Outdoors

POSTED: Saturday, Mar. 21, 2009

Fishing perks up with spring thaw

Except for an isolated few, virtually all lower elevation lakes in the greater Columbia Basin are shrugging off their winter burdens.

With Snoqualmie Pass reporting 'bare and wet' with rain driving conditions Friday, March 20 and fair to good trout and early spiny ray action reported in many locales, this may be the weekend for a road trip.

Nearest to Spokane, two winter fishery waters, Hog Canyon and Fourth of July lakes, are reported to still be yielding good catches of rainbows even as they are partially thawed. Hog Canyon's rainbows are running to 13 inches and, while less numerous, Fourth of July rainbows are said to be even bigger. But bear in mind, both lakes close March 31.

Among March 1 waters in the Spokane region, Liberty and Downs lakes are offering big brown trout and 15- to 16-inch rainbow carryovers, respectively.

Sprague Lake, east of Interstate 90, is reported nearly ice-free while kokanee are coming on the bite in Roosevelt Lake behind Grand Coulee Dam.

In Central Washington, Quincy area year-round and March 1 opener lakes are all unmasked for the spring and should be yielding good rainbow action now. In the coulee spillway collection south of Quincy, Burke Lake is receiving an additional 4,500 half-pound rainbows to tide over spring anglers.

Region Two fish program manager Jeff Korth is reporting that quality-managed waters in his zone also have perked up nicely.

Entering the period when their taste turns to chironomids, rainbow trout in lower Crab Creek's Lenice, Merry and Nunnally lakes are said to be generating good to very good action, but their liveliness is weather dependent.

By far the early standout for spring trout action under selective fishing rules is 50-acre Beda Lake where catch and release fishers are averaging 10 trout per trip.

Fishing at Beda, located east of Dodson Road and south of Winchester Wasteway, is under a year-round regime with selective gear restrictions. It recently was stocked with 11/2 pound triploid rainbows that are fairing well and hopefully maintaining the upper hand with the local sunfish.

OKANOGAN STEELHEADING RE-PERCOLATING

In north Central Washington it's always a race between warming conditions and the legal fishing calendar.

With water temperatures invigorating maturing summer-run steelhead about to spawn, Okanogan steelheading is perking up even as the regulation season comes to an end.

Portions of three of the Okanogan's feature streams, the Methow, Okanogan and Similkameen are open until Tuesday, March 31, barring an early ESA-prompted closure.

Recent WDFW checks of anglers in those open locales disclosed catch rates of one steelhead for every eight hours. District fish biologist Bob Jateff reports the steelhead are running in two size ranges from two to three pounds and larger specimens up to 10 pounds.

While current open stretches of the Similkameen and Methow correspond to those in the 2008 Fishing in Washington regulations pamphlet, open waters on the Okanogan have been pared down by two emergency closures below Omak and Bonaparte creeks.

This fishery also is governed by the selective gear rule with exemptions for fishing from motorized craft in the Okanogan River.

With protected wild summer-runs now beginning to spawn, especially in the Methow, wading anglers are asked to watch where they tread.

BONNEVILLE POOL KINGS AVAILABLE

The Monday, March 16 opening of Drano Lake and Wind River on the Washington side of the Bonneville Pool is always a milestone for spring salmon fishers. However, salmon angling is better lower down on the Columbia River at this time.

Since the first spring chinook was seen passing over Bonneville Dam Tuesday, March 3, only 23 early kings have followed. Passage is expected to pick up as the Columbia's spring flows increase up and the water temperature moderates.

Washington regulations governing anglers on these two tributary opportunities will be the same as last year. Two hatchery-origin or marked (adipose fin clipped) chinook or two hatchery steelhead (or one of each) may be kept daily.

Elsewhere on the lower river the spring chinook bite has been running hot and cold with prolonged periods of almost no activity, punctuated by brief stints when the mighty kings deign to bite.

Lower Columbia River spring anglers will be fishing on a 300,000-fish strong spring king run, but due to differences between Oregon and Washington policymakers, the fate of the Columbia's late spring season, beyond the end of April, still is up in the air.

Despite less-than-ideal flow and temperature conditions, anglers may be well advised to take advantage of this opportunity early rather than wait and risk a lockout.

Under a new regulation passed by the Washington fish and wildlife commission, anglers below McNary Dam to Bonneville Dam now may keep either two hatchery spring chinook, two hatchery steelhead or one of each per day.

Doug Huddle, the Herald's outdoors correspondent, works in the Wildlife Program of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and has written a weekly hunting and fishing column for the Herald since 1983 that appears Fridays. E-mail him at doug.huddle@bellinghamherald.com.