ice. The big Moses Lake perch have not shown up in their usual places around the state park.

Ice fishing

Prospects are gloomy because of the fluctuating weather pattern. A few possibilities could be parts of Fourth of July and Hog Canyon, but even those are iffy. The most reliable ice is on the Pend Oreille Chain Lakes such as Gillette, where anglers are catching trout and a few perch. Coffin Lake, east of Colville, has several trout species as well as spiny ray. Thomas Lake perch fishing is said to be slow.

Sacheen Lake has 4 inches of ice. A few small bass and some perch have been caught there this week. Wenas Lake, near Yakima, has 3-5 inches of ice. Anglers there are catching rainbow trout up to 15 inches. Leader Lake, near Okanogan, has just over 3 inches of ice. It has good rainbow and bluegill fishing, but the perch are small.

The north and south ends of Curlew Lake are ice-capped, but there is open water in the middle – not yet ready for hard water perch anglers. Eloika Lake has a lot of ice, but there is open water in the middle. I wouldn’t risk it. Bear Lake was frozen across two weeks ago but is open. Newman Lake is frozen, but there is a lot of thin ice.

Hunting

Hunters and other interested members of the public have until Jan. 12 to offer their input on Idaho Fish and Game’s newly proposed Moose Management Plan for 2020-25. The Moose Management Plan is a six-year document that guides the department in protecting and managing moose populations in Idaho, as well as developing season-setting recommendations.

The draft plan and a comment form are available on Fish and Game’s Moose Management Plan page idfg.idaho.gov/form/draft-idaho-moose-management-plan-2020-2025-comment-opportunity. The final draft, which will factor in public comments, will be presented to the Fish and Game Commission for its consideration at its March 19-20 meeting in Boise.

Pheasants are scarce in Washington this year, but I did see seven roosters on a hunt in the Palouse this week, and three or four more on the drive home. What I did not see was a single hen pheasant.

Goose hunters are doing well in Idaho and Washington, but duck hunters all say calling is the best way to make sure the mallards flare away from your decoys. Large spreads are also flaring birds. There aren’t many new birds in the area, and those that have been here a while have seen and heard it all. Umatilla Wildlife Refuge is said to hold some decent numbers, but ducks are scarce at the Umatilla Reserve. Idaho duck hunters report an occasional successful hunt south of Coeur d’Alene in the Chacolet and Benewah areas.

A bright spot for upland hunters is the robust quail population. Look for them in brushy areas along water and in scabrock draws and sagebrush. A harvested wheat field nearby is always a plus, but the birds will feed on sagebrush and weed seeds if there is no grain available.