Springfield Cabela’s Opens Tomorrow, May 5

Can’t wait to walk through the doors of Oregon’s first Cabela’s when it opens tomorrow?

Go for a stroll with the Eugene Register-Guard.

Here’s a link to their story on the 58,000-square-foot shop.

The grand opening is May 5 at 4 p.m. A crowd is expected and, reports a local TV station, there will be traffic rerouting for folks to get to the location in Gateway Mall.

It’s the second of two new fishing and hunting outlets opened in recent weeks. Fisherman’s Marine opened a third location in Tigard on April 4.

ODFW Hosting 4 Free Fam Fishin’ Events This Weekend

A whole heckuva lotta trout await Oregon families this weekend at a quartet of free fishing events put on by ODFW.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife will host three on Saturday – Commonwealth Pond in Cedar Hills near Beaverton; Reinhart Pond in Grants Pass; and Vernonia Pond in Vernonia – and one on Sunday – Herbert’s Pond in Canyonville.

Rods, reels, tackle and bait will be available for kids without them at the Commonwealth and Vernonia events.

All four waters will be well stocked, including 3,000 legal size rainbow trout 300 larger trout and 300 trophies at Commonwealth.

“We’ve got a lot of nice fish going into Commonwealth for this event,” said Jeff Fulop, Salmon-Trout Enhancement Program biologist for ODFW’s North Willamette Watershed District, in a press release. “This is going to be a good opportunity for families that want to come out and give it a try.”

It runs 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The event at Reinhart Pond runs 9 a.m.–1 p.m. with ODFW staff and Crater Bass volunteers on hand to help kids who want to learn how to fish.

For more, contact biologist Chuck Fustish (541-826-8774).

The one at Vernonia Pond is 9 a.m.-2 p.m. The lake will be stocked with approximately 4,500 legal-sized rainbow trout just prior to the event.

“This is an excellent opportunity for kids to discover fishing,” said Ron Rehn, STEP biologist for ODFW’s North Coast Watershed. “We’ll have plenty of experienced staff and anglers at the event to answer any questions and provide instruction.”

Then, on Sunday, family fishing at Herbert’s Pond will be held from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

“Kids can learn or hone their angling skills, and we’ll have everything they need – loaner fishing equipment and bait,” said ODFW STEP biologist Greg Huchko. “The kids can also learn fish identification, make fish prints, or even try out the backyard bass game.”

For more, call him at  (541) 440-3353.

Under Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations, anglers ages 13 and under can fish for free while those 14-17 will need to have a juvenile angling license. All fishing regulations continue to apply during this event.

If you can’t hit these four, no worries, more family fishing events are slated for the coming weeks. For details, see ODFW’s 2011 schedule.

Tiger Tacklers Tip ‘Em Into Tapps

The season’s first two tiger musky stockings took place yesterday on both sides of Washington’s Cascades.

A total of 1,150 averaging 12 1/2 inches were released into Lake Tapps outside Tacoma while 300 were released into Evergreen Reservoir between Ellensburg and Moses Lake.

Another 4,650 will be let loose into five other lakes in the coming weeks.

Give ‘em a couple years to mature and they’ll be among the state’s most exotic, rarest and exciting fish to catch.

At Tapps, crews from NW TIGER PAC helped ferry the tiny tigers, which averaged about 12 1/2 inches, around the impoundment’s 2,300 acres, releasing them here and there along its miles and miles of shoreline — heck, maybe even in front of the house of this mag’s owner (watch your toes, Lauren & Emily!).

Bruce Bolding, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s warmwater program manager, says scatter planting increases their survival. That said, 30 to 40 percent will die anyway due to natural mortality like birds, other fish and disease.

In 2009, the state’s other tiger musky club, Cascade Musky Association, helped release young’ns here.

Bolding says that tomorrow the agency will stock Lake Mayfield with 1,400; Lake Merwin on May 17 with 1,800; Silver and Newman Lakes around Spokane with 350 and 700, respectively, on May 24; and Curlew Lake May 25 with 400.

He says that Curlew is always last because of it stays colder longer.

“You don’t want to shock the fish going from 56-degree water at Ringold (Hatchery) to 43-degree water somewhere else,” Bolding says.

BRUCE BOLDING (STANDING IN TRUCK) AND CHAPTER 57, MUSKIES INC. VICE PRESIDENT BRETT OLSON. (NW TIGER PAC)

As WDFW empties out its tiger cages, it will also receive the next generation. Eyed eggs are coming from Minnesota this month.

After they hatch and until next January, they’ll be fed pellets. Then, at the same time as tags are inserted into the fish — the location changes each year to better age the fish — their diet is switched to trout fry and their raceways are modified to get them to orient to cover.

“They need to go on a higher protein diet and become conditioned to chasing down live prey,” Bolding says.

THE TIGER TRUCK. (NW TIGER PAC)

In a sense, tigers are like those balloons that clowns blow up and twist into shapes at kids’ parties. Bolding says that a 24-incher will fit in an “O” made by your thumb and middle finger. But add just a few more inches and they begin to add real girth at 3 years of age.

“They start to provide a good sporting opportunity when they get to 27, 28 inches,” he says.

With the Pend Oreille pike explosion issue simmering in the background, Bolding terms tigers — a sterile hybrid produced by northern and muskellunge parents — “the Esocid of choice in Washington.”

“We control the density of their numbers very carefully,” he says.

They’re stocked at roughly one for every two acres of lake surface, although that’s not hard and fast. Evergreen is only 235 acres, but suffers a higher mortality rate, Bolding says, as it has more limited shallow areas.

JANICE KUPER, A MEMBER OF NW TIGER PAC AND ON ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS, PREPARES TO LOOSE YOUNG TIGER MUSKY INTO LAKE TAPPS MAY 2. (NW TIGER PAC)

NW TIGER PAC, Chapter 57 of the nationwide Muskies Inc., also recently gave WDFW a $1,500 donation, and has raised $4,000 for the state’s musky program since 2007.

Tigers have been released in select Washington waters since 1988 as an attempt to offer expanded fishing opportunities and control other predator numbers.

The daily limit is one, but it must be at least 50 inches to retain. The state record is a 31.25-pound, reported 51-incher caught at Mayfield in September 2001.

ONE OF A PAIR OF 44-PLUS-INCHERS MIKE FLOYD CAUGHT IN 2008 AT TAPPS ON HOMEMADE BUCKTAIL SPINNERS. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

Joel Shangle of Northwest Wild Country will detail tiger musky fishing in our June issue.

NW ‘Field And Stream’ Focus In New WSU Mag

Like Patrick McManus, the famed Northwest outdoor humorist?

Like dogs, the famed human companion?

Like rainbows, the world-traveling Northwest salmonidae?

You will like the Summer 2011 issue of Washington State Magazine. All three topics are featured in it. I got my copy of the Wazzu publication yesterday, but you can also read it online.

There’s also a profile of Northwest Sportsman fishing photo contributor Paul Ishii, who manages the historic, luxurious Mayflower Park Hotel in DT Seattle.

If you root around in the issue’s contents, you’ll also come across a funky map that lays out much — though not all — of WDFW’s trout stocking plans by lake.

SW WA, Columbia Fishing Report

The FB posts and PMs and emails are coming fast and furious about action at Drano Lake and Wind River. The buzz is the bite’s been on at the two WA-side Columbia tribs.

How does that compare to creel sampling? Read on for biologist Joe Hymer’s weekly Southwest WA fishing rundown:

SALMON/STEELHEAD

Cowlitz River – Anglers are catching spring chinook in the lower river and at the barrier dam while steelhead are primarily being caught at the trout hatchery.

Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 985 winter-run steelhead, seven summer-run steelhead, 19 spring Chinook adults and eight jacks during five days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.

                                                                                          
During the past week Tacoma Power employees released 50 winter-run steelhead and one spring Chinook salmon into Lake Scanewa above Cowlitz Falls Dam, and they released five winter-run steelhead into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton.

River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 10,500 cubic feet per second on Monday, May 2. Water visibility is seven feet.

Kalama River – Anglers near the mouth are catching some spring chinook while some winter and summer run steelhead are being caught upriver.  No spring chinook have returned to Kalama Falls Hatchery through May 2^nd though few if any fish would be expected at this time.

Lewis River – Effort continues to be light.  Some spring chinook reported caught at the mouth.

As of today (May 2^nd), a total of 21 adult spring chinook have returned to the Merwin Dam trap.  Based upon early, average, and late run timing, 14, 154, or 497 fish would have expected to return by this time, respectively.

Washougal River – Boat anglers are catching some summer run steelhead.  Slower for bank anglers.

Wind River – Effort and catch is rapidly increasing.  About 120 boats counted here yesterday morning.  Some days creel checks have been over a fish per boat average.

Five spring chinook have been passed at the Shipherd Falls through April 27.

Drano Lake – Effort and catch is also increasing here.  Yesterday morning there were about 100 boats.  Daily creel checks have been over a fish per boat average at times.

White Salmon River – Light effort and no catch reported.

Klickitat River – A few summer run steelhead and spring chinook reported caught.

Mainstem Columbia from Bonneville Dam to the WA/OR state line – An estimated 453 adult Chinook kept and 165 released from over 3,000 angler trips for the season that ended May 1.  Most of the catch occurred this last week in The Dalles Pool.

Ringold area –  From Paul Hoffarth, WDFW District 4 Fish Biologist in Pasco WA:  The “bank only” sport fishery for spring chinook got off to a slow start. May 1 was opening day with a peak angler count of 4.  Last year the peak count was over 60 anglers.  WDFW staff interviewed four anglers fishing for salmon and none were reported caught.  One angler did report catching and releasing 5 hatchery steelhead.  No chinook have entered the Ringold Hatchery trap to date.

STURGEON

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – Some legals are being caught in the Vancouver area.  The 98 boats and 41 bank anglers found during the Saturday April 30 effort flight count was nearly identical to the previous weekend.

The Dalles Pool – Slow for legal size fish.

John Day Pool – 3 boats (8 anglers) fishing for sturgeon released 3 fish (Catch & Release Only!)

WALLEYE AND BASS

The Dalles Pool – Boat anglers averaged just under 3 walleye kept and 6 bass kept/released per rod.  Bank anglers are catching some bass.

John Day Pool – 3 boats (6 anglers) fishing for walleye had 19 fish.  3 boats (7 anglers) fishing for bass had 3 bass and a walleye.

Floor: This Summer, It Will Rain Chinook

(ARTICLE COURTESY TONY FLOOR, FISHING AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, NORTHWEST MARINE TRADE ASSOCIATION)

Do you recall a Saturday, about a week ago, when temperatures throughout Puget Sound skyrocketed up to around 65 degrees?

TONY FLOOR

The endless rains of this tough La Nina winter and spring finally stopped, long enough to burn an inch or two of moss off my back, wishing for a week or two of more sun.

But, by the following Monday, the rains returned and it was back to an epidemic of the blahs for Washingtonians, wanting to get outside and take in more of that yummy vitamin D.

Last month, I wrote about the conclusion of the 2011 salmon season setting process, and promised to offer my two cents about the outlook for this summer and fall. Here’s the news: get ready for more rain, because beginning in mid-June, it will start raining big chinook salmon, king salmon, during a summer built on high expectations.

PUT YOUR SLICKERS BACK ON, IT'S GONNA RAIN ... CHINOOK, SAYS TONY FLOOR. THIS ONE WAS CAUGHT OFF NEAH BAY, WASH., IN A PREVIOUS SEASON. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST

Some anglers might be quick to counter with the inaccuracies of forecasting salmon runs back to Washington, especially based on another dismal spring chinook return to the Columbia River during the last few months. Those doubters are correct, it was a bust, but remember this, history suggests that spring chinook salmon have become more difficult to predict as ocean survival rates have not been kind to these revered fish in recent years.

Fall chinook salmon are a different beast. Predictions of individual region and river returns have been pretty darn close to actual returns during the last few years. Now here is the meat on the bone: last year, 650,000 fall kings made their way back to the mouth of the Columbia River, offering some outstanding fishing for anglers investing their time from Westport south to the entrance to the River. This year, the forecast calls for an additional 100,000 chinook, establishing a modern day record of over 750,000 fish. Canada and Alaska have been quick to jump on this band wagon of this highly anticipated return of 2011 by ramping up their sport and commercial fisheries resulting in a significant bite out of our ocean season. Therefore, while our ocean sport fishing season may not, I repeat, may not be as lengthy as last year, the quality of king salmon fishing should be close to melt down. I like this kind of melt down. In summary, go early and go often.

All four ports (Neah Bay, La Push, Westport and Ilwaco) will open for a hatchery-only chinook fishery on Saturday, June 18th through the following Saturday, June 25th. Remember, hatchery produced, adipose fin-clipped chinook only (2 per day) for one week, or earlier, if a quota of 4800 chinook are caught. The general opener begins on Sunday, June 26th, in all four ports and Westport will begin the season on a Sunday through Thursday schedule. If you take the time to do your historical chinook catching homework, Westport is the home of the coastal king salmon fishery every year. Yes, the fleet, both charter and private boats is larger than the other ports, in June and July, and there is an answer to the why question. The chinook salmon consistently perform, big time, off Westport from late June through the first half of July. Prime time, baby, and it will be a show.

Sure, king salmon fishing can and should be productive in Neah Bay and La Push too, but year in, year out, Westport will be the big daddy.

As this incredible school of this year’s king salmon move south, down our coast into later July and early August, Ilwaco will be on fire. Raining chinook! Oh my gosh, I hate it when that happens. This big return will turn the corner into the Columbia River in mid-August and it could be, if the numbers are accurate, the greatest sport king salmon fishery in recent memory. Don’t call, don’t write, as I intend to be busy with a XXL on the end of my string!

Following the closure of chinook salmon retention in the Buoy 10 fishery at the mouth of the Columbia River on August 28th, I recommend following me up the road, about 30 miles to the north to Willapa Bay. Willapa has a good forecast of fall kings this year and prime time is always during the last week of August and the first week of September. I like to fish the area in the Bay, beginning at marker #2 and motor-mooch east, following the navigational marker line from #2 all the way to #26. The zone between marker #10 and #13 pays like the lottery immediately and during high water. Remember, it is critical to troll within one foot of the bottom. The bottom averages between 15 to 25 or 30 feet deep. Slam dunk and watch your rod tip bury into the water. That’s no trout, Vern.

The forecasts just released in mid-April also suggest a strong run of pink salmon to most Puget Sound rivers, to the tune of around six million fish. Six million pinks! Change your rain gear from boots to chest waders. Pink salmon, which are on two year age cycles return to Puget Sound in odd numbered years, as in 2011. They have been increasing in popularity from Sekiu in early August to strength in numbers in northern Puget Sound by the third week of August, and into the rivers of their destination. The pink salmon forecast to southern B.C.’s Fraser River is only 18 million. Giddy-up!

If you think this is starting to sound like a salmon tsunami, start breathing again, as here comes a strong forecast of Puget Sound coho, following the runs of chinook and pink salmon. Last year, the coho salmon run for Puget Sound was estimated at 600,000. Opps, here comes a million in this year’s crop. This outstanding return begins in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca around Sekiu in mid-August and peaks into northern Puget Sound by the third week of September. Coho salmon returns have been unimpressive in recent years and it’s great to see a rebound this year.

Why all the good news? La Nina, baby, paying dividends, salmon dividends with very good ocean environmental conditions, providing the right temperature triggering a healthy food chain, critically important to good survival rates and ultimate adult salmon returns to Washington.

Last month, KING-TV ran a story about La Nina contributing to the upcoming strong salmon season. Click here to view the short news story online.

Obviously, I am pumped about the salmon forecasts for this summer and early fall. I see it as a dividend, to living in the Pacific Northwest and surviving this unusually wet fall, winter and spring season.

And will high gas prices, keep anglers away? It may slow some anglers down but I believe it will not keep them away. History has proven… show me the fish, and I’ll show you people eager to go fishing.

Baby, it’s almost time to go fishing! Let the summer salmon bonanza begin. See you on the water.

Huge Springer Day At Bonneville

Yesterday saw the highest one-day count of spring Chinook over Bonneville Dam in exactly nine years.

A total of 15,766 springers cruised past the big plug on the Columbia, the most since 20,847 did so on May 1, 2002.

It’s also the sixth best single day count of this millenium.

The 2002 run had two other better days and the 2001 run — the all-time record — had three, including the all-time best day, April 18, when 27,020 went over.

ANGLERS FISH THE POINT AT THE WIND RIVER. (BUZZ RAMSEY)

So, what does that mean?

Well, you might do as Spokane angler Chris Donley and and Kennewick’s Jeff Holmes did last weekend and beat feet to Wind and Drano Lake.

Among the 82 PIT-tagged springers that have gone over Bonneville in just the past two days, 52 are returning to the former stream, 16 to the latter trib.

This year’s run has otherwise been tardy, a function of colder than usual water, higher than usual flows, and trends in recent years to later and later returns. But this year’s “appears to be significantly later than normal,” according to a fact sheet put out by Columbia salmon managers last week.

“The run may be weaker than anticipated, or very late, or a combination of both,” said the Columbia Basin Bulletin.

A total of 50,518 have gone over Bonneville so far this year, about half the 10-year average.

The run forecast calls for a total of 198,000 upriver-bound springers back to the mouth of the Columbia. During earlier sport and commercial fisheries between Buoy 10 and Bonneville, somewhere around 7,300 were intercepted and either stuffed in a fish box, scooped up in a gillnet or died from handling.

Nooksack Elk Herd Continues To Grow

New figures show that the Nooksack elk herd of Whatcom and Skagit Counties continues to grow.

The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commissions estimates the population at around 800 to 850, based on recent helicopter surveys.

That’s up from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s March-April 2010 estimate of 770, and well above where it was in 2002 — just 300 animals.

The herd peaked in 1984 when it numbered 1,700, but declining habitat as well as higher road densities suppressed it.

Over the past decade, WDFW, the Point Elliott Treaty tribes and others have been working to rebuild it, including bringing in 98 elk from the Mt. St. Helens area and improving forage plots.

The growth has spurred new hunting opportunities that began in 2007 with non-tribal and tribal hunters splitting a total of 30 special permits for bulls. This year there are 40 available, although you’ll need at least 8 if not more points built up if you want to have any chance at pulling a tag.

MIKE LEE'S MONSTER 2010 NOOKSACK BULL. (MIKE LEE)

However, there have also been damage complaints from farmers in the Acme and Birdsview areas, and in late 2009, there was a distasteful, though legal, incident where bowhunters surrounded a herd next to Highway 20.

By at least two measures, the Nooksack is the healthiest on the west side of the Cascades.

According to researchers John and Rachel Cook, who found that elk in Western Washington and Western Oregon tend to have higher body fat and pregnancy rates the further north you go in the Cascades, the Nooksack herd came in at 13 percent and 95 percent, respectively.

Those figures drop sharply as you head towards the coast. Animals around Forks, Wash., and in the Willapa Hills average just 6 percent body fat while pregnancy rates in the Siuslaw and Wynoochee Basins were only 50 and 53 percent.

It’s unclear exactly why that is, but new modeling suggests that there’s just more good grits in the North Cascades than in coastal areas of both states.

Lead Gear, Bullet Exemption Bill Introduced In Congress

A pair of Inland Northwest Congressmen are among the more than 40 lawmakers cosponsoring a pair of bills in Congress that would protect fishing and hunting gear from environmental lawsuits.

The Hunting, Fishing, and Recreational Shooting Protection Act, introduced in mid-April, would modify the Toxic Substances Control Act to exempt bullets, shot, weights, lures and hooks, among other items, from EPA regulation.

Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, a Spokane Republican, joined 37 other House Reps in cosponsoring HR 1558 while Montana Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat, was one of four cosponsors of S 838 in the upper chamber.

The bill drop follows an otherwise little-noticed article in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE published earlier this month and which indicates that lead exposure spiked among California turkey vultures in a study area during and immediately after deer hunting season, and the birds’ blood levels were also elevated in areas with increased pig hunting activity.

In late 2007, the Golden State banned the use of lead bullets to protect condors in large parts of the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast, but hunters are still able to chase deer with non-lead projectiles. They killed a minimum of 1,162 in six of seven affected condor-zone units in 2010, and as many as 1,780, according to initial estimates from the California Department of Fish & Game.

What’s Fishing In WA (4-27-11)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This version corrects the original Weekender sent out by WDFW which stated that the lower Yakima opens for spring Chinook May 1. That was incorrect.)

No doubt about it, this coming weekend in Washington is all trout, all the time. The annual lowland lakes opener is Saturday, and, if the weather cooperates, 300,000 of us will be out there chasing millions of rainbow trout.

But Fishmas this year falls darned close to May, and the fifth month of the year brings its own host of fishing activities — everything from halibut, lingcod and shrimp in the Sound to sockeye and steelhead in the Lower Columbia to catfish and bass on both sides of the state.

For more on all the options, and in keeping with my brand-new policy of letting other people do all the hard work, here is WDFW’s Weekender report, in its entirety:

NORTH SOUND

The blackmouth salmon season comes to a close at the end of April, but openings for halibut, lingcod and shrimp fisheries are coming up. For freshwater anglers, one of the most anticipated fishing opportunities gets under way at the end of April with the lowland lakes trout season.

Beginning April 30, anglers can cast a line in many of the region’s lakes, where thousands of legal-sized trout have been planted. “This is the biggest fishing day of the year,” said Phil Anderson, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “Lakes in every county are well-stocked, so fishing families can keep travel costs down by enjoying good angling close to home.”

Under statewide rules, anglers have a daily limit of five trout on most lakes. Released legal-sized trout, caught with bait, count toward the daily bag limit. Before heading out, anglers should check the Fishing in Washington pamphlet for all regulations.

Even after the opener, fishing should be good throughout the season as WDFW continues to stock lakes with trout. Information on stocking schedules for rainbow, cutthroat and triploid trout is available on WDFW’s website.

On saltwater, selective fisheries for hatchery blackmouth – resident chinook – are coming to a close. Marine areas 7 (San Juan Islands), 8-1 (Deception Pass, Hope Island and Skagit Bay) and 8-2 (Port Susan and Port Gardner) close at the end of the day April 30. Marine areas 9 (Admiralty Inlet) and 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) are already closed to salmon fishing.

The halibut season, however, is just around the corner. The fishery is scheduled to run from May 5 through May 29 in marine areas 6-10. Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) will be open May 26 through June 18. These fisheries will be open three days a week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) but are closed Sunday through Wednesday except for Memorial Day weekend when they will be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

All areas that will be open to halibut fishing have a one-fish daily catch limit, with no minimum size, a possession limit of one fish while on the vessel, and a possession limit of two fish in any form once the angler is on the shore.

Halibut fishing will remain closed in marine areas 11 (Tacoma) and 13 (southern Puget Sound) to protect three species of rockfish listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal) will remain closed due to low dissolved-oxygen conditions.

Fishing for lingcod and cabezon also gets under way in May. During the hook-and-line season (May 1-June 15), there’s a one-fish daily limit for lings, with a minimum size of 26 inches and a maximum size of 36 inches. The season for cabezon also opens May 1, when anglers will have a daily limit of two fish with no minimum size limit.

GABE MILLER OF SPORTCO WITH A VERY NICE PUGET SOUND LINGCOD. (TIM BUSH)

Don’t forget those shrimp pots. The shrimp season opens May 7 in Puget Sound. In all areas of Puget Sound, fishers are limited to 80 spot shrimp per day. Here are the fishing schedules for the Puget Sound region:

Hood Canal Shrimp District (Marine Area 12): Open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 7, 11, 14 and 25. Additional dates and times may be announced if sufficient quota remains.
Discovery Bay Shrimp District (Marine Area 6): Open May 7, 11 and 14 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Additional dates and times will be announced if sufficient quota remains.
Marine areas 4 (east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line), 5, 6 and 13 (excluding shrimp districts): Open daily beginning May 7 at 7 a.m. The spot shrimp season closes when quota is attained or Sept 15, whichever comes first, except for Marine Area 13, which closes for spot shrimp May 31.
Marine Area 7: Opens May 7 at 7 a.m. and will be open May 11, 13, 14, 25 and 28. Additional dates and times will be announced if sufficient quota remains. The season for coonstripe and pink shrimp (with area and depth restrictions) runs daily from June 1 through Oct. 15.
Marine areas 8, 9, and 10: Open May 7 and May 11 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Additional dates and times will be announced if sufficient quota remains.
Marine Area 11, extending from the northern tip of Vashon Island to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge: Open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 7 only.

More details on the shrimp fishery are available on WDFW’s recreational shrimp fishing website.

SOUTH SOUND/OLYPEN

More spring fishing opportunities begin in May, when shrimp and lingcod fisheries open in Puget Sound and the halibut season gets under way there and off the coast. But for freshwater anglers, one of the most anticipated fishing opportunities starts at the end of April with the lowland lakes trout season.

Beginning April 30, anglers can cast a line in many of the region’s lakes, where thousands of legal-sized trout have been planted. “This is the biggest fishing day of the year,” said Phil Anderson, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “Lakes in every county are well-stocked, so fishing families can keep travel costs down by enjoying good angling close to home.”

Under statewide rules, anglers have a daily limit of five trout on most lakes. Released legal-sized trout, caught with bait, count toward the daily bag limit. Before heading out, anglers should check the Fishing in Washington pamphlet for all regulations.

Even after the opener, fishing should be good throughout the season as WDFW continues to stock lakes with trout. Information on stocking schedules for rainbow, cutthroat and triploid trout is available on WDFW’s website.

Meanwhile, lingcod fishing opportunities expand May 1, when the fishery opens in Puget Sound. Lingcod fisheries in marine areas 1 (Ilwaco), 2 (Westport-Ocean Shores), 3 (LaPush) and 4 (Neah Bay) are already under way. For more information on lingcod fishing regulations, check the Fishing in Washington pamphlet.

The halibut season also is just around the corner. The 2011 recreational halibut seasons approved for Washington’s marine areas are:

Columbia River (Ilwaco): Marine Area 1 will open May 5, three days a week, Thursday through Saturday until 70 percent of the quota is reached, or until July 17. The fishery will then reopen on Aug. 5 and continue three days a week (Friday through Sunday) until the remaining quota is reached, or Sept. 30, whichever occurs first. The 2011 catch quota is 15,418 pounds.
South Coast (Westport/Ocean Shores): Marine Area 2 will open on May 1, two days a week, Sundays and Tuesdays. During the fourth week in May the fishery will be open Sunday only (May 22). Beginning the following week the fishery will resume the Sunday, Tuesday structure until the quota is reached. The northern nearshore area will be open seven days per week, until the quota is reached. The 2011 catch quota is 43,500 pounds.
North Coast (La Push/Neah Bay): Marine areas 3 and 4 will open on May 12, two days per week, Thursdays and Saturdays, through May 21. If sufficient quota remains, the fishery will reopen the week of June 2. If sufficient quota remains after that opener, the fishery will reopen starting June 16. The 2011 catch quota is 108,792 pounds.
Strait of Juan de Fuca/Puget Sound: Marine areas 6 through 10 (Strait, Port Angeles, Admiralty Inlet and Everett) will be open May 5 through May 29. Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) will be open May 26 through June 18. These fisheries will be open three days a week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday closed Sunday through Wednesday except for Memorial Day weekend when they will be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 2011 combined catch quota for these areas is 58,155 pounds.

All areas that will be open to halibut fishing have a one-fish daily catch limit, with no minimum size, a possession limit of one fish while on the vessel, and a possession limit of two fish in any form once the angler is on the shore.

Halibut fishing will remain closed in marine areas 11 (Tacoma-Vashon) and 13 (South Puget Sound) to protect three species of rockfish listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal) will remain closed due to low dissolved-oxygen conditions.

Don’t forget those shrimp pots. The shrimp season opens May 7 in Puget Sound. In all areas of Puget Sound, fishers are limited to 80 spot shrimp per day.

Here are the fishing schedules for the Puget Sound region:

Hood Canal Shrimp District (Marine Area 12): Open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 7, 11, 14 and 25. Additional dates and times may be announced if sufficient quota remains.
Discovery Bay Shrimp District (Marine Area 6): Open May 7, 11 and 14 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Additional dates and times will be announced if sufficient quota remains.
Marine areas 4 (east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line), 5, 6 and 13 (excluding shrimp districts): Open daily beginning May 7 at 7 a.m. The spot shrimp season closes when quota is attained or Sept 15, whichever comes first, except for Marine Area 13, which closes for spot shrimp May 31.
Marine Area 7: Opens May 7 at 7 a.m. and will be open May 11, 13, 14, 25 and 28. Additional dates and times will be announced if sufficient quota remains. The season for coonstripe and pink shrimp (with area and depth restrictions) runs daily from June 1 through Oct. 15.
Marine areas 8, 9, and 10: Open May 7 and May 11 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Additional dates and times will be announced if sufficient quota remains.
Marine Area 11, extending from the northern tip of Vashon Island to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge: Open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 7 only.

“Fishing prospects in many areas are looking even better than last year,” said Mark O’Toole, a shellfish biologist for the department, who noted that he expects a strong turnout by shrimp fishers – especially on opening day. “Some of the boat ramps can get pretty crowded, so we encourage fishers to be patient and wait their turn.”

That will be especially important at Twanoh State Park, a popular access site on Hood Canal where construction work will limit parking facilities for boaters through June. The State Parks and Recreation Commission encourages fishers to use an alternate launch site – especially during the season opener. More details on the shrimp fishery are available on WDFW’s recreational shrimp fishing website.

Anglers are reminded that salmon fishing in Marine areas 11, 12 and 13 closes at the end of the day April 30. In addition, wild steelhead retention closes at the same time on the Bogachiel, Calawah, Dickey, Quillayute and Sol Duc rivers.

However, a couple of rivers are open for salmon fishing, including the Quillayute and a portion of the Sol Duc. The Hoh River also opens for salmon May 14. For details on those and other fishing opportunities, check the Fishing in Washington pamphlet.

SOUTHWEST/LOWER COLUMBIA

Spring chinook and summer steelhead are moving into area rivers in increasing numbers, sturgeon retention is allowed on portions of the Columbia River and several popular trout lakes will open for fishing April 30.

As part of that lineup, anglers can catch and keep hatchery-reared spring chinook through May 1 on a section of the Columbia River stretching 163.5 miles above Bonneville Dam. But it remains to be seen whether that fishery – or the one that closed April 19 below the dam – will reopen later in the season.

That depends on the in-season update to the run forecast in early to mid-May, said Guy Norman, southwest regional director for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “We’re hopeful that the updated forecast will come in at least as strong as the pre-season forecast,” Norman said. “That would allow for additional fishing days both above and below Bonneville Dam.”

That’s because state harvest guidelines below McNary Dam include a 30 percent “buffer” in case returns of upriver spring chinook fall short of the pre-season forecast. If the in-season update equals or exceeds that number, the buffer will be converted into fishing time above and below the dam, Norman said.

“But nothing is certain at this point,” he said. “We really won’t know where we stand until more fish cross Bonneville Dam and we can get a clear idea of the run-size.”

Joe Hymer, a WDFW fish biologist, said poor fishing conditions – specifically high, cold, turbid water – held catch levels below expectations, and also appear to have delayed the movement of spring chinook over Bonneville Dam. Yet, test fisheries using tangle nets found relatively high concentrations of spring chinook in the lower river.

In response, fishery managers from Washington and Oregon extended the season in the lower river by 12 days. By the time fishing closed April 19, anglers had kept or released an estimated 9,379 spring chinook, including 5,669 upriver fish that count toward the 7,700-fish pre-season harvest guideline for upriver fish.

Above Bonneville Dam, the season was extended six days though May 1 between the Tower Island powerlines below The Dalles Dam and the Washington/Oregon state line, 17 miles upriver from McNary Dam. Bank fishing is also allowed through May 1 from Bonneville Dam upriver to the powerlines located about 6 miles below The Dalles Dam.

Anglers fishing above Bonneville Dam can retain up to two marked, hatchery-reared adult chinook salmon or hatchery steelhead as part of their daily limit. All wild chinook and wild steelhead must be release unharmed.

That is also true of area tributaries, where the daily limit is two spring chinook, two steelhead, or one of each. The Wind River and Drano Lake are traditional hotspots for spring chinook in May, although anglers should be aware that all sport fishing will be closed at Drano Lake on Wednesdays through June. Other prospects include the White Salmon River as well as the lower Klickitat River, the later which is open for fishing Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

WITH SPRINGERS NOW STREAMING OVER BONNEVILLE, IT'S TIME TO CONSIDER A TRIP TO DRANO LAKE, OPEN DAILY EXCEPT FOR WEDNESDAYS. AMONG GUIDE BOB BARTHLOW'S THREE FAVORITE RIGS ARE CUTPLUG HERRING, A MAG LIP AND A PRAWN AND A BLADE.

Below Bonneville, anglers can find hatchery spring chinook and steelhead in several rivers, including the Cowlitz, Lewis, and Kalama. The Cowlitz River is usually the best bet for spring chinook, and also offers good fishing for winter and summer run steelhead.

Starting May 16, fishing is also scheduled to open for hatchery steelhead – as well as sockeye and hatchery chinook jacks – from the Rocky Point/Tongue Point line to the Interstate 5 Bridge. Fishing for shad from Bonneville Dam downstream also opens the same day.

Other fishing opportunities in May include:

Trout: Several popular trout-fishing lakes are scheduled to open April 30, including Mineral Lake in Lewis County, Rowland Lake in Klickitat County and Swift Reservoir in Skamania County. All were freshly planted for opening day, and will likely draw a big crowd. Plenty of year-round lakes will also be open for trout, and many are scheduled to be planted with catchable-size fish in May.  (See the southwest Washington Trout Stocking Schedule for details.) Starting May 1, anglers may use two poles on Swift Reservoir from the dam to markers below the Eagle Cliff Bridge. Those looking to catch kokanee are advised to try Merwin Reservoir, which has been hot for the landlocked salmon in recent weeks.
Warmwater fish: Fishing for walleye tapers off in May when the fish turn their attention to spawn, but bass fishing should pick up as water temperatures rise. Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools should be good bets for both species.
Sturgeon: The retention fishery below the Wauna powerlines on the Columbia River closes May 1, but reopens May 14 seven days a week with a one-fish daily limit, fork-length requirement of 41 to 54 inches. The retention fishery above the powerlines is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with a fork-length requirement of 38 to 54 inches. Starting May 1, fishing is prohibited in spawning sanctuaries below Bonneville, John Day, McNary and Priest Rapids dams. See the Fishing in Washington rules pamphlet for details.

FAR EASTERN WASHINGTON

The month of May is full of fishing promise throughout the region, with the lowland lakes trout season getting under way April 30 and spring chinook salmon coming into the Snake River.

“Fishing is great all month in all of our open waters,” said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Central District Fish Biologist Chris Donley. “If you can’t catch a fish anywhere that is open in the month of May you should take up needlepoint.”

Among the region’s many lakes that open April 30, Donley says the traditional best bets include Badger, Williams, West Medical, Fish, and Clear lakes in southwest Spokane County and Fishtrap Lake in Lincoln County.  Anglers usually average about two trout each at all of these waters. Most have rainbow trout, but some also have cutthroat and tiger trout.

Bill Baker, WDFW northeast district fish biologist, said a couple of Stevens County lakes that open in late April are often among the state’s top 10 in catch rates. Cedar Lake, near the Canada border, and Rocky Lake, just south of Colville, last year provided limits of five rainbow trout for every angler out on the opener. “The month of May this year could be colder, maybe even snowier, than usual,” Baker said. “But the fish are here for anglers willing to brave the weather.”

Other good trout fishing in Stevens County can be found at Waitts, Loon, Deep, the Little Pend Oreille chain of lakes, and Potter’s Pond. Selective gear fisheries like Bayley, Rocky and Starvation lakes are also good through May.

Pend Oreille County’s Big Meadow and Yocum lakes usually provide anglers an average of two to three trout each. Other good producers include Diamond, Frater, North and South Skookum, Marshall and Sacheen lakes.

New this fishing season, and effective May 1, is a ban on the use of lead weights or lead jigs measuring 1 ½ inches or less along the longest axis at Big Meadow, Yocum and South Skookum lakes where loons are known to breed and rear young. The ban is intended to improve loon survival by keeping the birds from being poisoned by ingesting small lead fishing gear lost by anglers. For more information on this new rule, check WDFW’s website.

The lead restriction is also in effect at three other northeast lakes that host nesting loons: Ferry County’s Swan and Ferry lakes, and Stevens County’s year-round-open Pierre Lake. No fishing flies containing lead are allowed at fly-fishing-only Long Lake, another loon-nesting water in Ferry County.

ANGLERS SHOULD BE AWARE OF NEW PARTIAL LEAD-TACKLE RESTRICTIONS AT 13 LAKES ACROSS THE STATE'S NORTHERN TIER AND WHICH TAKE EFFECT MAY 1. (WDFW)

In the south end of the region, where many lakes and ponds are either open year-round or have been open since the first of March, WDFW hatchery trout stocking continues to keep fishing productive through May.  Excessive rain and snow this spring has delayed some fish stocking in some of the Tucannon River impoundments, said WDFW Wooten Wildlife Area Manager Kari Dingman.

“But now all of the lakes have been stocked again and Big Four Lake, our fly-fishing only lake, was finally stocked for the first time this season, now that the river level is back down,” Dingman said.

Check the complete trout stocking plan for details. The latest weekly stocking reports are available here.

The Snake River spring chinook salmon fisheries that recently opened in three sections have been slow but should be picking up this month. “I expect that with the late run and fewer fish than last year over McNary Dam by late April, the catch won’t pick up until early May,” said Glen Mendel, WDFW southeast district fish biologist. “These chinook should be very good quality and there is expected to be a higher proportion of the larger five-year-old fish this year.”

WDFW Regional Fish Program Manager John Whalen noted that an update on the run in the first week of May will likely give a better picture of how long the fisheries can continue. “The Snake River chinook fishery is scheduled to go through May 31,” Whalen said. “But I suspect we will see a run size downgrade in early May, which could force us to close earlier.”

Emergency fishing rule changes are distributed through self-subscribing e-mail services and posted on WDFW’s website.

All salmon and steelhead anglers are reminded to turn in 2010-11 catch record cards as soon as possible, whether or not you harvested anything or even fished at all. The cards help contribute to a data base that supports season setting.

WDFW officials also remind anglers to clean boats thoroughly before transporting them between fishing waters this season.  WDFW’s eastside Aquatic Invasive Species biologist Mike Wilkinson said that mandatory boat inspections at various water access sites throughout the state begin this month to try to prevent the illegal transport or spread of everything from milfoil to zebra mussels. For more information, see WDFW’s Aquatic Invasive Species website.

NORTH CENTRAL

Although many regional lakes have been open for trout fishing since early March or April, anglers can look forward to more options – and rising catch rates – during the month of May.

In Okanogan County, the traditional king of catch rates at this time is Pearrygin Lake, near Winthrop. Pearrygin usually produces a daily limit of five rainbow trout – most 10 to 12 inches, some up to 15 inches, with a few one to pound triploids — for most anglers early in the season, said Bob Jateff, a district fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

Fish Lake, northeast of Conconully, and Alta Lake, southwest of Pateros, are also good producers of rainbow catches through May. Last year, both averaged three trout per angler on the opener. Conconully Reservoir, south of Conconully, and Conconully Lake, east of town, are also good bets, giving up an average of two trout per angler per day.

Other newly opened lakes in Okanogan County that fish well include some with special rules: Big Twin Lake, near Winthrop, is under selective gear rules and a one-fish daily catch limit; Chopaka Lake, near Loomis, is fly-fishing only with no boat motors allowed. Aeneas Lake, near Tonasket, is also fly-fishing only with no boat motors allowed, but has some brown trout up to 18 inches.

Blue Lake, located within WDFW’s Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, also has some brown trout as well as rainbows, and is under selective gear and electric motors only rules. Blue is also one of three Okanogan County lakes with a new restriction this season to protect loons that breed and rear young there.

Effective May 1, there is a ban on the use of lead weights or lead jigs measuring 1 ½ inches or less along the longest axis at Blue Lake, and on Bonaparte and Lost lakes, northeast of Tonasket, where loons also occur. The restriction is intended to improve loon survival by keeping the birds from being poisoned by ingesting small lead fishing gear lost by anglers. (For more information on this new rule, see /conservation/loons/.)

In Chelan County, top trout producing lakes include Clear Lake, south of Wenatchee, and Wapato Lake, north of Manson. In Douglas County, Jameson Lake, south of Mansfield, usually provides good fishing and is well-stocked. In Grant County, Blue and Park lakes near the town of Soap Lake, and Warden Lake east of O’Sullivan Dam on Potholes Reservoir are also well-stocked and traditionally fish well through May and beyond.

For the complete trout stocking plan for fishing waters throughout the region, see /fishing/plants/statewide/ . For the latest weekly stocking reports, see  /fishing/plants/weekly/.

All salmon and steelhead anglers are reminded to turn in 2010-11 catch record cards as soon as possible, whether or not you harvested anything or even fished at all. The cards help contribute to a data base that supports season setting.

No matter where in the region or what kind of fishing you pursue, WDFW officials are reminding anglers to clean their boats thoroughly before transporting them between fishing waters. WDFW’s eastside Aquatic Invasive Species biologist Mike Wilkinson notes that mandatory boat inspections at various water access sites throughout the state begin this month to try to prevent the illegal transport or spread of everything from milfoil to zebra mussels. For more information, see /ais/.

SOUTHCENTRAL

Anglers have through May 1 to fish for spring chinook salmon in the Columbia River from Bonneville Dam upstream to the Washington-Oregon border, 17 miles upstream of McNary Dam. Whether that fishery will be extended will largely depend on an in-season run update in early to mid-May, said Paul Hoffarth, a fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) based in Pasco.

“The run has been slow to move upriver, making fishing tough in this area,” Hoffarth said. “But we’re still hopeful the pace will pick up in the weeks ahead.”

Hoffarth said fishery managers are predicting a moderate return of 10,300 springers to the Yakima River, and advises anglers to watch for news of possible openings further upstream. Information about any additional openings will be posted on WDFW’s website, included on the department’s Fishing Hotline (360-902-2500) and circulated to local media.

Meanwhile, crews from WDFW continue to stock lakes with catchable-size and jumbo trout throughout the region. In Yakima County, Clear Lake is in line to receive 10,800 catchables in May, Dog Lake 3,500 and Lost Lake 2,000. Dog Lake will also get more than 400 jumbo trout weighing up to 1½ pounds apiece, with another 1,000 jumbos going to Lost Lake in Kittitas County and 500 to Columbia Park Pond, a popular fishing hole in Kennewick reserved for anglers under age 15 and people with disabilities. A complete trout-planting schedule for southcentral lakes and ponds is available on the WDFW website.

On May 7, Columbia Park Pond will host a Kids Fishing Day, limited to 1,200 youths between the ages of 5 and 14. All anglers must register with Kennewick Parks and Recreation before May 5. Anglers can register online at http://go2kennewick.com.  Registration is $10 and includes a rod and reel and everything you need to fish. Lots of volunteers will be on hand to help.

Hoping to catch a legal-size sturgeon?  John Day Pool (Lake Umatilla) is now catch-and-release only, but Lake Wallula remains open through July for retention of sturgeon measuring 34 inches to 43 inches from snout to fork. Anglers should be aware that sanctuary areas described in the Fishing in Washington rules pamphlet are closed to fishing – including catch-and-release – from May 1 through July 31.

For a different experience, try hooking one of the large catfish now showing up at the mouths of rivers including the Yakima, Walla Walla, and Palouse. “Bring a good rod and strong line and expect a fight if you hook into one of these monsters,” Hoffarth said.

A MEATY COCKTAIL OF 'CRAWLERS AND SHRIMP DID SAM STUART OF MOSES LAKE WELL ON THE SNAKE AT LYONS FERRY LAST MAY. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

Walleye fishing is also picking up at Scooteney Reservoir, with fair catches reported. Bass fishing should also improve as soon as the water warms a bit.

FOR MORE ON MAY'S FISHING OPPORTUNITIES, CHECK OUT OUR BRAND-NEW ISSUE! (NORTHWEST SPORTSMAN)

What’s Fishin’ In Oregon (4-27-11)

And suddenly the dam counts blasted off.

Yesterday, 4,787 spring Chinook went over Bonneville, more than doubling the tally for the year so far, and three-quarters of all the salmon that have gone over Willamette Falls in 2011 did so on Tuesday as well.

An eastside angler with his eyes on the fish cam at Bonnie emailed me in early afternoon to say, “There are fish streaming over the dam right now. I just saw three in the frame at once, and here’s a screen shot of two in the ladder at once. I have seen a dozen or so in the last few minutes, and those are just the ones caught in the still frame image!”

“They’re here right now,” reports Portland salmon angler Andy Schneider about the Willamette this morning. “Monday: on fire! Tuesday: decent. Today: slow!”

Columbia outflows have dropped from a high of 375,000 cubic feet per second earlier this month into the 250,000 cfs range at the dam, and the river has warmed by several degrees to over 48 — though it’s still several degrees below the 10-year average. Biologists have also been telling me there’s just more fish in the lower river now.

Tuesday’s big count followed the year’s first four-digit day, 1,019 fish on Monday.

So far, 9,632 have gone over the dam 144 miles above the mouth of the mighty crick.

Salmon fishing is closed below there but remains open from there to the Washington-Oregon line east of McNary Dam through this weekend — see ODFW’s regs for more — and at Drano Lake (closed today) where guide Bob Barthlow was picking some up earlier this week and at Wind River.

The lower Willamette is open, anglers are posting nice catches on their Facebook pages and the count at the falls has gone from single- and low-double-digit days through most of the “spring” to 109 on Monday and 764 yesterday, for a total of 1,052 for the year.

Yesterday, water temps had risen to 51 degrees, visibility was at 4 feet and flows were at 30,400 cfs. A week before, those readings were at 48, 1.5 and 61,000, respectively.

KIRBY CANNON WITH A WILLAMETTE SPRINGER FROM THIS PAST WEEKEND. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

But what else is fishing in Oregon for this weekend?

Here are highlights ripped straight from ODFW’s weekly Recreation Report:

SOUTHWEST ZONE

• Despite some snowy, slushy conditions, trout fishing at Diamond Lake was good on opening weekend with some fish over 20-inches long.
• Fishing for hatchery winter steelhead has been very good on the South Umpqua. The South is open through April 30.
• Spring chinook fishing has been good on lower Roque River and should improve as temperatures increase and flows decrease.
• Anglers are still catching winter steelhead on the upper Rogue river, and the first spring chinook has arrived at Cole Rivers Hatchery.
• Now is a great time to fish many of the lakes, ponds and reservoirs throughout the area – many have been recently stocked and are fishing well.

NORTHWEST ZONE

• North Coast lakes: Sunset, Lost and Coffenbury lakes, and Vernonia Pond are scheduled to be stocked the week of May 2. North Lake was stocked last week, and South Lake was stocked with all remaining fish that had not been made up yet. Fishing should be very good at these lakes.
• Tillamook Bay: Sturgeon fishing is fair. Effort was relatively light on the last tide series. A good low tide series in early may should provide good fishing conditions. Fish sand shrimp on the bottom near the channel edges during the outgoing tide, especially during low tide series. Move often to find fish if you are not getting bites. Spring chinook angling should begin to pick up soon, but angling is very slow at this time. Trolling Herring in the lower bay or near shore ocean generally produces the first fish of the year.
• Wilson River: Fishing for winter steelhead has been good when the river is in shape. The first summer steelhead of the year was reported caught recently. Fishing should continue to be good this week depending on water conditions. Good numbers of fish are in the system throughout the open fishing areas, but fewer bright winter steelhead are still showing up. Boaters need to use extreme caution around MP 6 due or avoid that section of river due to a large tree partially blocking the river. Spring chinook are not expected to show up in any numbers until May.

WILLAMETTE ZONE

• The North Willamette trout stocking program gets into full swing this weekend with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife releases more than 65,000 trout at more than 30 locations around the Willamette Valley for the traditional opening of early trout season.
• The Willamette River below Willamette Falls is shaping up after the extended period of spring rain and should be in good condition for chinook salmon fishing by the end of the week. Chinook are starting to cross the falls in increasing numbers, with a couple of triple digit days last week.
• While sturgeon retention on the Willamette River closed March 17, the river remains open to catch-and-release fishing.

CENTRAL ZONE

• There have been several angler reports of good kokanee fishing on Haystack Reservoir.
• Spring chinook seasons are open on both the Deschutes and Hood rivers.
• Several lakes and reservoirs in the areas, including South Twin, Odell, Crane Prairie and Wickiup, are accessible and open to fishing.

SOUTHEAST ZONE

• Trout fishing in Klamath and Agency Lakes has improved with the warmer temperatures. Target the spring areas and shorelines.
• Several area lakes and streams are now open for trout fishing including Burnt River, Wood River, Crooked Creek, Upper Williamson, Upper Williamson, Eagle Creek and Krumbo and Pilcher reservoirs.

NORTHEAST ZONE

• Fishing for holdover trout has been fair on Wallowa Lake.
• There will be a family fishing event at Peach Pond (Ladd Marsh) on May 7 from 8:00am-1:00pm. Fishing rods, gear and instruction will be provided.
• Several area water bodies have been stocked and have been offering some good fishing.

BROWNLEE ZONE

• A few crappie, perch, and bass are being caught if you can get to them. Water levels are extremely low as of Monday, April 25 (64 feet below full). Sweed’s landing is the only place to get in right now. Call Idaho Power Company’s recording at 1-800-422-3143 to get information on access at recreational sites or visit their website http://www.idahopower.com/OurEnvironment/WaterInformation/Reservoir/

COLUMBIA ZONE

• Angling is CLOSED for salmon, steelhead, and shad in the lower Columbia from the Buoy 10 line upstream to Bonneville Dam.
• Spring chinook angling is open Monday April 25 – Sunday May 1, between Tower Island and the Oregon/Washington border above McNary Dam plus the Oregon and Washington banks between Bonneville Dam and Tower Island.
• Walleye fishing is excellent in The Dalles Pool.
• Sturgeon anglers are catching a few keepers between Portland and Bonneville Dam.

MARINE ZONE

• Last week provided several good days where anglers could pursue bottom fish. Lingcod are still on the bite and both private and charter boats returned with good catches of rockfish and limits or near limits of lingcod.
• While fishing in the ocean for chinook salmon (and other non-coho salmon) opened March 15 so far there are no recorded sport catches. Some commercial boats are finding fish, however. Fishing will continue until April 30 from Cape Falcon just north of Manzanita to Humbug Mountain near Port Orford.

Diamond Lake Opener (Ice) Fishing Report

(DIAMOND LAKE RESORT PRESS RELEASE)

To say the fishing was good at Diamond Lake on opening morning is an understatement.

ODFW predictions of hundreds of thousands of hungry trout have proven to be very true so far. Over 150 anglers made the trip to a frozen Diamond Lake on Saturday morning, April 23rd. Nearly all were rewarded with nice catches of rainbow trout.

(DIAMOND LAKE RESORT)

Rainbow, chartreuse, fluorescent orange and red PowerBait were the best choices to tempt trout from the frigid lake waters.

The best area was right out in front of Diamond Lake Lodge in 20 to 30 feet of water. Anglers dropped their baits down very slowly to avoid tangling the floating PowerBait in their main lines.

Good catches were also reported using white and chartreuse jigs at the “Cheese Hole” ½ mile north of the resort.

Three feet of snow still covers Road 4795 leading from the resort to the south end of the lake where anglers will find some open water.

(DIAMOND LAKE RESORT)

All USFS campgrounds and boat ramps are still closed due to late season snow fall. Dry camping is available at Diamond Lake Resort.

When venturing out on the ice please wear a life jacket. The ice is not all the same thickness everywhere on the lake. There are thin spots left over from the warm weather in late January.

You can call our marina (800-733-7593 x 238) for up to the minute reports or check out our website at diamondlake.net and click on the fishing report.

SW WA, Columbia Fishing Report (4-25-11)

(REPORT COURTESY BIOLOGIST JOE HYMER)

SALMON AND STEELHEAD

Cowlitz River – Steelhead are mainly being caught around the trout hatchery while spring Chinook are being caught in the lower river.

Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 913 winter-run steelhead, four summer-run steelhead, 17 spring Chinook adults and five mini-jacks during five days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.
During the past week Tacoma Power employees released 39 steelhead into the Cispus River above the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek, 12 winter-run steelhead into Lake Scanewa above Cowlitz Falls Dam, and seven winter-run steelhead into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton.

River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 10,100 cubic feet per second on Monday, April 25. Water visibility is seven feet.

Anglers should note the south side of the river from Mill Creek to the Barrier Dam is closed to all fishing from May 1 through June 15 per permanent regulations.

Kalama River – Winter and summer run steelhead are being caught.  Some spring Chinook are reported being caught in the lower river.

Lewis River – Effort and catches are light.  A few spring Chinook are being reported caught.  A half dozen spring Chinook returned to the Merwin Dam trap last week.

Washougal River (April 16-19) — 9 bank anglers released 1 wild steelhead.  4 boats kept 2 hatchery steelhead and released 2 wild fish.  Most of the anglers were fishing from Hathaway Park downstream.

Wind River – The few anglers sampled at the mouth had no catch.  Eight boats observed here last Saturday morning.

The upper river from 100′ feet above Shipherd Falls upstream to 800 yards below Carson National Fish Hatchery (except closed 400′ below and 100′ above the Coffer Dam) opens to fishing for salmon and hatchery steelhead beginning May 1. Any chinook, adipose fin clipped or not, may be kept from this section of river. A night closure will be in effect in this section of river.  In addition, the anti-snagging rule will be in effect from the Burlington-Northern Railroad Bridge upstream beginning May 1.  When the anti-snagging rule is in effect, only fish hooked inside the mouth may be retained.

Drano Lake – Boat anglers are catching some spring Chinook.  28 boats were counted here last Saturday morning.

Klickitat River – A few summer run steelhead are being caught but no spring Chinook yet.

Bonneville Pool – Bank anglers sampled just outside Drano had no catch.

The Dalles Pool – Bank anglers are catching some spring Chinook and steelhead.  Through April 24, there have been an estimated 903 angler trips with 34 chinook kept  and 27 released.

John Day Pool – An estimated 14 adult hatchery spring Chinook were harvested in the John Day Pool (Lake Umatilla) this past week by anglers.  WDFW staff interviewed 56 anglers and sampled one hatchery spring Chinook. No wild Chinook or any other species were reported. Very few boat anglers are targeting on Chinook but several bank anglers are currently fishing the Oregon shore line below McNary.

Bonneville Dam to the WA/OR border  – Open to fishing for hatchery chinook and hatchery steelhead through May 1.

STURGEON

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – Fishing was slow.  Effort increased slightly with just over 100 boats and just under 50 bank anglers counted during the Saturday April 23^rd effort flight count.

Mainstem Columbia and its tributaries from Buoy 10 to the Wauna powerlines (including all adjacent Washington tributaries) – Catch-and-release only May 1-13.  From May 14-June 26 and July 1-4, the daily limit is 1fish.  Minimum size will be 41” fork length and maximum size 54” fork length.  Catch-and-release fishing is permitted on non-retention days.

Bonneville Dam downstream 9 miles to a line crossing the Columbia from Navigation Marker 82 on the Oregon shore through the upstream exposed end of Skamania Island, continuing in a straight line to a boundary marker on the Washington shore – To protect spawning fish, closed to fishing for sturgeon May 1-Aug. 31 under permanent rules.

The Dalles Pool – Bank anglers are catching some legals.  Slow for legal size fish for boat anglers.

Under permanent rules to protect spawning fish, closed to fishing for sturgeon from John Day Dam downstream 5.4 miles to the west end of the grain silo at Rufus, Oregon May 1-July 31.

John Day Pool – 4 boats/8 anglers released 1 sturgeon in the current catch-and-release only fishery.

Under permanent rules to protect spawning fish, closed to fishing for sturgeon from McNary Dam downstream 1.5 miles to Hwy. 82 (Hwy. 395) Bridge May 1-July 31.

WALLEYE AND BASS
The Dalles Pool – Including fish released, boat anglers averaged 4 walleye per rod.  Bank and boat anglers are catching some bass.

John Day Pool – 7 boats/12 anglers had 8 walleye.  3 boats/6 anglers had 5 bass.

TROUT

South Lewis County Park Pond near Toledo – Planted with 580 rainbows averaging 1.6 pounds each April 18.

Sacajawea Lake in Longview – Planted with 3,097 catchable size brown trout April 19.

Horseshoe Lake in Woodland – Planted with 4,041 catchable size rainbows April 20.

Battleground Lake – Planted with 2,040 catchable size rainbows April 19.

New WA Fish Regs Out

The 2011-12 fishing regulations for Washington have now been posted.

They’re available at wdfw.wa.gov.

With this year’s cover going unsold (previous issues’ have had ads for Pavati Marine and Alumaweld), the regs feature “Heartbreaker,” a painting of a leaping rainbow by Fred W. Thomas, a Shoreline artist whose Web site says he’s the guy who came up with the Eskimo on the tail of all those Alaska Airlines jets.

In addition to new rules for lead fishing tackle on 13 lakes in the state’s northern tier, here’s what else is new or tweaked for this season:

Statewide Closure for Columbia River

Smelt (eulachon) – Fishing for Columbia River Smelt (eulachon) is closed in both fresh and saltwater statewide. In 2010, the federal government declared that Columbia River smelt (also called eulachon) warranted protection as a Threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This statewide closure is necessary to conserve this species.

Samish River Fishery Changes

Major changes were made to the Samish River this year. To help reduce snagging, anglers will be required to release any salmon that is not hooked inside the mouth. Anglers will also be required to retain the first 2 salmon, if legal to do so, and stop fishing. These regulations were implemented to promote an orderly fishery and reduce crowding on the river while maintaining recreational opportunity.

Elliott Bay and Green River Chinook Closure

Naturally spawning Chinook salmon bound for the Green River are projected to return in numbers well below the spawning goal. As a result, neither the State nor Tribes are planning recreational or commercial Chinook fisheries in Elliott Bay and the Green River. State and Tribal biologists will evaluate the run size in-season to determine whether Chinook abundance is greater than the pre-season forecast. Fisheries may be announced if the in-season information clearly indicates that spawning goals will be achieved.

Puyallup River Changes

The area downstream of Freeman Road will open beginning August 16 and be closed on August 28, 29, and September 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13.

Skokomish River Fishery

As of the time of printing, recreational salmon fishing seasons during the August and September time period had not been determined for the Skokomish River. Recreational salmon fishing seasons during this time period will be announced as soon as possible.

Willapa Bay Tributaries

Salmon seasons have been added to South Fork Willapa River and the middle section of North River from Salmon Creek to Falls River. North Nemah River will open for Salmon fishing September 1. Please be aware of mark selective requirements for Chinook in the Naselle River; also WDFW will be jaw tagging Chinook as part of ongoing studies, please report tag color and number if available to: (360) 249-1205.

New Columbia River Catch Record Card Code

Area 535, from the Highway 395 Bridge in Pasco to Priest Rapids Dam, has been split into two catch reporting areas. Continue to use 535 for the river from the Highway 395 Bridge to the Old Hanford townsite wooden powerline towers. This area includes the Ringold Area Bank Fishery. Use the new catch code, 536, for the river from the Old Hanford townsite wooden powerline towers up to Priest Rapids Dam. These codes are to be entered on catch record cards for all retention of salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon.

Reduced daily bottomfish limits are in place in Marine Catch Areas 1-4

In Marine Catch Areas 1-3 and Marine Catch Area 4 west of the Bonilla-Tatoosh the new combined bottomfish limit is 12 per day and now includes a sub-limit of 2 cabezon in addition to sub-limits for rockfish (10) and lingcod (2). In Marine Catch Area 4 east of the Bonilla-Tatoosh line the new combined daily bottomfish limit is 10 which includes sub-limits for cabezon (2)
lingcod (2) and black and blue rockfish (6).

Killer Whale Vessel Rules

The Federal Government (NOAA) recently released new protective regulations for Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed Killer Whales (Orcas). For a complete summary of these new rules please visit the NOAA web page at: http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Marine-Mammals/Whales-Dolphins-Porpoise/Killer-Whales/Recovery-Implement/Orca-Vessel-Regs.cfm. These new rules prohibit vessels from approaching any killer whale closer than 200 yards and forbid vessels from intercepting a whale or positioning the vessel in its path. WDFW also encourages boaters to “GO SLOW” in the vicinity of killer whales. For more information on how to avoid disturbing killer whales, visit wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/orca.

Oregon FWC Sets Ocean Salmon Seasons, Other Biz

(OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE PRESS RELEASE)

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission today adopted 2011 ocean salmon seasons for sport and commercial fisheries that include some of the most significant chinook salmon fisheries since 2007 as well as opportunities to retain wild coho thanks to healthy runs forecasted this year.

The salmon seasons adopted by the Commission are for Oregon’s territorial waters that extend three miles from the state’s shoreline. They mirror the regulations adopted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council on April 13 that cover ocean waters from three to 200 miles from the state’s shore. The regulations must also be approved by the National Marine Fishery Service and the Secretary of Commerce.

Details of the upcoming sport seasons include:

From Cape Falcon just north of Manzanita to Humbug Mountain near Port Orford:

Chinook season runs from March 15 through Sept. 30 with a bag limit of two salmon, closed to the retention of coho except during the selective coho and non- selective coho seasons.
Selective coho season open July 2 through the earlier of Aug. 13 or 15,000 selective coho quota with a bag limit of two salmon, all coho must have a healed adipose fin clip.
Non-selective coho season open each Thursday through Saturday from Sept. 1 through earlier of Sept. 10 or 3,000 selective coho quota with a limit of two salmon.

The Columbia River area, from Leadbetter Point, Wash., to Cape Falcon:

Selective chinook season open June 18 through June 25 or the catch quota of 4,800 marked chinook. The daily bag limit is two chinook with a healed adipose fin clip. No coho may be retained.
Non-selective chinook and selective coho season open June 26 through Sept. 30 or until a 7,400 chinook and 33,600 selective coho quota is reached. The bag limit is two salmon per day, but no more than one chinook, and all coho must have a healed adipose fin clip.

South of Humbug Mountain to the Oregon/California border the chinook season is open May 14 through Sept. 5. The daily bag limit is two salmon. No coho may be retained.

Ocean chinook salmon seasons South of Cape Falcon have been relatively restrictive in the last three years due to concerns about poor returns to California’s Sacramento River – home to most of the chinook caught off Oregon’s central and south coasts. Managers are predicting significantly stronger returns to the Sacramento this year, allowing for more liberal commercial and recreational ocean salmon seasons.

The Commission approved the Oregon Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Assessment and Strategy and adopted new rule language regarding population and habitat objectives and core area mapping criteria. The plan will be reviewed in one year.

The Commission ended the five-year mandatory review requirement for the wildlife management plans of several game species (Elk, Black Bear, Cougar, Mule Deer, Black-Tailed Deer, Bighorn Sheep and Rocky Mtn Goat, and Wild Turkey). Plan revisions can tie up significant staff time and in some cases, habitat and species conditions may not have not changed enough in five years to warrant revising a plan.

ODFW staff intends to update the Commission on three wildlife management plans annually with information on research results, accomplishments and any new issues for the particular species.

The Commission approved new rule language that clarifies the authority of law enforcement officers to take or harass wildlife while performing their duties.

The Commission is the policy-making body for fish and wildlife issues in the state. It usually meets monthly. The next meeting is scheduled for June 2-3 in Salem. http://www.dfw.state.or.us/agency/commission/minutes/

Potholes Terns Like Upper Columbia Steelie, Springer Smolts

Betcha a buck that Sammie the Salmon ends up as fish dinner for a tern on Potholes Reservoir.

Sammie is a spring Chinook that was released on Monday night from the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery on the upper Methow. So far she’s made it to the Columbia and down through Wells Dam — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created a Google Map to track her progress — but the colony of Caspian terns on Goose Island have a taste for young spring Chinook from these parts.

The birds fly the 30 or so miles from Potholes to the river to annually eat 3.6 percent of the spring smolt run, a percentage “significantly higher than all other Chinook stocks available to this colony,” according to a half-decade-long study of what certain birds eat along the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

That was over just two years of record, but the same flock also likes Upper Columbia steelhead, eating 10.0 percent of the summer-run smolts coming downriver. And a colony on Crescent Island south of Tri-Cities ate 7.7 percent of those coming down the Snake.

“That has been a shocker to us,” Oregon State University’s Dan Roby told the Columbia Basin Bulletin in a story out today. “It looks like the primary reason for going there is to work on salmonids, and in particular steelhead.”

It’s a worry because numerous stocks of Columbia Basin salmonids are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The executive summary of the study — done by Bird Research Northwest for the Army Corps of Engineers — suggests that “the greatest potential for increasing survival of smolts from ESA-listed salmonid stocks by managing inland avian predators would be realized by focusing management efforts on Caspian terns nesting at colonies on Crescent Island, Goose Island, and the Blalock Islands. Reductions in the size of these tern colonies would enhance survival of upper Columbia River and Snake River steelhead stocks in particular.”

Blalock Islands are below McNary Dam.

The overall study looked at nine flocks and numerous other listed salmonid runs and concludes:

This system-wide evaluation of avian predation indicated that, among the nine piscivorous waterbird colonies investigated, Caspian terns and double-crested cormorants nesting on East Sand Island in the Columbia River estuary were consuming the highest proportions of available PIT-tagged smolts, with combined losses ranging from a low of 2.6% for Willamette spring Chinook to a high of 18.2% for Snake River summer steelhead during 2004-2009. Estimated predation rates associated with the tern and cormorant colonies in the estuary were generally 2-5 times greater than for inland bird colonies. Due to the relatively high observed predation rates in the estuary, and because all anadromous salmonids must migrate through the estuary, our results indicate that the management of terns and cormorants nesting on East Sand Island near the mouth of the Columbia River has the greatest potential to enhance survival of juvenile salmonids from all Columbia Basin stocks combined.

Interestingly, ESA-listed game fish aren’t the only species getting eaten. When researchers poked around the Snake from Clarkston down over three winters to see if double-crested cormorants were impacting listed fall Chinook, they found that the birds primarily chew on a whole lot of bass and panfish.

“The most prevalent prey types in the foregut samples were centrarchids (sunfishes and bass; 34.3% by mass), followed by shad (15.0%), cyprinids (11.7%), and salmonids (11.7%). Fall Chinook salmon comprised an average of 3.4% by mass of the cormorant diet,” says the study.

Smallies and panfish made up 66.7 percent of their diet in October but by December they depended on shad for 59.1 percent of their diet. Salmon and steelhead were most prevalent in November when they comprised 24.2 percent of foregut content.

For your Easter Weekend reading enjoyment, the entire 239-page study can be downloaded here.

Wolverines Spotted In Wallowas, For The First Time

UPDATED 8:50 A.M., APRIL 26, 2011: ODFW trail cameras captured what agency biologists believe to be two different wolverines.

(ODFW)

Here’s ODFW’s latest press release:

Five days after discovering wolverine tracks in the Wallowa Mountains of Northeast Oregon, researcher Audrey Magoun downloaded photos of two wolverines from a bait station camera.

“They are clearly photos of two different individuals,” Magoun said.

The photos were taken on April 2 and 13 and downloaded on April 22, 2011.

After viewing the photos, Magoun and research assistant Pat Valkenburg redesigned the camera site so that when the wolverines return—and Magoun believes they will—they will be able to get photos of the wolverines’ abdomens which will help determine the sex of the animals.

The set of tracks discovered on April 17 was the first confirmation of a wolverine in Wallowa County, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Vic Coggins. Read the April 22, 2011 news release: Wolverine tracks confirmed in Wallowa County for first time

Magoun and Valkenburg have been surveying for wolverine in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest within and adjacent to the Eagle Cap Wilderness since January of this year. Funding and logistical support for the wolverine survey comes from an Oregon Conservation Strategy Implementation Grant(federal State Wildlife Grant), The Wolverine Foundation, Inc., the Wildlife Conservation Society, The Seattle Foundation and private individuals including Magoun and Valkenburg, Alaska residents, who use their own plane for aerial surveys.

The wolverine was listed as threatened by the Oregon Game Commission in 1975, grandfathered as a state threatened species (May 1987) and reaffirmed by rule in 1989. It became a federal candidate species on Dec. 14, 2010.

Dudes and dudettes, I’m just going to admit something to ya’ll: I like wolverines.

First, there’s the movie Red Dawn and its famous battle cry that has echoed through the years between my friends and I, and then there are some who have said that my somewhat grouchy personality resembles Gulo gulo in the morning.

Whatever it is, I’m following news out of Oregon that, for the first time in recorded history, the tracks of one have been spotted in the Wallowas.

That follows the capture of a handful in Washington’s North Cascades in recent years.

Here’s ODFW’s press release:

ENTERPRISE, Ore.—For the first time in recorded history, biologists have confirmed that tracks found in the Wallowa Mountains of Northeast Oregon are those of a North American wolverine.

Researcher Dr. Audrey Magoun found the wolverine tracks in the snow on April 17 while hiking to a remote camera site set up to detect wolverines. She followed the tracks for about a mile until they left the river bottom headed into the high country.

“From the size of the track, it is probably a male,” said Magoun who has dedicated her career to studying wolverine since she received her Ph.D. in 1978.

“This is the first confirmation of a wolverine in Wallowa County,” said Vic Coggins, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife district wildlife biologist. “We’ve always thought it was good habitat, and we’ve had reports but nothing we could verify until now.”

Magoun also believed the habitat conditions were right, which was why she and research assistant, pilot and husband, Pat Valkenburg, undertook this winter’s survey in the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

“There is a breeding population in the Payette Forest in Idaho and a breeding population in the North Cascades in Washington,” she said. “In fact, we couldn’t believe wolverine wouldn’t be here. They travel large distances.”

As part of the survey, 14 baited field camera sites were set up and several aerial flights made. None of the cameras have yet yielded a photo of a wolverine, but 80 percent of the cameras had photos of American marten and a few native red fox were detected. Biologists believe these animals are probably the native foxes that were once common in the Wallowa Mountains.

Coggins is interested in the data on marten and red fox in the higher elevations. “It’s great to know what species are using these areas—it’s indicative of the health of the habitat and helps with management decisions,” he said.

According to Magoun, the next question is: Is this a lone wolverine or is the area occupied? She hopes to be back next winter field season to try and answer that question.

Funding and logistical support for the survey comes from an Oregon Conservation Strategy Implementation Grant (federal State Wildlife Grant), The Wolverine Foundation, Inc., the Wildlife Conservation Society and private individuals including Magoun and Valkenburg, Alaska residents, who use their own plane for aerial surveys.

The wolverine was listed as threatened by the Oregon Game Commission in 1975, grandfathered as a state threatened species (May 1987) and reaffirmed by rule in 1989. It became a federal candidate species on Dec. 14, 2010.

In 1936, the wolverine was thought to have been extirpated from Oregon. In 1965, a male was killed on Three Fingered Jack in Linn County. In 1973, a wolverine was trapped and released on Steens Mountain, Harney County. In 1986, a wolverine was trapped in Wheeler County. In 1990, a dead wolverine was picked up on I-84 in Hood River County. In 1992, a partial skeleton was recovered in Grant County.

Excellent! Oregon Spring Fishing Forecast (2011) Out

Note to self: Time next flame run to the inlaws in Newport a wee bit later, say June-July. That’s the peak of the summer steelhead fishery on the Siletz.

THE BLOGGER IN CHIEF WELL ABOVE MOONSHINE PARK. (JUERGEN ECKSTEIN)

That’s what the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 72-page fresh-off-the-err-desktop spring fishing forecast PDF tells me.

Also available as a word doc, it talks up fisheries from the state’s Central Coast to its Snake Coast, and everywhere in between.

High-grading my way through, ODFW says Diamond Lake should offer “excellent” fishing for more than 400,000 holdovers this season, Arizona Pond is an “excellent place to take kids,” Coos and Coquille Bays offer “excellent” fall crabbing, and streams in the nearby Elliott State Forest offer “excellent cutthroat trout fishing away from the crowds.”

All in all, an excellent little download!

What Wolf Delisting Means (So Far) In WA, OR

If you’ve read any of the myriad of news accounts about wolves, the national budget battle and delisting that have come out over the past week or so, you may be wondering what it all means for management of Canis lupus in Washington and Oregon.

Though both states have relatively small populations — a minimum of 18 and maybe up to 25 in the former, and at least 23 in the latter — they have large chunks of real estate that are part of the Northern Rocky Mountains distinct population segment, or DPS, where wolves will be taken off the list of endangered species when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service resubmits its April 2009 delisting on the Federal Register, as ordered by Congress.

On the south side of the Columbia, Oregon Public Broadcasting posted a segment with a quote from an ODFW spokeswoman:

Beth Hyams: …  Is Oregon ready to take over wolf management?

Cassandra Profita: Actually, the state is pretty well prepared for this transition. U.S. Fish and WIldlife Service delisted the wolves in 2009, and before the court threw that decision out, Oregon got a chance to put its own wolf management plan to the test for a about a year. I spoke with Michelle Dennehy. She’s a spokeswoman for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. She said state management won’t be much different from what the feds have been doing because Oregon’s wolves are still protected as a state endangered species, and those protections aren’t going to be lifted anytime soon.

Michelle Dennehy: “Right now we can account for 23 wolves in Oregon. We have low numbers of wolves in Oregon. We’re not going to be looking at a delisting of wolves from the state Endangered Species Act until we get four breeding pairs for three consecutive years, and we haven’t even reached four breeding pairs yet.”

In Washington, the effect is to split the state into two wolf management zones, a western and an eastern. They’re divided by Highways 97, 17 and 395 through Okanogan, Douglas, Grant, Adams, Franklin and Benton Counties.

To the east of that line, where there are at least two different groups of wolves in the Northeast corner and probably another in the Blues, the animals will still be under state protection as an endangered species, says Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife spokeswoman Madonna Luers in Spokane.

WDFW will also have “management authority” over them, where before USFWS did, she says.

So, when someone reports wolf tracks or a dead calf in that zone, it will be Luers and others at the state agency who pick up the phone and take the lead in figuring out what to do, based on a 14-page PDF known as the “Wolf Response Guidelines.”

However, when it comes to livestock depredations, she says that WDFW will continue to work with USDA Wildlife Services. She notes that some state staffers have received training on telltale signs of wolf kills from experts like now-retired federal biologist Carter Niemeyer and others. So far there has been only one confirmed stock death tied to wolves in Washington.

Luers says that to the west of the three highways, wolves “remain both state and federally listed as endangered.” So, in the Cascades and Western Washington, USFWS remains the lead response agency.

She says delisting “will not be an impact to the timeline or content of the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan/EIS” that her agency and its Wolf Working Group have spent the past few years on and will meet in Ellensburg in June to discuss before sending to the Fish & Wildlife Commission.

One thing it does do, however, is decrease the penalties for poaching in now-state-managed areas. There, under RCW 77.15.120, it’s a $5,000 fine and a year in jail for first-time offenders who kill state endangered species while those with previous convictions for doing so face up to $10,000 in fines and a year in jail.

That said, Doug Zimmer, a USFWS spokesman says that he definitely wouldn’t want to be the first to test delisting out on the 509 side of the state.

“This hasn’t been done before. This will be interesting,” he says.

In the western two-thirds of the state, killing a wolf remains a Federal crime and is punishable by up to a $100,000 criminal fine, a $25,000 civil fine and up to a year in jail.

As for any wolf hunt in Washington, Luers told the Spokesman-Review‘s Becky Kramer that that’s a long, long ways off.

First, the agency and the WWG have to finalize a management plan which will set a goal for what constitutes a recovered population. Right now, that’s 15 breeding pairs over three years with certain numbers in three subregions of the state, though a minority on the WWG want half that and during public comment others called for twice that and for a fourth subregion.

Then the FWC has to sign off on the plan.

And then the Wildlife Program would have to figure out a season structure and have the FWC sign off on that.

But as with the rest of the state’s game, to hold a season, first you must have a huntable/fishable population. At this point, how successful wolves will be in Washington remains an open question.

Both Oregon and Washington maintain wolf management pages online. ODFW’s features monthly wolf activity reports (March’s just came out earlier this week) while WDFW sources tell me they will be trying to post something similar this year.

Peachy Keen! New Trout Pond Near Chiloquin

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Young anglers in Chiloquin will have a new fishing hole thanks to a cooperative effort between the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and landowner Peachy Thomas.

Thomas will be opening Peachy Pond to fishing for young anglers (age 17 and younger), senior anglers (age 65 and over) and anglers with an Oregon Disabilities Fishing Permit beginning April 23.

According to Bill Tinniswood, ODFW fish biologist in Klamath Falls, ODFW will be stocking the pond with legal-sized rainbow trout in anticipation of the opener.

The ponds will be stocked regularly through the Fourth of July, Tinniswood added. Check the ODFW website for a complete stocking schedule. ODFW staff will be at Peachy Ponds on April 23 to help introduce anglers to this new fishing opportunity.

The pond is located off Modoc Point Road near Chiloquin. From Modoc Point Road turn east on Rivers Drive at the Williamson River Store.

ODFW To Talk Fall Hunts At 21 May Meetings

(OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE PRESS RELEASE)

ODFW will host a series of public meetings around the state to provide information about big game herd health and numbers, propose the number of controlled big game hunting tags to issue this fall and review concepts for any 2012 big game regulation changes.

The information to be presented at the meetings will be available online in early May.

Oregon offers both general seasons and controlled hunts for big game (deer, elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, Rocky Mtn goat, cougar, and black bear). The number of tags for controlled hunts is limited and hunters must apply for them by May 15 each year.

Hunters can also offer input on game bird hunting regulations at the meetings, which the Commission will set at their Aug. 5 meeting in Salem.

Written comments about any of the above topics can also be sent to ODFW Wildlife Division, 3406 Cherry Ave NE, Salem, OR 97303 or e-mailed to odfw.comments@state.or.us. Members of the public may also testify in person at Commission meetings.

Table 1. Location, date, and time for 2011 Oregon big game public meetings.
City	Date	Time	Location
Lakeview	May 3	6 – 8 pm	Eagle’s Lodge – 27 South “E” Street
Baker City	May 4	4 – 6 pm	ODFW Baker City District Office 2995 Hughes Lane
Roseburg	May 4	6 pm	ODFW Roseburg Regional Office Conference Rm, 4192 N Umpqua Hwy
John Day	May 4	5:30 – 7 pm	Grant County Health Dept. Johnny Titus Rm 528 E Main St
Heppner	May 4	6 pm	ODFW Heppner District Office 54173 Highway 74
Condon	May 5	6 pm	USDA Conference Room 333 S. Main St
Ontario	May 5	6 pm MDT	Malheur County Extension Office 710 SW 5th St
Springfield	May 5	7 – 9 pm	Oregon Dept. of Forestry 3150 East Main St
Enterprise	May 6	3 – 6 pm	ODFW Enterprise District Office
Klamath Falls	May 10	6 – 8 pm	OSU Extension Service 3328 Vandenberg Rd Klamath Falls
Charleston	May 10	6:30 – 8:30 pm	North Bend Public Library 1800 Sherman Ave North Bend
La Grande	May 11	4 – 7 pm	ODFW NE Region Office – 107 20th St
Burns	May 11	7 – 9 pm	Glory Days Pizza 960 Oregon Ave
Salem	May 11	7 – 9 pm	ODFW Headquarters Office 3406 Cherry Ave NE
Seaside	May 11	4 – 7 pm	Seaside Convention Center – Seamist Rm 415 First Avenue
Redmond	May 11	7 – 9 pm	Redmond High School Rm 37 675 SW Rimrock Dr Redmond
Pendleton	May 11	3 – 7 pm	Pendleton Convention Center 1601 Westgate
Newport	May 11	6 – 8 pm	Hatfield Marine Science Center, 2030 SE Marine Science Dr. Bldg. 904 Rooms 30 – 32
The Dalles	May 12	6 pm	The Dalles Screen Shop – 3561 Klindt Dr
Clackamas	May 12	7 – 9 pm	ODFW NW Region Office. Bldg. 16 17330 SE Evelyn St
Medford	May 12	7 pm	The Eagles Lodge 1170 Table Rock Rd

What’s Fishin’ In Oregon (4-20-11)

Diamond Lake Resort sent out their first fishing report of the season today.

Well, preseason.

The famed Oregon Cascades trout lake opens this Saturday, April 23, but it’s on the doubtful side that anyone will be trolling around for those 400,000 holdovers.

Diamond is still covered by 24 inches of snow and ice, reports the resort.

A stake they’ve set up just above the lake reads 4 feet of the white stuff.

And the forecast calls for chances of more through the weekend.

But in the meanwhile, let’s give you a little taste of what’s to come:

JANET HALME SHOWS OFF HER THEN-BIGGEST TROUT, A DIAMOND LAKE RAINBOW THAT WENT 21 INCHES. IT WAS CAUGHT LATE IN THE 2009 SEASON. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

Starting May 1, the limit jumps from five to eight trout a day (only one over 20 inches) too.

Until the ice melts and May 1, here are some other fishing opportunities to be had around the Beaver State:

SOUTHWEST ZONE

• Several lakes and reservoirs in the upper Rogue watershed are being stocked this week in anticipation of the traditional opening of the early trout season. For a complete list, see the ODFW stocking schedules.
• Fishing for hatchery winter steelhead has been very good on the South Umpqua. The South is open through April 30.
• Spring chinook fishing continues to be good on the lower Roque River.
• Anglers are still catching winter steelhead on the middle and upper Rogue river, and spring chinook are on their way.

NORTHWEST ZONE

• North Coast lakes: Coffenbury Lake, Lost Lake, and Vernonia Pond were stocked the week of April 11. South Lake was finally stocked last week also, as access to the lake improved.
• ODFW will host a family fishing event at Hebo Lake on Saturday, April 23. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Angling instructors and fishing gear will be available. The lake will be stocked prior to the event, so fishing should be good.
• Tillamook Bay: Sturgeon fishing is fair, but a good tide series this week combined with higher flows could improve the prospects. Fish sand shrimp on the bottom near the channel edges during the outgoing tide, especially during low tide series. Move often to find fish if you are not getting bites. Spring chinook angling will be very slow. Generally fishing will begin to pick up near the end of the month.

WILLAMETTE ZONE

• The North Willamette trout stocking program gets into full swing this weekend with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife releases more than 65,000 trout at more than 30 locations around the Willamette Valley for the traditional opening of early trout season.
• The Willamette River below Willamette Falls is shaping up after the extended period of spring rain and should be in good condition for chinook salmon fishing by the end of the week. Chinook are starting to cross the falls in increasing numbers, with a couple of triple digit days last week.
• While sturgeon retention on the Willamette River closed March 17, the river remains open to catch-and-release fishing.

CENTRAL ZONE

• There have been several angler reports of good kokanee fishing on Haystack Reservoir.
• Spring chinook seasons are open on both the Deschutes and Hood rivers.
• South Twin and Odell lakes, and Crane Prairie and Wickiup reservoirs are accessible and open to fishing this Saturday (April 23).

SOUTHEAST ZONE

• Trout fishing in Klamath and Agency Lakes has been good at the spring areas as well as along shorelines. Wild redband trout from 4 to 10 pounds have been reported caught.
• Unity Reservoir was producing 12 to 16-inch rainbow trout the first weekend of April.
• Haines, Hwy 203 and North Powder ponds have all been stocked with rainbow trout.
• Several area lakes and streams open for trout fishing on April 23 including Burnt River, Eagle Creek and Krumbo and Pilcher reservoirs.

NORTHEAST ZONE

• There will be an Opening Day (April 23) youth fishing derby on Morgan Lake from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Fishing for holdover trout has been fair on Wallowa Lake.

BROWNLEE ZONE

• A few crappie, perch, and bass are being caught if you can get to them. Water levels are extremely low as of Monday, April 18 (64 feet below full). Sweed’s landing is the only place to get in right now. Call Idaho Power Company’s recording at 1-800-422-3143 to get information on access at recreational sites or visit their website.

COLUMBIA ZONE

• • Angling is CLOSED for salmon, steelhead, and shad in the lower Columbia from the Buoy 10 line upstream to Bonneville Dam.
  • Spring chinook angling is open March 16 – April 24, between Tower Island and the Oregon/Washington border above McNary Dam plus the Oregon and Washington banks between Bonneville Dam and Tower Island.
  • Walleye angling is excellent in The Dalles Pool.
  • Sturgeon anglers are catching a few keepers between Portland and Bonneville Dam.

Oregon Spring Bear Hunting Forecast (2011)

(OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE)

Last year, about 460 bears were checked in by hunters for the spring season, a harvest similar to highs in 2009 and 2007.

Spring bear success is usually dependent on weather. Warmer weather will get forage growing faster, put bears on the move earlier and open up access to high-elevation areas sooner.

So it should be a mixed bag for hunters during the early season. Green-up is slow in some areas while others experienced a mild winter.

If you are new to spring bear hunting, follow these tips:

Look for open areas where bears will be moving through or foraging, including clear-cuts, meadows and open slopes that have cleared of snow.
Earlier in the season, focus on south-facing slopes with rapid spring growth and open canyon slopes, where bears can be seen feeding on grass and digging roots.
Predator calls are recommended later in the season when elk begin calving. Use calls near open meadows in forested areas.
Find good vantage points and use optics to locate bears; early morning and late afternoon to evening are the best times to glass.
Know your target—remember it is unlawful to take cubs less than one year old or sows with cubs less than one year old.

Hunters should always be prepared for snow and limited access, especially early in the season. Visit ODFW’s online Hunting Access Map for hunting locations.

Almost all spring bear seasons are controlled and require application by Feb. 10 each year. The exception is the SW Oregon hunt, where 4,000 tags are offered on a first-come, first-serve basis. Hunters that apply for a controlled spring bear hunt may not purchase a SW Oregon tag until after the draw. SW Oregon tags sold out on Feb. 14 this year, before draw results were available.

Northwest Region Hunts

Scappoose-Saddle Mountain units (Hunt 710A, season April 1-May 31)

Damage information indicates that bears are well-distributed throughout Saddle Mt Unit and areas are greening up. ODFW staff had not received any reports of bear damage or sightings in the Scappoose Unit prior to the opening day of the spring season. Bear densities are slowly improving in the Scappoose Unit but remain low compared to other big game units in the Coast Range. To find bears, hunters need to concentrate their scouting and hunting efforts near early season food sources like skunk cabbage, typically found along riparian zones and south and southeast facing slopes. Bear activity should improve towards the middle of the season.

Locations: In the Saddle Mtn Unit, road access is available to most lands in the Clatsop State Forest. Non-motorized access is available to many private industrial forestlands. Bears are very wary of vehicle noise and tend to move away from well-traveled roads so quietly moving hunters on foot or bike may have the advantage. Expect Hampton Affiliates land in Clatsop County to be closed to entry.

Hunters in the Scappoose Unit will find limited public lands. Check each landowner’s access policy before entering private lands, including on industrial timberland.

Wilson-Trask units (Hunt 712A, season April 1-May 31)

2010: 9 bears harvested, 3.93% success rate
Green-up looks to be a little slower this year, with plenty of snow hanging on in the higher elevations of the Coast Range. Plant life springs back more quickly closer to the coast, so expect more bear activity further west during the early part of the season. With current weather conditions, hunters should concentrate in river and creek bottoms and south-facing grassy slopes with new plant growth.

CARL LLEWALLEN PACKS OUT THE BLACK BEAR THAT FRIEND RON GARDNER SHOT IN THE SIUSLAW UNIT RECENTLY. (RUGER PHOTO CONTEST)

Locations: State and federal lands in these units include the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests and Siuslaw National Forest. Some industrial forest landowners allow spring bear hunting as well, usually on a walk-in or mountain bike-in basis. Private forest and agriculture lands dominate the eastern side of the Trask Unit; access is by permission only.

N. Cascades (Hunt 716A, season April 1 – May 31)

2010: 18 bears harvested, 8.33% success rate
Usually, spring bear hunting in the Cascades gets better towards the end of the season. That will happen again this year as current snow levels and weather patterns are typical. Hunters with limited time to spend in the field should concentrate their efforts in the last three weeks of the season. If you want to get out early, start along riparian corridors at lower elevations where some of the early grasses and skunk cabbage are growing. Watch weather forecasts to help predict snowmelt; warmer weather will be key for vegetation growth and increased bear activity. Snow in higher elevations will restrict access.

Locations: Remember the Marion and Linn County portions outside of the Mt. Hood and Willamette National Forests are not included within the hunt boundary and are closed. The McKenzie Unit is open only on the Willamette National Forest. The Clackamas and Collawash River drainages in the Mt. Hood National Forest have a high concentration of open south facing slopes and some good areas for glassing. Hillsides burned during last year’s forest fire in the Bull of the Woods Wilderness Area should have an abundance of new plant growth once the snow pack melts. Hunters can also find good concentrations of bears in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness Area.

Alsea-Stott Mt. (Hunt 717A, season April 1 – May 31)

2010: 14 bears harvested, 8.86% success rate
Active bears began to be reported in early March, and nuisance bear reports began the week of March 21. February and March weather has been very wet and colder than normal, snow was still present at higher elevations near the end of March. Despite the cold rainy weather, vegetation is growing especially on south slopes at lower elevations. Hunters should look for bears at lower elevations along streams or open areas with a south or southeast aspect.

Location: Access is fair on mainline forest roads but expect some roads to be impassible in April due to landslides and fallen trees. Siuslaw National Forest lands on the central coast south of Waldport have well-maintained roads.

Southwest Region Hunts

SW Oregon (Season April 1 – May 31)

Tags for this hunt are provided on a first-come, first-serve basis and sold out on Feb. 14, 2011 this year.

The bear hunting season is expected to start slow and improve as the snow melts. Bear numbers in the entire region have been increasing for several years. In general, bear density is greatest closer to the coast. Good spots to check are skid roads and side roads that are untraveled with lots of grassy margins and bear sign.

Locations: Hunters have access to plenty of public land including national forestland (Siuslaw, Rogue-Siskiyou, and Umpqua), BLM land and state-managed property like Elliot State Forest. Hunters should do their homework and call private timberland companies as some offer access. Local landowners include Weyerhaeuser, Plum Creek, Menasha/Campbell Group, Roseburg Forest Products, and Lone Rock Timber Co. Hunters can access public land and some private timberland through the Jackson Cooperative Travel Management Area (JACTMA). JACTMA restricts use of certain roads through April 30; for a map contact an ODFW office. Remember lands within one mile of the Rogue River between Grave and Lobster creeks are closed.

Northeast Region

W. Blue Mountains (Hunt 749A, season April 1 – May 31)

2010: 30 bears harvested, 16.57% success rate
This year’s long winter combined with heavy snow pack will have the bears out as much as 10-20 days later than usual (so in late April or early May). Since a large percentage of the public road system is at higher elevation, lingering snow drifts may limit access until late May in some areas. Bear density is highest in the northern portion (north of Interstate 84) and lower as one goes south and west in the hunt area. Early season bear activity is concentrated along the lower elevation fringes of national forestland. Bears follow the green-up elevation band; concentrate on timbered slopes with small openings with lush green moss, sedge, or grassy areas. If the spring is wet, bears will be out on open slopes foraging on wild onions and sedges.

Starkey (Hunt 752A, season April 15 – May 31)

2010: 2 bears harvested, 1.35% success rate
Bear numbers are strong in the Starkey Unit. Hunters should focus efforts on mid-elevation south aspects for best results. Walking in on closed roads is a great way to access bear habitat within this hunt area. The Dry Beaver Ladd Canyon road closure area offers diverse habitat and is off limits to motorized travel. Other areas that have good bear densities are Spring Creek and USFS property around Fly Valley. Be sure to check access and road conditions before hunting.

Wallowa District Hunts (Season April 15- May 31)

Access is expected to be limited until early May in most units, with mid- to high- elevation roads blocked by snow. There has been little bear activity so hunters are safe in waiting until later in the season. Bear numbers should be about the same as last year. Bear activity generally improves by the first week of May.

Remember the Noregaard, Whiskey Creek and Shamrock Travel Management Areas will be in effect in the Sled Springs Unit through May 31; maps are available at entrance points or at ODFW’s Enterprise office. The road to the Freezeout trailhead in the Snake River unit is closed to vehicles and horses. Contact the Wallowa Whitman National Forest for further information.

756 Wenaha Unit: 14 bears, 8.75% success rate
756T (youth hunt): 4 bears, 12.5% success rate

757A Sled Springs and Chesnimnus Units: 42 bears, 19.18% success rate
757T (youth hunt): 8 bears, 14.81% success rate

Hunt 759A Snake River Unit: 24 bears, 8.86% success rate

Hunt 760A Minam and Imnaha Units: 18 bears and 11.92% success rate

Pine Creek-Keating-Catherine Creek (Hunt 762A)

2010: 44 bears harvested, 14.33% success rate
Baker County has received no damage complaints or sightings yet but boars should start coming out soon. The district experienced a harsh winter with heavy snowfall early in the year so hunters should expect more snow than last year. But due to a lack of significant snow lately and recent rain, conditions are open at low and mid elevations. Higher elevations near Pine Creek and McGraw Overlook still have deep snow. In the Keating Unit, hunters will find snow-free areas in some of the lowest portions of the national forest. Many of the mid- and high-elevation roads in all units are still impassible. Contact local offices of USFS or ODFW for a report on conditions before heading out.

The Catherine Creek Unit will produce good bear numbers this year although early season access will be limited by snow. Much of the unit’s lower elevations are on privately-owned land. The higher elevations of the Catherine Creek Unit are mostly within the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest and contain excellent bear habitat.

Lookout Mt. Unit (764)

Moderate snow at high elevations will limit access in the early season. Low-to mid-elevation areas of the Lookout Mtn Unit are snow free. Try south-facing slopes near the treeline above Brownlee Reservoir. Private lands limit access; make sure you obtain landowner permission before hunting private land.

South Blue Mtns (Hunt 746A, season April 15-May 31)

The hunt area experienced a light winter. Snow levels are high and should not have much effect on hunter access. Bear populations are stable or increasing but this hunt is still challenging due to the heavy forested terrain which makes it difficult to spot bears. Observations from an ongoing statewide bear study suggest that the northwest section of the Murderers Creek, Beulah, and Northside units have higher bear densities. Hunters often use this tag as an opportunity to scout new hunting areas for next fall’s deer and elk seasons, turkey hunt, or collect shed antlers. Remember it is legal to take naturally shed antlers, but not skulls with antlers attached.

High Desert Region

South Central (Hunt 731A, season April 15 – May 31)

2010: 8 bears harvested, a 10.9% success rate
Bear populations are stable to slightly increasing but low compared to other areas of the state. The highest bear densities are in the Cascade Mountains with lower densities in the drier, semi-desert portions of the hunt area. Areas for hunters to check include the Keno Unit, western portion of the Sprague Unit, and the Gearhart Mountain area in the Interstate Unit. Focus on the unburned fringes around 2002 fires (Grizzly Fire in the Interstate Unit and the Toolbox/Winter Fire in the Silver Lake Unit) and in riparian areas. In the northern portion of Fort Rock unit bear populations are low and hunters should expect low success. Bear activity is most common west of Highway 97 in the vicinity of riparian vegetation.

Locations: Public access is good within the Fremont-Winema and Deschutes National Forests and on open private timberland. Access for the opener will be poor due to snow drifts on north slopes and muddy road conditions at lower elevations. Access should improve by later in the season. Please respect private property and avoid driving on soft or muddy roads.

White River (Hunt 741, season April 15- May 31)

2010: 2 bears harvested, 8.70% success rate
Bear densities are good in the White River, especially within forested areas. Like other spring hunts, effort should be focused within clearcuts and meadows early and late in the day. The edges of the major drainages, such as the White River, Badger and Tygh Creeks, should be good places to find bears in the eastern edge of the unit.

Locations: The majority of bear habitat is found on public lands so access is good. The western edge of the unit has a good amount of county and private timberlands. Be sure to get permission if hunting on private lands.

Hood Unit (Hunt 742, season April 15-May 31)

2010: 3 bears harvested, 6.98% success rate
Winter snowpack has been below average this year, allowing bears to come out of hibernation early and in good shape. Look for open south-facing slopes or decommissioned forest roads with good grasses and forbs. Later in the season, when beehives are out in orchards for pollination, hunt forestland near the beehives or seek permission to hunt on private orchard ground that borders the timber.

Locations: Both public lands (Mt. Hood National Forest and Hood River County land) and some private industrial forestland are open to hunting; check with private landowners for access rules and permission.

Bear Plan to be reworked

Oregon’s Black Bear Management Plan dates back to the 1990s. ODFW is currently updating the plan to reflect changes in the management and science of bears.

“This will be an extensive public process,” said Tim Hiller, ODFW carnivore-furbearer coordinator. “We want to hear from hunters and the rest of the public about their thoughts and concerns about bears.”

ODFW will announce public meetings and other opportunity for public input on the new Bear Plan later this year.

Mandatory check-in of bears:

For the last three years, successful bear hunters have been required to check-in their bear’s skull at an ODFW office within 10 days of the harvest so biologists can collect a tooth and other biological information.

Bear skulls must be unfrozen when presented for check-in; it is very difficult to collect data (such as tooth measurements) from a frozen skull. ODFW also recommends hunters prop the bear’s mouth open with a stick after it is harvested, again to make data collection a quick and easy process.

This data collection is a critical part of the method ODFW uses to monitor Oregon’s bear population. See page 34 of the Oregon Big Game Regulations for more information.

Mandatory reporting

Separate from the check-in requirement, all hunters who purchased a spring bear tag are required to report their hunt results online or by phone (1-866-947-6339). Reporting is required even for those that did not go hunting or were unsuccessful. ODFW uses this information to monitor bear populations and determine hunting seasons.

As of March 14, 2011, 57 percent of 2010 SW Oregon spring bear tag holders and 77 percent of controlled spring bear tag holders had reported last year’s hunt results. This is better than the overall average of 40 percent for all big game and turkey tags.

Columbia Springer Update (4-20-11)

UPDATED: 4:40 p.m., APRIL 20, 2011: Salmon managers extended the spring Chinook fishery on the Columbia River above Bonneville to the Washington-Oregon line east of McNary for seven days.

Fishing will be open through May 1 from the Tower Island power lines (approximately 6 miles below The Dalles Dam) upstream to Oregon/Washington border plus the Oregon and Washington banks between Bonneville Dam and the Tower Island power lines.

State managers had initially recommended keeping it open through May 5.

“Catch and effort to date has been minimal, reflective of the low Bonneville Dam counts. Catch estimates through April 17 total 39 Chinook kept and 24 released. Upriver Chinook mortalities total 41 fish, compared to the 1,032 available pre-update (4%),” says a fact sheet distributed today.

Season also opened today on parts of the Snake River.

As for a lower Columbia fishery, despite signs that more fish are now in and moving, if there is any extension, it would be put on on the “back side” of the run after a run-size update rather than on the front side of its peak.

“Right now we’re in a holding pattern for springs,” says fisheries biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver.

Fishing ended Tuesday after eight-day and then four-day extensions following the April 5 closure.

Through yesterday, all of 1,803 springers have gone over Bonneville. The river has been higher and colder than usual.

Revised numbers released this afternoon say that from Feb. 1 through April 19, anglers made 109,180 springer trips, keeping 7,440 and releasing 1,939. Of that, 5,669 were upriver-bound salmon, roughly 75 percent of the prerun-size update guideline.

“Oregon bank anglers enjoyed their best season in years,” Hymer says.

In April, they caught 1,168 while their Washington-side counterparts managed, err, 107.

Nontribal commercial anglers have taken 2,039 springers, 1,915 of which were bound for tribs above Bonneville.

While steelheading on the Lower Columbia is now closed through May 15, anglers did pick up over 1,500, keeping two-thirds, again primarily on the Oregon shore.

Springer Season Extended 4 Days

(OREGON, WASHINGTON DEPARTMENTS OF FISH AND WILDLIFE PRESS RELEASES)

ODFW

Last week’s high flows and poor water conditions continued to hamper spring chinook fishing success on the lower Columbia River, prompting fishery managers to extend the current season four more days.

The spring chinook season was scheduled to close tomorrow, but Oregon and Washington fishery managers meeting today decided to keep the fishery open through Tuesday, April 19 to give anglers a chance to harvest more of the 3,100 upriver spring chinook remaining on the harvest quota. The two states also indicated that further extensions in the lower river would be unlikely prior to a formal run update sometime in May.

“It’s been a difficult year so far for both fishers and managers,” said Chris Kern, ODFW assistant Columbia River fisheries manager. “Poor water conditions are keeping catch rates low, while fish passage at Bonneville Dam is well behind expectations, meaning we need to be cautious going forward.”

As of April 13, 864 adult spring chinook have been counted at Bonneville Dam. The fish count at Bonneville Dam is one of the pieces of information used by managers to monitor and estimate the final run size.

The river will remain open through Tuesday, April 19 from Buoy 10 to Rooster Rock State park for both bank and boat anglers and from Roster Rock to Bonneville Dam for bank fishing only. The daily bag limit continues to be 2 adult salmon/steelhead in combination, of which only 1 may be an adult chinook.

WDFW

Columbia River anglers will have four more days to catch hatchery-reared spring chinook salmon below Bonneville Dam, where tough fishing conditions have held this year’s catch below expected levels since late last month.

Fishery managers from Washington and Oregon agreed Thursday to extend the season through April 19 to give anglers more time to reach the initial harvest guideline set at the beginning of the season.

The additional four days of fishing will follow on the heels of an eight-day extension previously approved through April 15.

Cindy LeFleur, Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), said test fisheries have found relatively high concentrations of spring chinook salmon in the lower river, but water conditions have slowed their passage over Bonneville Dam and made them hard to catch with a hook and line.

“Anglers have been catching fish in some areas of the lower river, but turbid, high-water conditions have put a damper on overall catch rates,” LeFleur said. “Visibility underwater is about two feet, so the fish have a hard time seeing anglers’ lures.”

Through April 15, lower-river anglers are projected to have caught and kept a total of 5,900 spring chinook, including 4,600 upriver fish that count toward the 7,700-fish  harvest guideline.

This year’s harvest guideline for the lower river fisheries is based on a projected return of 198,400 upriver fish, minus a 30 percent “buffer” to guard against overestimating the run. Based on the estimated catch through April 19, the fishery will close with a buffer of approximately 43 percent, said Guy Norman, WDFW southwest regional director.

“After this extension, we don’t anticipate making any changes in the season until more fish pass over the dam and we can update the run-size forecast,” Norman said. “We want to give lower-river anglers a chance to catch some more fish, but we also have to make sure we can meet our conservation objectives and our obligations to upriver fisheries.”

The fishery affected by the extension ranges from Buoy 10 upriver to Rooster Rock for boat and bank anglers, and to the fishing boundary below Bonneville Dam for bank anglers only. When the fishery is open, anglers can retain one marked, hatchery-reared adult chinook salmon as part of their daily limit.

Anglers may also retain shad and hatchery-reared steelhead when the spring chinook fishery is open. However, all wild salmon and steelhead not marked as a hatchery fish by a clipped adipose fin must be released unharmed.

The fishing extension does not affect the spring chinook season above Bonneville Dam, which will be reviewed at a joint-state hearing April 20. That fishery is open seven days a week through April 24 between the Tower Island powerlines below The Dalles Dam and the Washington/Oregon state line, 17 miles upriver from McNary Dam. Bank fishing is also allowed from Bonneville Dam upriver to the powerlines located about 6 miles below The Dalles Dam through April 24.

Anglers fishing above Bonneville Dam can retain up to two marked, hatchery-reared adult chinook salmon or hatchery steelhead as part of their daily limit.

Seven More Days For Columbia Springers Possible

Columbia salmon managers may extend the lower river’s spring Chinook season for another seven days.

That after the ongoing eight-day extension on through tomorrow was expected to yield only 1,362 kings, including 767 of the upriver fish.

That brings the catch tally for above-Bonneville-bound springers since February to 4,587, nearly 3,000 below the guideline managers are using.

AMONG THE LUCKY ANGLERS FINDING SPRINGERS AFTER THE REOPENER, JYL DOUGHERTY. (WRIGHT & MCGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

If approved in its current form, the season would be extended from Saturday, April 16, through Friday, April 22.

Managers are puzzled by what the river is telling them. A fact sheet out early this afternoon says:

Bonneville Dam passage of Chinook through April 13 totals 864 adults.  Based on the recent 5-year average, which includes four late-timed years, passage is typically about 2% (range 0.1% to 4%) complete on April 13.  The 10-year average completion percentage is 8% (range 0.1% to 32%).

The 5-year average 50% passage date is May 8; therefore it is difficult to make accurate conclusions regarding run size at this time.

Indicators for the upriver run strength are mixed; negative indicators include the low cumulative Bonneville Dam count and low catch rates in the lower river sport fishery to date.  Positive indicators include a high proportion of upriver fish in non-Indian catch since early February and the improved catch rate from test fishing and ongoing research activities.

Then there’s the Columbia’s water conditions:

During April 1-12, discharge at Bonneville Dam averaged 338 kcfs, including about 111 kcfs in spill.  The discharge peaked at 390 kcfs on April 5 and dropped to 303 kcfs by April 13.  The 5-year average discharge for April 14 is 217 kcfs.  River stage is currently at 10.0 feet with a predicted rise to 11.4 feet by April 18.

Bonneville Dam discharge is predicted to average 266 kcfs from April 16-22 and 274 kcfs from April 23-30. Water visibility is 2.0 feet compared to 4.0 feet on April 1.  The 5-year average visibility for this date is 4.7 feet.

Water temperature was 47° F on April 12.  Spring water temperatures have been colder than both the 5- and 10-year averages.

WA Hunt Regs Out

WDFW has posted their 2011 big game hunting regulations, a pamphlet that includes a cover shot of a large bull elk by Douglas Kikendall, a Yakima-area hunter whose wildlife photographs have turned heads on Hunting-Washington.

Inside, you’ll find a “significant” increase in Mt. St. Helens and Yakima elk tags to apply for before the midnight, May 18, deadline, as well as the new four-point minimum for whitetail bucks in two units in the Northeast corner of the state.

To download the 100-plus-page document, go here.

OR Spring Turkey Forecast (2011)

Eleven-year-old Alex Wildman got his gobbler last weekend, and now Oregon’s older turkey gunners get their chance. The general hunt starts this weekend.

ALEX WILDMAN'S MENTORED YOUTH TURKEY HUNT GOBBLER, SHOT LAST WEEKEND WITH HIS FATHER, MATHEW. ALEX SHOT THE BIG BIRD AT 6:30 A.M. NEAR CROW AT 15 YARDS WITH A 20 GAUGE AFTER IT RESPONDED TO A BOX CALL AND JAKE DECOY. IT WAS THE SPRINGFIELD LAD'S FIRST BIRD; "I'M SO PROUD OF HIM," WRITES MATHEW. (RUGER PHOTO CONTEST)

And just in case gas prices or honey-dos have kept you from spring scouting, here’s what ODFW wildlife biologists are saying about this season’s forecast, courtesy of ODFW’s weekly Recreation Report.

NORTHWEST

TURKEYS are minimal in the north coast.

SOUTHWEST

Coos County: SPRING TURKEY opens April 15. While concentrations are not as high as Douglas County, coast populations are doing well. Remember to get permission to hunt on private lands.

Douglas County: SPRING TURKEY season begins April 15th so start practicing your calling. Last years chick/poult counts showed slightly below average production but hunters can expect the spring gobbler hunt this year to be excellent. Over the last 10 years all indicators point to a healthy and increasing turkey population in Douglas County. While the hens are off nesting the first part of the season most toms are found on private land sometimes adjacent to public lands. In general, most turkeys are found on or adjacent to low-mid elevation private lands associated with oak savannah habitat. Hunters are reminded to obtain permission before hunting on private lands.

Jackson, Josephine and Curry Counties: TURKEY spring season opens April 15. Wet springs for the last few years have reduced our chick production. This has only reduced the number of birds within the flocks. We still have a large number of flocks throughout our area and we still expect average success. Most turkeys are found in low-mid elevation of oak and conifer mix forests with there associated meadows and clearings. Turkeys will be feeding on green grasses and insects. Use locator calls before light or after dark to locate roosting trees then set up in an area of their travel and begin call as light approaches. Private lands hold a considerable amount of turkeys, ask for permission to hunt.

WILLAMETTE ZONE

Spring TURKEY season opens statewide on April 15. Season dates and bag limits can be found on page 15 of the 2010-2011 Oregon Game Bird Regulations. Turkeys in the Willamette area are mostly found on private lands. There are good hunting opportunities for hunters that have completed their early season scouting and obtained permission to hunt on private lands. Please remember to respect private property.

Private timber company lands can be productive places to hunt if the landowner is allowing hunting access. Check out ODFW’s Access & Habitat Program for a list of participants: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/AH/hunting

CENTRAL ZONE

PRINEVILLE/OCHOCO WILDLIFE DISTRICT TURKEY: The district experienced an extended winter and late spring so turkeys may be slower to come off private land and head for higher elevation public land Remember to ask for permission to hunt.

THE DALLES WILDLIFE DISTRICT: TURKEYS tend to be found in the oak-conifer transition zone and much of this is on private land. Remember to ask permission to hunt private land.

WHITE RIVER WILDLIFE AREA: GENERAL SPRING TURKEY: General spring turkey season opens April 15-31.  Turkeys can be found throughout WRWA and higher on the National Forest. Look for turkeys along ridges and in areas that have oak trees and openings. For best results scout before the season to locate birds.

SOUTHEAST ZONE

HARNEY COUNTY: TURKEYS can be found in the northern portion of the county on or near national forestland.

NORTHEAST ZONE

BAKER COUNT: General spring turkey season runs April 15 through May 31. Hunters should concentrate their efforts around lower elevation levels where there has been some early spring green up. There are still heavy snow levels in the higher elevations. Public land hunting opportunities exist on BLM and the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest as well as the ODFW managed Elkhorn Wildlife Area. Remember to ask for permission before hunting on private properties.

GRANT COUNTY: TURKEYS are scattered throughout the district. The middle fork of the John Day River and Murderers Creek are good areas to start looking.

MORROW, GILLIAM and WHEELER COUNTIES: TURKEY opens on the 15th across the state. Turkey numbers appear to be steady across the District. The southern portion of the forest has the highest numbers of turkeys as they move up from their wintering areas. As the season continues, turkeys will move up slope with the snow melt. Turkeys can be found in most areas of the forest in both the Heppner and Fossil Unit. Hunter success should be about average this year.

Union County: TURKEY season opens April 15. Toms have been sighted strutting all over the county. The highest densities of birds are in the north end of Union County; however turkeys are well distributed throughout. Snow will limit vehicle access to higher elevations but walk-in hunters may find birds on open south slopes that are surrounded by snow.

LADD MARSH WILDLIFE AREA: TURKEY hunting is allowed in the Glass Hill Unit (west of Foothill Rd) of Ladd Marsh. There is a small resident population on this part of Glass Hill. Birds often move between ODFW and adjacent private property. Some adjacent land owners participate in the Access and Habitat Program and allow public access. A kiosk at the Foothill access point shows public access areas. There are also maps available at the kiosk as well as the Northeast Region Office.

WALLOWA DISTRICT: TURKEY: Most turkeys wintered well and hunters should find birds well scattered in the Wenaha, Sled Springs, and Chesnimnus units. Vehicle access will be difficult until early May due to deep snow drifts.

Northern Rockies Wolves To Be Removed From ESA Coverage

Run a Google News search for “Wolves Congress” this morning and you’ll come up with 767 results.

Oh, yeah, wolves in the Northern Rockies and now in the halls of Washington DC are a hot topic.

The gist of many of today’s headlines is that federal protections for Canis lupus were removed through a rider passed in last weekend’s budget battle and which is expected to be approved later this week.

The language prevents judicial review.

Now, management will be handed over to the states of Montana and Idaho, which in all likelihood will hold hunts this year.

It also delists wolves in eastern sections of Washington and Oregon, though those populations remain under state protections — at least that’s how some news accounts have it.

Others state more nebulously that wolves have been delisted in both states, not recognizing that the Northern Rockies population is basically east of Highways 97/17/395.

“We don’t know yet, we honest to god don’t know yet” what it means for Washington, says WDFW spokeswoman Madonna Luers in Spokane.

Wolf advocates, however, are crushed. There’s also worry about the precedent of removing ESA-listed species through budgets and lawmakers instead of scientific review.

State game management plans, approved by federal scientists, will now be put to the test.

Wrote the LA Times:

Yet (Montana Democratic Senator Jon) Tester said the proposed legislation will provide a way forward where none previously existed.

“This wolf fix isn’t about one party’s agenda,” the congressman said in a statement. “It’s about what’s right for Montana and the West, which is why I’ve been working so hard to get this solution passed, and why it has support from all sides.”

Perhaps some of the thunderhead that’s been gathered over the region will begin to dissipate.

“I think hunting is going to reduce the hysteria going on,” author and retired federal biologist Carter Niemeyer told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “More and more people somewhat believe the fear mongering (about wolves) and feel like they have no control over it. There is a combination of frustration and anger and fear that even sensible sportsmen have gotten drawn in.”

Or perhaps the thunderhead has just moved west into Washington and Oregon.

Wolf War Front Update

Fast-moving developments on the national wolf front in the past four days, and if you believe the AP story filed today, Congressional delisting is all but a done deal — and it would include parts of eastern Washington and Oregon.

First, over the weekend, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy ruled against last month’s proposed settlement between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and 10 plaintiffs on the status of wolves at the same time as a pair of U.S. Congressmen said Canis lupus would be delisted under a pending budget bill.

The Congressmen, Idaho U.S. House Rep. Mike Simpson (R) and Montana Senator Jon Tester (D), sent out statements today on HR 1473, a continuing resolution, which inserts a clause known as 1713 overturning last August’s federal court ruling in Missoula and directs the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to reissue its spring 2009 delisting ruling.

This morning, Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesmen wrote a blog entitled “Wolf delisting rider adds final insult to environmentalists’ end game on recovery.”

And now, Matthew Brown of the Associated Press reports, “Wildlife advocates conceded Tuesday the wolf provision was all but certain to remain in the spending bill after efforts to remove it failed. Congress faces a tight deadline on a budget plan already months overdue, and the rider has bipartisan support.”

It orders the Interior Department to lift protections for wolves within 60 days in five Western states. A federal judge in Montana has turned back three prior attempts by Interior officials to declare wolves recovered, under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Protections would remain intact in Wyoming, at least for now. But wolf hunting would resume this fall in Idaho and Montana, where an estimated 1,250 of the animals have been blamed in hundreds of livestock attacks and for declines seen in some big game herds. Wolves also would be returned to state management in Washington, Oregon and Utah.

A Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife wolf biologist indicates the agency was somewhat surprised to learn that the eastern third of the state, where the Diamond and Salmo Packs live, would be part of the delisting.

Sweet Home Man’s Hunt Privileges Suspended For Life

(OREGON STATE POLICE FISH & WILDLIFE DIVISION PRESS RELEASE)

A Sweet Home-area man was sentenced last Thursday following a conviction related to an investigation by Oregon State Police (OSP) Fish & Wildlife Division troopers into the unlawful taking and possession of a bighorn sheep.  Troopers from the Albany and Springfield OSP offices were involved in the investigation.

ONE MUG OREGON'S WILDLIFE WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANYMORE -- ENOCH RAY ROBERTSON'S HUNTING PRIVILEGES WERE SUSPENDED FOR LIFE FOLLOWING A RECENT CONVICTION. (OSP)

On April 7, 2011, ENOCH RAY ROBERTSON, age 30, was sentenced in Linn County Circuit Court on five counts of wildlife crimes.  Sentencing included fines and restitution of $16,910, a lifetime hunting suspension, 40 months bench probation, six days in jail, and 10 days of compensatory service.  The court also ordered the seizure of all property obtained during execution of a search warrant at his Sweet Home residence.  This property included but was not limited to the bighorn sheep, two rifles, antlers and meat.

RIFLES, HORNS, MEAT AND OTHER ITEMS SEIZED IN THE ROBERTSON CASE. (OSP)

The trophy sized bighorn sheep was thought to be approximately 7 years old, had a gross score of over 173 Boone and Crocket points, and is believed to have been taken illegally in May 2010 near Richland, Oregon.  The investigation also revealed two blacktail deer were killed out of season in the spring of 2010, and a cougar was killed without a cougar tag during the fall of 2009.

Columbia Springer Update (4-12-11)

A pair of updates on Lower Columbia springer fishing are out today.

The first, from biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver, details the overall estimated weekend catch and effort, while the second, from ODFW, details creel sampling done on the Oregon side last weekend.

Hymer:

From April 8-10 there were an estimated 7,400 angler trips w/ 665 chinook (513 kept and 152 released) and 201 steelhead handled.

For the season thru April 10  there have been an estimated 90,000 angler trips with 5,023 adult spring kept and 1,485 released.

Still pretty low salmonid effort for the first week of April – just over 700 boats and nearly 850 bank anglers counted during the Saturday April 9 effort flight count.  Last year at this time (Saturday April 10) there were 2,300 salmonid boats.

A Joint State hearing is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on April 14 via teleconference.

ODFW:

Salmonid catch rates improved on the lower Columbia this past weekend.  Boat anglers fishing the Portland to Longview area averaged 0.26 spring chinook caught per boat, while boat anglers fishing the estuary averaged 0.17 spring chinook caught per boat.  In Troutdale boat anglers averaged 0.13 spring chinook caught per boat.  Bank anglers fishing in the estuary averaged 0.17 spring chinook and 0.17 steelhead caught per bank angler, while bank anglers fishing the Portland to Longview area averaged 0.06 spring chinook and 0.07 steelhead caught per bank angler.  On Saturday’s (4/9) flight, 721 boats and 618 Oregon bank anglers were counted.

Gorge Bank:

Weekend checking showed no catch for nine bank anglers.

Gorge Boats:

No report.

Troutdale Boats:

Weekend checking showed 10 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook kept, plus two unclipped spring chinook released for 94 boats (218 anglers).

Portland to Longview Bank:

Weekend checking showed 20 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook adults, one adipose fin-clipped spring chinook jack and 23 adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus six unclipped spring chinook and seven unclipped steelhead released for 453 bank anglers.

Portland to Longview Boats:

Weekend checking showed 30 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook adults, one adipose fin-clipped spring chinook jack and two adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus 10 unclipped spring chinook released for 153 boats (388 anglers).

Estuary Bank: (Clatsop Spit to Wauna Powerlines):

Weekend checking showed two adipose fin-clipped spring chinook adults, one adipose fin-clipped spring chinook jack and two adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept for 12 bank anglers.

Estuary Boats (Tongue Point to Wauna Powerlines):

Weekend checking showed one adipose fin-clipped spring chinook kept, plus one unclipped spring chinook released for 12 boats (26 anglers).

Bonneville Pool:

No report.

The Dalles Pool:

Weekly checking showed one adipose fin-clipped spring chinook kept for 74 bank anglers.

John Day Pool:

No report.

Columbia Springer/SW WA Fishing Update (4-11-11)

In what should be the thick of the hottest spring Chinook fishing of the year on the Columbia, last weekend saw the lowest catch rate since Y2K.

Here’s hoping that the run forecast of 198,000 upriver springers and 100K back to the Willamette doesn’t fizzle as bad as … wait a minute, I think I’m screwing up my metaphors here.

For what it’s worth, creel sampling indicates just one springer kept or released for every 10.5 boat rods on the lower river.

“Boat anglers averaged an adult chinook kept/released per every 2.9 rods in 2010, 5.9 rods in 2009, 2.5 rods in 2008, 4.1 rods in 2007, 7.2 rods in 2006, 6.4 rods in 2005, 3.0 rods in 2004, 5.6 rods in 2003, 4.9 rods in 2002, and 4.6 rods in 2001,” reports a certain Mr. Doom & Gloom in Vancouver this afternoon.

That after last Wednesday’s four-hour commercial fishery yielded 776 springers, around two-thirds of the available fish for netters. They could only retain the first six hatchery adult Chinook.

So what’s going on? Well, the dam count sucks, and the river blows.

“After reaching 400,000 cfs at Bonneville Dam on April 6^th, flows are expected to average just under 300,000 cfs for at least the next week and a half.  The 10-year average for this time of year is 183,000 cfs,” reports fisheries biologist Joe Hymer. “In addition to high flows, water visibility is also reduced at Bonneville Dam with less than 3 feet each day during the past week.”

A total of 659 springers have gone over the dam through yesterday, or 4 percent of the 10-year average. That’s better than some recent late-timed runs, worse than others.

All of it has me swearing off any more spring Chinook covers. NWS ad guys: You’re going to have to sell around a burbot cover next March.

But should you want to hit it again, the river below Bonneville, which closed April 5, reopened to fishing April 8-15. Managers will also take a look at the catch this Thursday to figure out if we can have more time on the river.

In the meanwhile, here’s more from Hymer weekly roundup of fishing around Southwest Washington — may we suggest taking advantage of some of those fine trout stockings?

SALMON/STEELHEAD

Cowlitz River – No report on angling success.  Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 743 winter-run steelhead and four spring Chinook adults during five days of operation at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator.

During the past week Tacoma Power employees released 57 steelhead and one spring Chinook adult into the Cispus River above the mouth of Yellow Jacket Creek and 20 winter-run steelhead into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton.

River flows at Mayfield Dam are approximately 11,700 cubic feet per second on Monday, April 11. Water visibility is four feet.

East Fork Lewis from mouth to top boat ramp at Lewisville Park and Washougal River from mouth to Mt. Norway Bridge open to fishing for hatchery steelhead Saturday April 16. Selective gear rules will be in effect; no bait may be used.

Drano Lake – 3 bank anglers had no catch.  Beginning this week, closed to all fishing on Wednesdays through at least May.

Klickitat River – Light effort and no catch was observed.  1 bank angler had no catch.

Lower Columbia mainstem  below Bonneville Dam – Kind of a quiet re-opener on the lower Columbia mainstem – only 400 salmonid boats and 500 bank anglers were observed during the Friday April 8 effort flight count.

From April 8-10 we sampled 1,436 anglers (including 440 boats) with 108 adult and 1 jack chinook and 11 steelhead.  Boat anglers averaged an adult Chinook kept/released per every 10.5 rods while bank anglers averaged one per every 32.3 rods based on mainly completed and incomplete trips, respectively.

Eighty-eight (81%) of the adult Chinook caught were kept.  85% were upriver stock based on Visual Stock Identification (VSI).  Six (55%) of the steelhead caught were kept.

In comparison to previous years during this period, this year’s catch rate is the lowest since at least 2000. Boat anglers averaged an adult chinook kept/released per every 2.9 rods in 2010, 5.9 rods in 2009, 2.5 rods in 2008, 4.1 rods in 2007, 7.2 rods in 2006, 6.4 rods in 2005, 3.0 rods in 2004, 5.6 rods in 2003, 4.9 rods in 2002, and 4.6 rods in 2001.

Through April 10, just 659 adult chinook had been counted at Bonneville Dam.  Last year 7,148 fish had been counted at this time.  The recent 10-year average is 16,764.

Bonneville Pool – Light effort and no catch was observed.  1 bank angler had no catch.The Dalles Pool – Bank anglers are catching a few spring chinook.

John Day Pool – No salmonid anglers were sampled.

STURGEON

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – A few legals were caught by boat anglers from Vancouver to Kalama.

The Dalles Pool – Bank anglers are catching some legals.  An estimated 87 (29%) of the 300 fish guideline had been taken through March.

John Day Pool – Closed for sturgeon retention through the remainder of the year.

WALLEYE AND BASS

The Dalles Pool – Including fish released, boat anglers averaged 3.2 walleye per rod.  Bank anglers are catching some bass.

John Day Pool – Boat anglers averaged just under ½ walleye kept per rod.

TROUT

Silver Lake near Castle Rock – The water continues to be fairly cold (50F) for warm water fish.  Rainbow trout are being caught however.  5 anglers kept 4 rainbows and released 1.

Siler Mill Pond in Lewis County – Planted with 1,103 catchable size rainbows April 4.  No report on angling success.

South Lewis County Park Pond near Toledo – Planted with 2,976 catchable size rainbows April 5.  No report on angling success.

Lake Sacajawea in Longview – Planted with 3,010 catchable size rainbows April 4.   No report on angling success.

Kress Lake near Kalama – Planted with 2,000 catchable size rainbows April 5.  Producing good catches.  13 anglers kept 7 rainbows and released 15 rainbows and 1 brown.  Water temp 50F.  Cormorants are very active on the lake right now.

Horseshoe Lake in Woodland – Planted with 8,005 browns April 4-6.  Little to no effort and no fish caught during creel surveys. 2 anglers had no catch. Water temp 48F.

Merwin Reservoir –  Fishing continues to be great. Anglers are catching kokanee near the surface.  42 anglers kept 130 kokanee and released 9 plus 5 rainbows. Water temperature was 45F and there were 31 boat trailers.

Battleground Lake – Planted with 6,800 rainbows averaging over ½ pound each April 6. No report on angling success.

Lacamas Lake near Camas – Planted with 6,864 browns weighing almost ½ pound each April 4. No report on angling success.

‘Compelling’ Local Arguments Bend FWC Ear On 4-pt Whitetail Restrictions

Will the new four-point-minimum rebuild whitetail numbers in two Northeast Washington hunting units?

Will fewer deer hunters head there this fall?

Will more now-illegal three-point bucks be left to rot in the brush?

Will hunters one day forget that it was the Fish & Wildlife Commission — spurred on by a group of local sportsmen and politicians — that passed the new restrictions and instead blame WDFW biologists who did not support the change?

Well, you can count on that last one, but the rest remain to be seen.

Last Friday, five of the seven members on the citizen panel found local residents’ arguments in favor of the change “compelling” enough to approve the new restrictions for a pair of the state’s “whitetail factories,” the Huckleberry and 49 Degrees North units, starting this fall.

“After reviewing the broad range of public input received over the past nine months, the commission found the input received from area residents and local governments favoring this proposal to be compelling in making this decision,” said chairwoman Miranda Wecker in a press release this afternoon.

It will be for the columnists and arm-chair biologists to come up with snarky counter arguments — I’ve got to attend to the May issue — but as it stands, the proposal stems from genuine local concerns over the resource: the Northeast’s whitetail herd is not what it once was.

WDFW staffers say the decline stems from long-term habitat changes — namely decreased logging and agricultural production — horrible back-to-back winters, and big antlerless deer harvests earlier this decade.

The difference in opinions is how to bring the herd back.

“I just don’t think the science is there, and it’s not a conservation issue,” said Commissioner Brad Smith of Bellingham on why he was one of two votes against the new restriction.

He worries that it reduces the opportunities for young and new sportsmen to get into hunting in Washington.

During the 2009 season, the latest year harvest stats were available by antler type, Huckleberry and 49 Degrees North yielded 222 spikes, 281 forked horns and 405 three-points — 33, 36 and 25 percent of all the whitetails of those sizes killed during general season hunts in the state that year.

(WDFW)

The restriction should allow more of those young bucks to become four-points — some can reach that size in as little as two and a half years — but the fear is that in this thicker, brushier country, it’ll be tougher to count antler points, and some undersized animals will end up being shot and left.

That still happens on occasion with Eastern Washington mule deer bucks, governed under a three-point minimum since 1997.

That change also came out of the Fish & Wildlife Commission and wasn’t necessarily supported by WDFW biologists.

It came at a time of worry about mule deer health across the West, a moment when antler restrictions were “in vogue” as one way to build up buck counts.

We’ve got a call in to WDFW’s deer guru for the long-term affect on Washington’s big-eared bounders, but one thing is for certain: It and a shorter nine-day season have helped more muleys make it past hunters.

Reads WDFW’s 1998 game status report, “In central Washington, buck escapement went from historic levels of 2 to 4 bucks per 100 does to 8-11 bucks per 100 does in many units. This is still below management goals, but a dramatic improvement in one year.”

In the Southeast corner’s Blue Mountains, for every 100 does, only three to five bucks made it through September, October and November’s seasons before the restrictions, according to now-retired biologist Pat Fowler. Last December his successor Paul Wik counted 16 per 100 does.

Muley and whitetail ranges overlap in some areas, but muleys have yet to evolve a better defense against the .30-06 than to take a few leaps, turn broadside and look at you (well, all except the ones I bump into, of course). They also tend to occupy more open country than flagtails, although that’s not a hard rule.

The whitetail proposal came out of a nine-month review that included at least four meetings and public comment before the commission. In general, the restriction was not favored outside the region, and inside it, there were mixed signals.

“The commission carefully considered the science surrounding white-tailed deer management,” said Wecker. “Based on those considerations, it was clear that a four-point restriction would not create a conservation issue or adversely affect the area deer population.”

At the same time, the commission voted to reduce antlerless hunts as another way to help recover the whitetail herd.

Other rule changes approved last weekend include:

Increase permit hunting for antlerless elk in the Yakima area and for bulls and antlerless elk in the Mount St. Helens area, where elk populations are exceeding management objectives.

Increase spring black bear hunting seasons and permits in western and northeast Washington to help reduce timber damage, address bear nuisance activity and expand hunting opportunities within population management guidelines.

Authorize certain landowners in Asotin County to issue hunting permits to increase access to deer and elk hunting on private lands. Hunting permits for those properties also would be available to the public through WDFW’s special permit drawing.

Clarify public-conduct rules on private lands open for hunting under cooperative agreements with WDFW.

 

House Budget Bill Keeps WDFW Its Own Agency

I had to call up WDFW’s legislative analyst to make sure mine own eyes weren’t deceiving me when I downloaded the ins and outs of HB 1087, but the state House budget bill passed last weekend does not call for consolidating the fish and game agency with State Parks.

“It looks like it’s off the table as far as the House budget,” says Ann Larson, WDFW’s legislative liason.

She quickly notes that we’ll see what the state Senate’s appropriations bill proposes when it’s rolled out this week.

The Senate is the chamber where SB 5669 was filed at Governor Gregoire’s request. It merges WDFW, State Parks and the Recreation and Conservation Office into a Department of Fish, Wildlife & Recreation. We’ve written a wee bit about it.

The House and Senate budgets have to be reconciled before being sent to Gregoire.

As it stands, the House budget — which identifies $4.4 billion in cuts to address a $5-plus billion revenue shortfall — would provide $370 million for WDFW over the next two years, including $36 million from the General Fund in fiscal year 2012 and $34 million in fiscal year 2013. That tallies about $6 million less from the General Fund than the 2009-11 budget provided.

The budget bill was passed on a 53-43 vote.

Stay tuned.

No Dice On Wolf Deal, Judge Says

That wolf deal pitched last month — it’s a no-go, a Federal judge has ruled.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and 10 plaintiffs had proposed a settlement on the status of wolves in Montana and Idaho, but U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said he couldn’t buy off on it for various reasons — they’re detailed in an Associated Press story here.

Wolves in the Northern Rockies will remain on the endangered species list — for now. A budget bill in Congress would delist them if passed, according to AP.

 

Commission Approves 4-pt Rule For 2 NE WA Whitetail Units

Washington Fish & Wildlife Commissioners today approved a four-point-minimum antler restriction for whitetail deer hunting in a pair of units northwest of Spokane.

According to WDFW spokesman Darren Friedel, the vote was 5-2, with commissioners David Jennings and Brad Smith voting against.

The rule affects hunting in Game Management Units 117, 49 Degrees North, and GMU 121, Huckleberry, in central Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties.

Not much more information was immediately available.

The change was proposed by a stakeholder group from Stevens County, but was not widely supported outside of that.

A local outdoors columnist, scratching his head about how the proposal had made it so far (there were at least four public meetings), wondered if one of its proponents, Fish & Wildlife Commission vice chair Gary Douvia, had compromising pictures of the rest of the commission, a theme he followed up on last week with an unusually harsh article.

“The record provides a clear answer on how the vote should go,” wrote Rich Landers of the Spokane Spokesman-Review — and it wasn’t the way it went.

Another reporter who’d followed the issue emailed me just now to say, “Well, it’s  not biologically sound, but at least they didn’t take in two or more counties, like the 4 pt. fanatics wanted. Now wait ’til the local restaurants, gun shops, motels, bars, etc., start getting way less hunter traffic. Suddenly, those pro-4 pointers will get lots of flack. “

The antler restriction was requested in spring 2010 by the Stevens County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee in a petition to the commission which requested that WDFW staffers get additional public input before considering it for this coming hunting season.

Northeast Washington has seen a decline in whitetail in recent years, blamed largely on a pair of severe winters in the late 2000s that also took a big bite out of turkey populations. Local hunters have been looking at ways to bring the deer back. This past February, they held a coyote hunting derby that took 227 animals, an estimated 90 of which were female.

“Hopefully this will give our whitetail deer population a shot in the arm,” wrote Freddie Giannecchini of the Stevens County committee in a derby wrap-up. “Their numbers have been going down for years with very little positive and proactive management from (WDFW). Yes the WDFW has restricted the taking of does recently in 2009 and 2010, and have restricted the youth, senior and disabled hunters in a time when our buck to doe ratios are very low. Without proactively adding bucks to the population, by point restrictions or shortening the late portion of the season, to help the low buck to doe ratio, the dept is going to flood the area with more does making breeding for what bucks are out there even tougher allowing many more does not to breed when nature intends them to be bred, causing later and later fawn births. This is the only hope we have at this time to try to help the Whitetail Deer herd in this area.”

According to WDFW’s 2010 game status report, however, today’s buck ratio for Northeast Washington is better than where it was at in the late 1990s.

“In the late 1990s there was unprecedented low representation of mature white-tail bucks in the harvest,” writes Colville-based district wildlife biologist Dana Base. “This concern was addressed by maintaining conservative late buck seasons that did not extend beyond the middle of the rut. From 1999 until 2005 there was consistent improvement in the percentage of older bucks based on monitoring antlers. Improvement in the general trend toward more bucks 4 years or older was also supported by cementum analysis of deer teeth. Since 2005 this trend leveled out at least for 5+ antler point bucks. We are currently at a level that has reasonably good representation of mature bucks in the white-tail population. At least 1 in 5 white-tail bucks harvested is 5 point or better.”

Stay tuned. I’m sure Landers will have something on this, and have no doubt that WDFW will fire off a press release about 10 minutes after quitting time.

4 Cited In Alleged Illegal OR Guiding

(OREGON STATE POLICE FISH AND WILDLIFE DIVISION PRESS RELEASE)

Oregon State Police (OSP) Fish & Wildlife Division troopers from the Albany, Burns, McMinnville, Portland, Salem and Tillamook offices completed a five month investigation into unlawful hunting and guiding activities, which resulted in four people being cited on numerous wildlife crimes and related offenses involving Northwest Hunting Adventures guide service.  The four people cited included the guide service owner, an employee, and two acquaintances.

ANTLERS AND FURS SEIZED DURING OSP'S INVESTIGATION. (OSP)

According to OSP Senior Trooper Adam Turnbo (McMinnville), OSP was assisted during the investigation by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Washington Department of Fish & Game.  Multiple search warrants were served in Oregon and Indiana to gather evidence related to the investigation and alleged crimes.

The four suspects identified and cited to appear for multiple crimes were:

* BRIAN MILLER, age 27, from Lake Oswego (owner of Northwest Hunting Adventures)
* NATHAN HOSTETTER, age 37, from Lebanon (guide for Northwest Hunting Adventures)
* LOREN KELLER, age 28, from Vancouver, Washington
* CASEY JONES, age 31, from Bargersville, Indiana

The offenses allegedly occurred during a two-year period between February 2009 and February 2011 in Clatsop, Tillamook, Washington, Multnomah, Linn, Gilliam, Douglas and Harney counties.  Wildlife unlawfully taken and/or possessed included Blacktail and Mule Deer, Elk, Antelope, Bear, Raccoon, Beaver, and a Hawk.

Examples of the alleged illegal activity included:

* During the 2009 archery season, MILLER and HOSTETTER unlawfully killed four large Mule deer bucks.  All four sets of antlers were recovered.

* During a September 2010 hunting trip involving MILLER, HOSTETTER, and JONES, an antelope was unlawfully killed by JONES during a closed season. Parts of the antelope were recovered in Indiana during the execution of a search warrant. JONES has been charged in the State of Indiana with misdemeanor crime of Unlawful Possession of Wildlife Unlawfully Taken in Another State.

* In January of 2011, MILLER and JONES unlawfully killed two cow elk without valid tags. A few weeks later MILLER also killed a spike bull elk.

* KELLER, a Washington State resident, purchased an Oregon 2011 Resident Sport Pac license (combination hunting/angling/shellfish license with associated tags for fish, big game and birds). By making a false application for the Resident Sport Pac license, KELLER saved over $1300 on non-resident license fees. KELLER, a convicted felon, also shot a cow elk in January of 2011 with a rifle. The rifle used in this crime was subsequently located and seized.

The four listed individuals were cited to appear in the above listed counties on multiple crimes which may include:

* Unlawful Taking and/or Possessing Wildlife
* Taking Wildlife Closed Season – Exceeding the Bag Limit of Deer
* Waste of Game Mammal
* Theft in the First Degree
* Falsely Applying for a Resident Sport Pac
* Felon in Possession of a Firearm
* Aiding or Counseling in a Wildlife Violation

Hunters, Anglers Support NE WA Wilderness, Logging Plan

Earlier this week I got a press release about how “overwhelming majorities of hunters, anglers” and others polled in Northeast Washington support a proposal for more wilderness, logging and recreation areas in the Colville National Forest.

True, as an editor, I’m in favor of it, but as a reporter I noticed that the release didn’t provide any actual figures to support the statement, so I asked around for hard numbers.

What I received came from a poll of 400 likely voters in Ferry, Pend Oreille and Stevens Counties and 112 in Spokane County. It was performed in late February for the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition and the Pew Environment Group by Moore Information and the Mellman Group, generally Republican- and Democratic-oriented pollsters, and has a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percent.

The stats broke us into three categories, and we could either say we were strongly in favor, favored it but not so strongly, were undecided or didn’t know, opposed it but not strongly, or strongly opposed it.

It showed that 59.7 percent of self-identified anglers and hunters who head out “several times per year” favor the plan while 23.4 oppose it. Another 12.7 percent were undecided, 4.1 percent didn’t know.

Sixty-three-point-two percent of occasional sportsmen favored it while 20.4 percent opposed; 11.2 percent were undecided and 5.2 percent didn’t know.

And 53.2 percent of fishermen and hunters who “seldom or never” get afield supported it while 26.4 opposed; 16.8 percent were undecided and 3.7 percent didn’t know.

Their responses came in answer to this question:

Now let me tell you a little more about this proposal. The Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition is made up of five timber companies, two Washington state conservation groups, recreation interests and businesses. For eight years, this partnership has worked to end the gridlock over managing the Colville National Forest and has successfully completed over two dozen forestry projects.

The coalition’s overall proposal identifies some acres in the Colville National Forest to be used for forestry work, some areas for forest restoration, some areas for recreation, and protects some roadless lands as wilderness. Within the places proposed for wilderness protection, hiking, hunting, livestock grazing, fishing, horse-packing, and camping would all continue without change.

However other uses would be prohibited in the lands designated for wilderness protection—namely mining, commercial logging, oil and gas drilling, new roads and mechanized recreation such as with Jeeps, snowmobiles, quads and mountain bikes.

Overall, this proposal would provide for increased logging, expanded recreation and more protected areas. Would you favor or oppose this entire proposal?

Poll results showed that backers of the proposal have a ways to go in getting word out to the public.

I blogged about it last fall, and we had a huge story on it in our November issue (see below). Basically it would set aside 215,000 acres in the Kettle Crest and Selkirk Mountains as new wilderness, keep logging going on another 400,000 acres while another 400,000 acres would be managed for restorative timber harvest, with the balance of the forest, some 200,000 acres, falling under recreation and conservation area statuses.

An act of Congress would be required for the wilderness, recreation and conservation areas.

PROPOSED PLAN FOR THE COLVILLE NATIONAL FOREST.

While the Cascades, Olympics and Blues are chock-full of wilderness — over 4 million acres worth — the only one in the northeastern quadrant of the state is the 41,335-acre Salmo-Priest, tucked up where the WA-ID-BC borders converge.

The Colville also had approximately 180,000 acres of roadless areas during an early-2000s inventory.

Among all respondents, after the forestry plan was explained, 57 percent favored it while 24 percent opposed it. Results also show that support crosses party lines and the urban-rural divide.

“The Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition is taking the right approach,” Russ Vaagen of Vaagen Brothers Lumber, and coalition vice president, said in a press release. “People want a balanced approach and wise use of our forest that creates jobs, provides access and takes care of wildlife and our special places.”

LOG YARD AT THE VAAGEN BROTHERS MILL, COLVILLE, WASH. (JAMES JOHNSTON)

After pro and con arguments were presented, pollsters did record a shift against the proposal by moderate independents, less-educated men, frequent ORV users and 15 percent of frequent hunters and anglers.

Below is the article we ran in the November 2010 issue of Northwest Sportsman magazine:

By Leroy Ledeboer

COLVILLE, Wash.—Propose significant changes on any of Washington’s big game lands, and hunters want to know why. More precisely, they want to know what these changes will do to improve or perhaps degrade the habitat of their favorite species and what will become of their traditional access points. In a nutshell, hunters want to know, will the hunts of tomorrow be as good, better or worse than they were yesterday?

Recently, the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, a broad spectrum of conservationists, loggers, ranchers and local business leaders have come together to try to hammer out the details on a sweeping new land-use plan, the Columbia Highlands Initiative. It takes in all of the Colville National Forest, from the Kettle Crest to nearly the Idaho, border and from Canada south to the Colville and Spokane Indian Reservations.

If this initiative were to be adopted in its present form, it would create 214,000 acres of new wilderness. Another 145,000 acres would be set aside in a “national conservation area,” where tree thinning for fuel reduction and wildlife habitat improvement would be allowed, while an even large block, a “forest restoration area” covering 417,000 acres, would be open to controlled commercial logging, cattle grazing and existing recreational opportunities. Sound environmental practices, such as streamside buffer zones and tight regs on logging roads and no major clearcuts would be paramount.

Essentially, the coalition has been trying to work with a broad array of diverse interests, ranging from conservationists who, among other things, want to see g reater protection for endangered species such as the Canadian lynx and the grizzly bear, to timber companies who want assurances that their log supply will be sufficient to keep their mills running, and cattle ranchers, some of whom are running spreads that go back to the turn of the last century and are trying hard to carry on family traditions.

It’s a new approach, a sharp turn away from the old antagonism of the past. Now it’s a matter of sitting down at a bargaining table, then trying to come up with solutions that are more or less equitable for everyone and still leave us with a healthy national forest.

BUT THE QUESTION for this magazine has to be, where will all this leave hunters, the hundreds of avid locals and the hordes of outsiders who annually make these hills part of their fall migration?
The Colville National Forest is a major stomping ground for muleys and whitetail deer, a healthy and expanding elk herd, furnishes pretty good black bear hunts and represents a golden opportunity for anyone lucky enough to draw a moose permit, so major land management changes have to be scrutinized.

Let’s start with that 214,000 acres of wilderness, by far the most sweeping management change on the docket and the one that could have the biggest impact. The major chunk of this would run along the Kettle Crest, with another big block around Abercrombie and Hooknose Mountains, west of the Pend Oreille not far from the Canadian border. Hunters and wildlife managers I spoke to came out on both sides of this issue.

“Ultimately, it doesn’t make for that healthy a big game habitat,” says longtime outdoorsman Tim Nizech at Clark’s All Sports in Colville, “because you don’t have any logging, even any tree thinning, nothing to revive the underbrush our deer depend on.”

“Plus, it’s going to be so inaccessible.  Now, I’m all for some roadless areas and locked gates because I hate being out there and having four-runners running over me when I’m trying to hunt.

“Yes, we need lots of hike-in-only country, but when you designate a big section of real estate as wilderness, you pretty much make it inaccessible for most hunters, except those few who can hire packers or are able to keep their own stock year-round.”

On the other side, avid hunter Tommie Petrie of Newport, who has worked with the coalition, says at first he was opposed, but now supports this initiative.

“As a sportsman I’m really excited about it, but I can also see other hunter’s concerns,” he says. “I grew up in the Le Clerc Creek area of Pend Oreille County, and in the ’80s, when they closed off so many roads for grizzly bear protection, I felt violated, really hurting for the people around there who’d always hunted those backcountry areas and now couldn’t reach them. I knew what they’d lost.

“But that’s one reason why I like this proposal’s three-pronged approach, one part wilderness, then a middle ground, sort of a transitional phase, and a third for more timber harvest, grazing and recreational opportunities like ATV riding.

“And that wilderness area will be major.  We already have plenty of areas where we can hunt on four-wheelers, but this will be for guys willing to pack in, and there’s no greater experience than the real backcountry experience.  With today’s population, our wilderness areas are essential to that. Once they’re destroyed, we’ll never get them back.”

The proposal has also drawn support from the Spokane-based Washington Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, among others.

A STRONG VOICE that definitely takes exception to the wilderness designation is Chuck McCombs, a former Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife forester who for 39 years managed the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge, but also worked on the Sherman Creek Wildlife Area and other public lands across the state.

“After a clear-cut or fire, when the grasses and shrubs start coming back, you have your big animals – deer, elk, moose – thriving, and you also the most variety, everything from rodents to song birds,” McCombs explains. “But finally the trees take over again, often lodgepole pine first, later deer and elk habitat is gone.

“That’s what happens in any wilderness.  Eventually it all goes to large trees, and the only thing that will help is a large fire. If they’re going to have true wilderness areas, then they should go all the way, and let fires burn the way they once did.

“The way it is, a wilderness designation simply hamstrings an area, creating poor habitat, especially for deer and elk. What animals love is an edge, an area where they can easily move between grass and shrub zones for feed, timber stands for cover.

“Whenever we did clear-cuts, we did it with a purpose, knowing we weren’t managing timber, we were managing wildlife, so we kept them small, did them in irregular shapes, not squares, giving the animals more edge.

“The same thing with our controlled burns. We did simple two-man burns, using flame throwers, and always did relatively small plots, our biggest around 30 acres, again in irregular patterns.

“In a wilderness you get none of this, but you do get bug infestations, dead timber and a heavy cover of pine needles under the canopy. Then when fire breaks out, it’s often a crown fire, burning way too hot and way too many acres in one swath, leaving large blackened areas for years to come.

“Why not manage every acre? Your timber sales will pay for a lot of it, and you’ll end up with far more big game.  When you designate an area wilderness, you’re not managing it at all.”

ALTHOUGH HE ACKNOWLEDGES that a well thought out hands-on approach, including having those creature-friendly timber harvests and controlled burns, will produce more suitable habitat and consequently more big game per square mile, state wildlife biologist Dana Base in Colville says a wilderness designation is a legitimate management strategy.

“Nonmanagement – letting nature run its course – is actually a legitimate management scheme, and it works quite well in certain terrains,” he says. “Now, if we look at the proposed wilderness areas in this plan strictly from a hunter’s standpoint, well, it’s kind of a mixed bag.

“On the one hand, it will make it harder for the average hunter, simply because gaining access to so much of that land is going to be very demanding. Anyone who isn’t in excellent physical condition or doesn’t have access to pack animals, maybe the finances to hire an outfitter, will simply be left out.

“On the other, big game animals that inhabit this wilderness will no doubt be higher quality, primarily because they’ll get less hunting pressure and have better escapement than animals in the lower regions.  Anyone who can get in there and do it right could have the hunt of a lifetime.

“But basically this means hunting mule deer. Whitetails tend to stay at lower elevations and definitely respond best to managed habitats.

“And no matter what we do, we won’t have the kind of wilderness terrains you see in the Montana Rockies, where lots of elk have their summer range in super-high mountain meadows, at 10,000 feet or more. That gives the bulls a tremendous advantage for survival, compared to some of their lower elevations where 4-wheelers crisscross everything.

“Before every hunting season I get calls from elk hunters asking me about prospects in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness.  I have to tell them, they’re slim to none.  Our elk stay lower, maybe as many as 90 percent within 3 miles on either side of the Pend Oreille River, particularly where you find clear-cuts.”

So for muley hunters with enough fortitude or horse flesh, these wilderness areas could be real go-to spots for trophy bucks, as well as that outdoor ideal, a solitary hunt in a vast mountainous landscape.

Throw in those other critters that could have a safer home, a better chance of survival in a wilderness – lynx, grizzlies, maybe additional plants of bighorns – and do we have a good enough reason to take this much land away from the Jeep-and-quad crowd, who in many cases don’t have the finances for that horse or mule pack-it-in option, nor the youth or stamina to do a boot leather and pack-frame high-country foray?

“I’m all for choices and in any plan I really like seeing something for everyone,” Base adds, “places where four-wheelers can go and hunt, locked gate areas where hike-in hunters can hunt undisturbed, and wilderness that creates even greater solitude. The problem is, the pie is only so big, we have a lot of outdoors types to accommodate, so we have to make compromises.”

Yes, and if the Columbia Highlands Initiative is to move from the drawing board to reality, compromise will have to be a real cornerstone, giving something to everyone from loggers to passionate preservationists.  Again, though, our question is, what piece of this pie do hunters get? How will the big game animals and the men and women who pursue them fare?

“Maybe the best thing about this will be the landscape mosaic that should emerge,” Base states. “Start with that core wilderness area, your nonmanaged control zone, surrounded by various management intensities, which will give us a variety of carrying capacities, but also more varied recreational opportunities. Each component should be complimentary to the rest and we’ll have something for everyone, from loggers to real wilderness types, high-country hunters to weekend ATV users. And we’ll still have added protection for endangered species, such as wolverines.”

“Of course, logging won’t mean largescale clearcuts on any of this land. But a lot of that forest is in desperate need of thinning, with big stands of dog-hair trees, mainly lodgepole pine growing so thick it can’t mature decently. And unlike what we’re seeing on too many big timber company holdings now, you won’t have any wholesale spraying of herbicides to wipe out the grasses and brush, which may be good for tree growth but are absolutely deadly for deer and elk.”

So, just maybe, if the national conservation and forest restoration areas get logged with wildlife in mind, maybe even have some controlled burns where appropriate, those streamside brush and tree buffers are kept intact, and cattle grazing is regulated, at least some of tomorrow’s hunts will be even better than today’s.

That wilderness area? Maybe we accept that as a necessary part of this mosaic, a place most of us will never hunt but might  feel good just knowing it’s there, home to wild critters that need lots of isolation. NS

2011 WA Trout Stocking Plan Online

WDFW has just posted their 2011 statewide trout stocking plan.

It’s available as a PDF here.

A fishery manager also fired off some of what awaits us on opening day, April 30, this year, including:

Expected turnout: nearly 300,000 men, women and children

6.8 million trout fry (2-3 inch) stocked into 474 lowland and high lakes statewide last spring and fall are now catchable size (8-12 inch).

10.2 million kokanee fry stocked into 34 lakes are expected to show in creels this year.

3.5 million catchable size (8-12 inch) trout are being stocked this spring into 347 waters.

50,000 triploid trout (1-1/2 pound average) are being stocked into 108 lakes.

84,000 2-year-old “jumbos” and surplus hatchery broodstock trout (1-1/2 to 5 pounds each) are being stocked into 172 lakes.

200,000 other species such as walleye, tiger muskie and crappie stocked into 12 waters.

NUMBER OF SMILES EXPECTED THIS TROUT SEASON IN WASHINGTON? MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS. AMANDA WILLIAMS SHOWS OFF HER DUCK LAKE LUNKER, CAUGHT LAST MEMORIAL DAY. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST

New Hunter-Conservationist Prize To Be Awarded In Spokane April 8

(WASHINGTON BACKCOUNTRY HUNTERS AND ANGLERS PRESS RELEASE)

In a first-of-its-kind award, several Northwest conservation and outdoor-sports groups representing different interests and ideologies have teamed up to sponsor the Dr. Dick Rivers Sportsman-Conservationist Award, to be awarded April 8th at Washington Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Spring Dinner at Hill’s Restaurant in Spokane.

The biannual honor bestows a cash prize of $1,000 to its recipient, a Northwest sportsman who defies stereotypes and political isolationism to work actively on areas of common ground to protect public lands, fish and wildlife, and clean air and water.

Conceived by Washington Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and co-sponsored by Spokane Audubon, Conservation Northwest, Spokane Falls Trout Unlimited, and the Spokane Mountaineers, the award is determined by a panel of representatives, including Rivers’ longtime elk hunting and salmon fishing partner, outdoor journalist Rich Landers:

“I’ve loved over the years to mention in passing through my writings that one of my favorite friends was at one time a die-hard big-game bowhunter and the president of the Spokane Audubon Society. He would make trips to look for elk sign and brush out shooting lanes from hunting stands and then do birding surveys for BLM. That says so much about the mega-span of his interests, and the way he has connected it all in a Leopold sense of science and in-the-field savvy.”

DICK RIVERS WITH A LARGE MULE DEER TAKEN IN THE KETTLE RANGE IN THE 1980S DURING A SOLO BACKCOUNTRY HUNT. (DICK RIVERS)

Rivers, now a retired VA physician who is managing a chronic illness, has spent the last four decades volunteering his physical and intellectual strengths with a broad range of conservation and outdoor interests.

Whether he was paddling the entire length of the Columbia River in his sea kayak, traversing new routes across the Canadian Rockies on backcountry skis, watching gyrfalcons and grizzlies in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, casting his fly rod for steelhead in Hells Canyon, or shooting massive mule deer and elk on public lands in Eastern Washington, Rivers has remained rooted in the belief that preserving our wild places and managing our working lands based on sound science is all important.

He led successful fights to kick cows off of local national wildlife refuges when science said they didn’t belong, captured and relocated sage grouse, wrote guest editorials and countless letters to editors, sweated alongside people half or a third his age on habitat-improvement projects, and much more.  More impressively, Rivers was a sportsman who suffered through every important meeting, public comment period, and collaborative process he could find.

“When you see your values being threatened, It’s just not possible to sit back and let someone else do the work and invest the time to protect them.  Each person has got to decide for themselves what they can do and how much time to invest,” offered Rivers when informed of the award.

“There will always be someone who is more articulate, better informed and harder working.  But when agencies and officials decide on policy, it’s not the single eloquent speech or letter that matter.  It’s the thousands/millions of e-mails and letters and the standing-room-only crowded meetings that will count,” said Rivers.

When he received the 2010 “Watershed Hero Award” award for his years of dedication to the Spokane River and its fishery on February 12th, a motley crew of environmentalists, elk hunters, and anglers showed up and shared breathing space to see him recognized, a point underscored by speaker and friend, psychology and fishing writer, Paul Quinnett, during his tribute to Rivers.

Quinnett also noted that he and Rivers have much in common: “Dick and I are both scientists, and we both hunt elk with a bow.  Our biggest difference is that Dick actually kills elk with a bow.” Quinnett went on use a metaphor likening elk hunters and conservationists due to their tenacity and hope in the face of hopelessness.

Landers also spoke, describing how Rivers had blown stalks on elk by talking about birds calling in the pre-dawn darkness, sometimes calling in pygmy owls as if it were as much a part of the game as killing an elk.

“It was a wonder he killed so many elk,” said Landers.

Nominations for the 2013 award are due anytime before December 31st, 2012, to Washington State Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (WABHA), who will facilitate the selection process.  Sportsmen’s and conservation groups across the Northwest who are honest in their commitment to collaborate are invited to co-sponsor the award and to make nominations.

For more information about this award or our April 8th meeting, please contact Jeff Holmes at washingtonstatebha@yahoo.com, or 509-868-3337.

Half Of Springer Guideline Remains For Rec Fleet

Fresh numbers from state spring Chinook managers show that “slightly less than half of the 7,750 upriver catch guideline has been taken,” which raises hopes for some sort of sport fleet reopener on the Columbia — the dirty, high, cold Columbia.

According to biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver, we’ve kept 3,538 above-Bonneville-bound kings — 45 percent of the guideline — and 4,510 overall through April 4, the last day the river below the dam was open.

Tomorrow afternoon, Oregon and Washington managers will review the catch stats.

THE KIRBY CANNON KREW KILLED 'EM AT PRESCOTT BEACH LAST WEEKEND. (WRIGHT & McGILL/EAGLE CLAW PHOTO CONTEST)

Hymer says that managers had forecast a catch of 10,100 springers of all stocks on the big river.

April rains and upstream runoff have muddied up the Columbia as well as tribs in its lower end. At Bonneville, the river is running just below 400,000 cubic feet per second.

Despite higher flows, boat anglers picked up 499 springers this month, including 429 headed for places like Drano, the upper Columbia and Idaho.

Oregon plunkers took 223 over four days of fishing in April, including 118 along Sauvie Island, according to catch stats.

Washington bankies managed, oh, just never mind.

Overall sportfishing effort was slightly lower than expected, with an estimated 82,340 angler trips taken vs. 85,300 predicted, according to Hymer.

Of the 4,510 springers retained this season, 71.8 percent were caught below I-5.

Meanwhile, here’s ODFW’s weekend creel summary:

High flows and dirty water put a damper on salmon fishing this past weekend.  Boat anglers fishing in the Troutdale and Portland to Longview areas respectively averaged 0.13 spring chinook caught per boat.  Bank anglers fishing from Portland to Longview averaged 0.05 spring chinook and 0.01 steelhead caught per bank angler.  On Saturday’s (4/2) flight, 1,612 boats and 777 Oregon bank anglers were counted.

Gorge Bank:

Weekend checking showed no catch for 11 bank anglers.

Gorge Boats:

No report.

Troutdale Boats:

Weekend checking showed 23 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook kept, plus two unclipped spring chinook released for 197 boats (469 anglers).

Portland to Longview Bank:

Weekend checking showed 16 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook and three adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus seven unclipped spring chinook and two unclipped steelhead released for 478 bank anglers.

Portland to Longview Boats:

Weekend checking showed 46 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook and two adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus eight unclipped spring chinook and two unclipped steelhead released for 423 boats (1,118 anglers).

Estuary Bank: (Clatsop Spit to Wauna Powerlines):

No report.

Estuary Boats (Tongue Point to Wauna Powerlines):

Weekend checking showed no catch for 11 boats (25 anglers).

Bonneville Pool:

No report.

The Dalles Pool:

Weekly checking showed two unclipped spring chinook released for 41 bank anglers; and no catch for one boat (one angler).

John Day Pool:

Weekly checking showed no catch for six bank anglers.

SW WA, Columbia Fishing Report (4-4-11)

(REPORT COURTESY BIOLOGIST JOE HYMER)

SALMON/STEELHEAD

Cowlitz River – At the trout hatchery, 24 boat anglers (8 boats) kept 21 steehead and 2 chinook jacks and released 1 steelhead.  16 bank anglers kept 10 steelhead and released 1.  At the salmon hatchery, 6 bank anglers kept 1 spring chinook.

Wind River – A couple boats before the high water; no report on angling success.  Boat ramp blocked by logs last Sunday.

Drano Lake – One lonely boat here early Sunday morning; no report on angling success.

White Salmon River – 3 bank anglers had no catch.  Bench at the mouth is underwater.

Klickitat River – 6 bank anglers had no catch.

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – During the first three days of this month we sampled 3,074 anglers (including 1,054 boats) with 124 chinook and 5 steelhead.  Boat anglers averaged a Chinook kept/released per every 22.3 rods based on mainly completed trips.  A couple chinook were caught off the bank at Bonneville and between Vancouver and Woodland.

Ninety-eight (79%) of the Chinook caught were kept.  We sampled 58 (59%) of the fish kept.  Forty-nine (84%) were upriver stock based on Visual Stock Identification (VSI).   Two (40%) of the steelhead caught were kept.

The Dalles Pool – Bank anglers are catching some spring chinook.

John Day Pool – Light effort and catch.

STURGEON

Lower Columbia below Bonneville Dam – A few legals were caught by boat anglers from Vancouver to Kalama.

The Dalles Pool – Boat anglers are catching some legals.  Slow for legal size fish from the bank.

John Day Pool – Boat and bank anglers are catching some legals.  The John Day Pool recreational sturgeon fishery closes to retention effective 12:01 AM Sunday, April 10, 2011.

WALLEYE AND BASS

The Dalles Pool – Including fish released, boat anglers averaged nearly 3 fish per rod.  Bank anglers were also catching some walleye.  No anglers were observed fishing for bass.

John Day Pool – Boat anglers are catching some walleye.  The few boat anglers fishing for bass did very well.

TROUT

Recent releases of catchable size brown trout and kokanee:

Lewis County Park Pond near Toledo – 5,014 browns March 28;

Swofford Pond near Mossyrock – 5,824 browns March 28;

Lake Sacajawea in Longview – 3,870 browns March 29;

Kress Lake in Kalama – 5,288 browns March 29;

Merwin Reservoir – 26,390 kokanee March 25;

Columbia Springer Update (4-4-11)

With 1,200 to 1,300 springers left in the commercial quota till a run update later this month — including 911 upriver-bound fish — Columbia River salmon managers approved a six-hour fishery for this Wednesday.

Netters will only be allowed to retain the first six hatchery salmon that show up in their net, and they must sail back to port after the final keeper comes aboard.

That was the third of three options that Oregon and Washington managers considered today.

The other two were to just wait a couple weeks or run a more intensive two-hour-or-so fishery.

It appears to have been a struggle for managers to figure out how to allow another commercial fishery. Netters caught 1,263 springers last week, about half of what had been modeled.

“With Chinook abundance generally increasing, developing a fishing period to allow access to harvestable fish is challenging. Staff continues to put forth recommendations that are very conservative in order to reduce the risk of exceeding pre-update allowances,” reads a fact sheet fired off from Vancouver early this afternoon.

Last night’s test fishery between roughly Tongue Point and the mouth of the Lewis yielded fewer total springers than the previous two tests — 78 to 176 and 103 — but did produce 4.3 per drift, compared to 2.8 and 5.2.

The sport catch has roughly been following expectations. Our season, which draws to a close tonight, will be reviewed on Wednesday afternoon. There may be a chance for more fishing IF there’s room in the guideline of 7,750 above-Bonneville-bound springers. Otherwise we have to wait until a  run-size update in several weeks before getting any more possible time on the Columbia.

Columbia Springer Update (4-1-11)

No foolin, AW’s late, late, late on the Lower Columbia spring Chinook update front, but after a day off, here’s what I gather this morning:

According to biologist Joe Hymer in Vancouver, through Thursday, March 31, we sport anglers have:

kept an estimated 3,770 adult springers and released 1,092

killed about 40% of the 7,750 upriver-bound-springer catch guideline

Despite frets, the commercial fleet’s four-hour Tuesday night fishery sucked — well, at least for them. Salmon managers modeled a catch of 2,700, with a range from 2,400 to 3,000, but basically 150 boats only managed to catch half that, 1,263 kings, according to Hymer.

That’s even fewer fish per comm boat than Wednesday morning’s initial estimates.

As it stands, sport fishing on the mainstem Columbia below Bonneville Dam ends after April 4.

That’s the same day that managers will hold a hearing to figure out if another commercial fishery is possible next Wednesday. They’ll be doing test netting over this weekend.

Then, April 6, there will be a joint state hearing on the sport fishery and whether there’s any fish left in the guideline for any possible extensions.

Earlier this week a senior Washington manager says that the catch is tracking close to expectations, “so any additional fishing time in April will probably be fairly limited.”

And, what the heck, why not a Bonneville Dam count update?

156.

What’s Fishin’ In Washington

If it’s almost April, it’s time for a whole host of openers for Washington anglers.

For starters, there’s the April 1 trout opener on numerous Columbia Basin and Okanogan lakes.

Then there’s the April 2-3 statewide youth turkey hunt.

And then the April 7-9 razor clam dig which also brackets the Mariners’ home opener.

It’s followed by the April 9 spring Chinook reopener on the ….

Oh, wait, never mind on that one.

There’s the April 15 start to the general turkey season and some spring bear permit hunts followed the next day by lings out of Neah Bay.

After that there’s another clam dig scheduled April 19-23.

Yep, April’s quite the month for openers for Washington outdoorsmen.

Wait, what’s that? You say I missed one?

Oh, that’s right — only the biggest opener of all, lowland trout!

Here are some great ideas on how to tackle the fishing side, courtesy of WDFW’s Weekender:

NORTH SOUND

Thousands of anglers are gearing up for the lowland lakes trout opener in late April, but many remain focused on the marine areas of Puget Sound, where blackmouth salmon fisheries are still under way.

As March comes to a close, fishing continues to be slow for most anglers targeting blackmouth, said Steve Thiesfeld, Puget Sound salmon manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “For the most part it has been a real grind for anglers fishing Puget Sound,” he said. “But there have been a few bright spots. One angler recently caught a 27-pound hatchery chinook in the San Juan Islands and several participants in the recent Anacortes Salmon Derby did pretty good as well.”

A total of 101 fish were weighed during the Anacortes Salmon Derby, which took place March 26-27. Mike Campion of Bellingham took home the $15,000 grand prize with his 18.96-pound fish. Patrick Barton of Bellingham hooked a 18.74-pound salmon that was good enough for second place and $5,000, and Brett Engholm of Bellingham was awarded $2,500 for his third-place fish, which weighed in at 18.44 pounds.

“While anglers definitely have to put in some time on the water, it can be worth it for an opportunity to catch a large blackmouth,” Thiesfeld said.

Anglers fishing marine areas 7 (San Juan Islands), 8-1 (Deception Pass, Hope Island and Skagit Bay), 8-2 (Port Susan and Port Gardner) and 9 (Admiralty Inlet) have a two-salmon daily limit, but must release wild chinook salmon. Thiesfeld reminds anglers that Marine Area 9 is open only through April 15, while Marine Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton) is already closed to salmon fishing.

Freshwater anglers looking to cast for trout will soon have numerous lakes to choose from. The lowland lakes trout season gets under way April 30, when many lakes – stocked with thousands of legal-sized trout – will open for fishing. Information on stocking schedules for rainbow, cutthroat and triploid trout is available on WDFW’s website.

Anglers should note that the halibut season gets under way in May. The 2011 recreational halibut seasons approved for Washington’s marine areas are:

* Columbia River (Ilwaco): Marine Area 1 will open May 5, three days a week, Thursday through Saturday until 70 percent of the quota is reached, or until July 17. The fishery will then reopen on Aug. 5 and continue three days a week (Friday through Sunday) until the remaining quota is reached, or Sept.30, whichever occurs first. The 2011 catch quota is 15,418 pounds.
* South Coast (Westport/Ocean Shores): Marine Area 2 will open on May 1, two days a week, Sundays and Tuesdays. During the fourth week in May the fishery will be open Sunday only (May 22). Beginning the following week the fishery will resume the Sunday, Tuesday structure until the quota is reached. The northern nearshore area will be open seven days per week, until the quota is reached. The 2011 catch quota is 43,500 pounds.
* North Coast (La Push/Neah Bay): Marine areas 3 and 4 will open on May 12, two days per week, Thursdays and Saturdays, through May 21. If sufficient quota remains, the fishery will reopen the week of June 2. If sufficient quota remains after that opener, the fishery will reopen starting June 16. The 2011 catch quota is 108,792 pounds.
* Strait of Juan de Fuca/Puget Sound: Marine areas 6 through 10 (Strait, Port Angeles, Admiralty Inlet and Everett) will be open May 5 through May 29. Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) will be open May 26 through June 18. These fisheries will be open three days a week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday closed Sunday through Wednesday except for Memorial Day weekend when they will be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 2011 combined catch quota for these areas is 58,155 pounds.

All areas that will be open to halibut fishing have a one-fish daily catch limit, with no minimum size, a possession limit of one fish while on the vessel, and a possession limit of two fish in any form once the angler is on the shore.

Halibut fishing will remain closed in marine areas 11 (Tacoma) and 13 (southern Puget Sound) to protect three species of rockfish listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal) will remain closed due to low dissolved-oxygen conditions.

SOUTH SOUND/OLYMPIC PENINSULA

April will see the traditional opening of the statewide lowland lakes trout fishing season, the expansion of lingcod fishing on the north coast and two proposed razor-clam digs on ocean beaches.

If marine toxin tests are favorable, WDFW will proceed with a razor-clam dig in early April at Long Beach and Twin Harbors. Tentative opening dates and morning low tides:

* April 7 (Thursday), 9:37 a.m. (0.1 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors
* April 8 (Friday), 10:19 a.m., (0.2 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors
* April 9 (Saturday), 11:07 a.m. (0.4 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors

Later in April, razor clammers could have another opportunity. Tentative opening dates and low tides for that dig are:

* April 19 (Tuesday), 8:07 a.m. (-1.8 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors
* April 20 (Wednesday), 8:54 a.m. (-1.7 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors
* April 21 (Thursday), 9:42 a.m. (-1.4 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks
* April 22 (Friday), 10:33 a.m. (-0.8 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks
* April 23 (Saturday), 11:27 a.m. (-0.2 feet); Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks (Digging allowed until 1 p.m.)

No digging will be allowed after noon on any of the razor-clam beaches, except on April 23 when digging is allowed until 1 p.m. on the four beaches. Fishery managers agreed to an extra hour of digging April 23 because low tide won’t occur until 11:27 a.m. that morning, said Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

Harvesters are allowed to take no more than 15 razor clams and must keep the first 15 they dig, regardless of size or condition. Each harvester’s clams must be kept in a separate container.

Noting that 2010-11 state fishing licenses expire March 31, Ayres reminds diggers age 15 or older that they must purchase a 2011-12 license to participate in the April openings. Various licenses, ranging from a three-day razor-clam license to a multi-species combination license, are available online, by phone (1-866-246-9453) and from sporting goods stores and other retail license dealers around the state.

Also on the coast, the lingcod fishery is under way in marine areas 1 (Ilwaco), 2 (Westport-Ocean Shores) and 3 (LaPush). Beginning April 16, Marine Area 4 (Neah Bay) also will open for lingcod. For more information on lingcod fishing regulations, check the Fishing in Washington pamphlet.

Meanwhile, fishing for blackmouth is still an option. Marine Areas 5 (Sekiu) and 6 (eastern Strait) are open through April 10, although Marine Areas 11 (Tacoma-Vashon), 12 (Hood Canal) and 13 (South Puget Sound) will remain open through April 30.

Anglers fishing marine areas 11 and 12 have a two-salmon daily limit, but must release wild chinook. Those fishing the Strait of Juan de Fuca – marine areas 5 and 6 – and Marine Area 13 have a daily limit of one salmon.

In freshwater, anglers still have an opportunity to hook wild steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula. As in years past, anglers may retain only one wild steelhead per license year on the Bogachiel, Calawah, Clearwater, Dickey, Hoh, Quillayute, Quinault and Sol Duc rivers. Wild steelhead retention continues through April 30 on most of those rivers. The exceptions are the Clearwater, Hoh and Quinault rivers, where wild steelhead retention runs through April 15. Anglers should be aware that portions of the Dickey River closed in mid-March. For more information on steelhead fishing regulations, check the Fishing in Washington pamphlet.

Lake fishing opportunities expand at the end of the month, when the lowland lakes trout season gets under way. Many lakes – stocked with thousands of legal-sized trout – open for fishing April 30. Information on stocking schedules for rainbow, cutthroat and triploid trout is available on WDFW’s website.

Anglers should note that the halibut season gets under way in May. The 2011 recreational halibut seasons approved for Washington’s marine areas are:

* Columbia River (Ilwaco): Marine Area 1 will open May 5, three days a week, Thursday through Saturday until 70 percent of the quota is reached, or until July 17. The fishery will then reopen on Aug. 5 and continue three days a week (Friday through Sunday) until the remaining quota is reached, or Sept.30, whichever occurs first. The 2011 catch quota is 15,418 pounds.
* South Coast (Westport/Ocean Shores): Marine Area 2 will open on May 1, two days a week, Sundays and Tuesdays. During the fourth week in May the fishery will be open Sunday only (May 22). Beginning the following week the fishery will resume the Sunday, Tuesday structure until the quota is reached. The northern nearshore area will be open seven days per week, until the quota is reached. The 2011 catch quota is 43,500 pounds.
* North Coast (La Push/Neah Bay): Marine areas 3 and 4 will open on May 12, two days per week, Thursdays and Saturdays, through May 21. If sufficient quota remains, the fishery will reopen the week of June 2. If sufficient quota remains after that opener, the fishery will reopen starting June 16. The 2011 catch quota is 108,792 pounds.
* Strait of Juan de Fuca/Puget Sound: Marine areas 6 through 10 (Strait, Port Angeles, Admiralty Inlet and Everett) will be open May 5 through May 29. Marine Area 5 (Sekiu) will be open May 26 through June 18. These fisheries will be open three days a week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday closed Sunday through Wednesday except for Memorial Day weekend when they will be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 2011 combined catch quota for these areas is 58,155 pounds.

All areas that will be open to halibut fishing have a one-fish daily catch limit, with no minimum size, a possession limit of one fish while on the vessel, and a possession limit of two fish in any form once the angler is on the shore.

Halibut fishing will remain closed in marine areas 11 and 13 to protect three species of rockfish listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Marine Area 12 will remain closed due to low dissolved-oxygen conditions.

SOUTHWEST

Anglers have at least through April 4 to catch and keep marked, hatchery-reared spring chinook salmon on the lower Columbia River. Fisheries for shad and hatchery-reared steelhead – which run concurrently with the spring chinook season – are also scheduled to close at the end of the day April 4 on the lower river.

But those fisheries could reopen before an updated run forecast is adopted in late April or early May, said Cindy LeFleur, Columbia River policy coordinator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

“Our first job is to determine how the catch through April 4 stacks up against the harvest guideline,” LeFleur said. “Right now, we are tracking fairly close to our projections, so any additional fishing time in April will probably be fairly limited.”

As of March 27, anglers had caught and kept 3,331 spring chinook below Bonneville Dam, including 2,650 that count against the harvest guideline of 7,750 upriver fish. Rough conditions – including high, turbid water – hindered fishing in many areas, but catch rates rose quickly during the final week of fishing, as more fish arrived in the lower river.

For that reason, LeFleur estimates that three-quarters of the catch will be taken during the last week of March. “Catch rates have increased during the last week and we could come close to reaching the guideline by April 4,” she said.

But lower-river anglers could get another chance to catch spring chinook in May, once fishery managers update the run forecast. While the preseason forecast projected a return of 198,400 upriver fish, the fishery has been managed with a 30 percent “buffer” to guard against overestimating the run.

“If the fish return at or above expectations, we will look toward providing additional days of fishing on the river later in spring,” LeFleur said.

News of any additional fishing days will be announced on the department’s website, the Fishing Hotline (360-902-2500), the Region 5 hotline (360-696-6211*1010) and through local news media.

The fishing area in the lower river extends from Buoy 10 upriver to Rooster Rock for boat anglers, and to the fishing boundary below Bonneville Dam for bank anglers. When the fishery is open, anglers can retain one marked, hatchery-reared adult chinook salmon as part of their daily limit.

Above Bonneville Dam, the fishery will remain open to chinook retention through April 24 between the Tower Island powerlines below The Dalles Dam and the Washington/Oregon state line, 17 miles upriver from McNary Dam.  Bank anglers can also fish from Bonneville Dam upriver to the powerlines located about 6 miles below The Dalles Dam through April 24. Anglers fishing above Bonneville Dam can retain up to two marked, hatchery-reared adult chinook salmon or hatchery steelhead as part of their daily limit.

While salmon and steelhead fishing will be closing in the lower Columbia River, WDFW Fish Biologist Joe Hymer has some other suggestions:

* Fish a tributary: This is the time of year when anglers start picking up increasing number of spring chinook in the Cowlitz, Lewis and Kalama rivers. Winter steelhead are still providing lots of action on the Cowlitz – especially near the trout and salmon hatcheries – and summer steelhead are moving into several other tributaries to the lower Columbia River. Note that the lower East Fork Lewis River and the Lower Washougal River open to steelhead fishing April 16. Check the Fishing in Washington rule pamphlet for current rules before you go.

* Head upriver: In April, the daily number of spring chinook passing Bonneville Dam usually jumps from hundreds to thousands of fish, which move into the Bonneville, The Dalles, and John Day pools and a number of tributaries in between. Wind River, Klickitat River and Drano Lake are all good bets for spring chinook in April. Walleye fishing is also picking up in The Dalles Pool and the John Day Pool.

* Catch some trout: Hundreds of lowland lakes open for trout fishing April 30 throughout the state, drawing tens of thousands of anglers out for their first cast of the year. While most lakes in southwest Washington are open year-round, “opening day” does mark the start of trout fishing in such perennial favorites as Mineral Lake (Lewis County), Swift Reservoir (Skamania County) and the Rowland Lakes (Klickitat County). Meanwhile, fishing is already good for kokanee running 12-15 inches in Merwin Reservior on the North Fork Lewis River.

* Fish for sturgeon: In the last days of March, catch rates for legal-size sturgeon showed a marked improvement in the lower Columbia River below Bonneville Dam. The Dalles and John Day pools are also producing some legal-size fish. Higher flows over Bonneville (to benefit out-migrating juvenile salmon) should further energize sturgeon, who like the water high and dirty. Note, however, that the Sand Island Slough near Rooster Rock will be closed to fishing at least through April 30..

* Dig some razor clams: WDFW will open two morning razor-clam digs in April if marine toxin tests show the clams are safe to eat. In addition to a dig tentatively scheduled April 7-9 at Long Beach and Twin Harbors, WDFW also hopes to open those beaches for clam digging April 19-23 and two others – Copalis and Mocrocks April 21-23. Final word on those digs will be announced about a week ahead of time, once the results of the marine toxin tests are available. For more information, see the WDFW razor clam webpage.

Anglers and clam diggers over age 14 are reminded that a 2011-12 license is required to participate in any of the April openings, since 2010-11 licenses expire March 31. Licenses ranging from a three-day razor-clam license to a multi-species combination license are avaiIable online, by phone (1-866-246-9453) and from sporting goods stores and other retail license dealers around the state.

FAR EASTSIDE

Some of the region’s best fishing will begin at the end of the month with the lowland lakes season opener on April 30, but there’s plenty of good fishing to be had until then.

“Some waters that open in late-April that are well-stocked, such as Badger, Williams, West Medical, Fishtrap, Fish, and Clear lakes, will likely be excellent again,” said Chris Donley, district fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). “But until then, try some March 1-opening waters or year-round fisheries.”

Coffeepot Lake in Lincoln County is producing 18- to 22-inch rainbow trout on chironomids and other flies, Donley said. Regulations at Coffeepot Lake include is selective gear rules (no bait, artificial flies and lures only, knotless nets), a minimum size limit of 18 inches and daily catch limit of one trout.

Liberty Lake, in eastern Spokane County, “boomed at ice-out,” with catches of brown trout that ran 16 to 25 inches, Donley said. Liberty still has lots of good fishing for both those trout and, as the water warms, some of the earliest yellow perch and crappie.

Downs Lake in southwest Spokane County just received some hatchery “catchable-size” (9 to 12 inches) rainbow trout, and is fishing well for largemouth bass. Downs also has yellow perch and crappie.

Medical Lake, near the town of the same name in southwest Spokane County, has brown and rainbow trout.

Catch-and-release fishing for both rainbow and cutthroat trout at Amber Lake has been “awesome,” Donley said. Amber is under selective gear rules and shifts to a catch-and-keep season on April 30 when the daily limit will be two trout of at least 14 inches. Rainbows with clipped adipose fins caught at Amber must be released even after April 30.

A year-round fishery, Rock Lake in Whitman County, is consistently a good spot for catches of both brown and rainbow trout.

Bill Baker, WDFW northeast district fish biologist, said that year-round Lake Roosevelt keeps producing big rainbows most days, with kokanee on some days. Baker also notes Deer Lake in southern Stevens County, which opened March 1, is finally warming and likely producing some catches of rainbow and lake trout, with bass, crappie, perch catches not far behind.

“Most fishing lakes in the northeast district won’t open until April 30, and even then, some at higher elevation may still have pretty cold water temperatures, if not some ice or snow.” Baker said. “But the usual good producers will be the ones to plan on fishing late in the month.”

In Stevens County, those include Waitts, Loon, Deep, Cedar, and the Little Pend Oreille chain of lakes, plus Potter’s Pond and a few selective gear fisheries such as Bayley, Rocky and Starvation lakes. In Ferry County, traditional favorites opening in late April include Ellen, Davis, Swan and Trout lakes, plus fly-fishing-only Long Lake. Pend Oreille County waters opening April 30 include Diamond, Frater, Big Meadow, North and South Skookum, Marshall and Sacheen lakes.

In the south end of the region, the Tucannon River impoundments, on WDFW’s Wooten Wildlife Area, have been producing nice rainbow catches since the March 1 opener. Area Manager Kari Dingman said Big Four, Blue, Deer, Rainbow, Spring and Watson lakes are all well-stocked with hatchery trout and slowly warming up as spring advances. Beaver Lake has water depth and vegetation growth issues that preclude it from viable fish stocking this year.

April 18 is the deadline to register for the May 7 Kids’ Fishing Event at Clear Lake in Spokane County. For details on the registration form, see the Youth Fishing 2011 Event Calendar on WDFW’s website.

NORTH-CENTRAL

About three dozen lakes throughout the region open to fishing or shift to catch-and-release on April 1.

The bulk of those fisheries are in the Columbia Basin where WDFW District Fish Biologist Chad Jackson predicts a “fair to good” season, depending as always on weather. All but one are within or adjacent to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge south of Potholes Reservoir, and over half are planted with either spring and/or fall rainbow trout fry.

“Those who traditionally fish the April 1 opener should note that North and South Teal lakes will not be fishable this year because we treated those lakes last fall to remove carp and other spiny rays to restore the trout fishery,” Jackson said.  “We’ll be stocking them with fingerling rainbows later this spring so fishing should be good for next year’s opener.”

There are lots of other fishing spots to try now and the best may be Dry Falls Lake, the only one of the April 1-opening waters not in or near the refuge. It’s located in Sun Lakes State Park, northeast of Park Lake and west of Coulee City in the north end of Grant County.

Jackson says anglers should expect to catch 13- to 14-inch yearling rainbows with carryovers 18 inches or greater on opening day at Dry Falls Lake.  A total of 10,150 rainbow, 756 tiger trout, and 1,026 brown trout fry were stocked there in 2010.

“Just remember that Dry Falls has a selective gear regulation and a one trout daily bag limit,” Jackson said.  As defined in the Sportfishing Rules Pamphlet, selective gear is only unscented artificial flies or lures with one single-point, barbless hook, bait prohibited, and knotless nets.

Other April 1 opening waters in the Columbia Basin include:

* Upper and Lower Hampton lakes, in Grant County north of Othello on the refuge, stocked with 28,507 and 5,047 rainbow trout fry in the spring, respectively; Lower Hampton also received a trout fry plant of 4,500 in the fall. Lower Hampton should produce 12- to 14-inch yearling trout catches, probably an average of about three per angler; Upper Hampton may have larger fish, but the catch rates will probably again be slow.
* Pillar-Widgeon chain of lakes in Grant County on the refuge, stocked with trout fry in the spring as follows: Pillar – 2,500; Gadwall – 750; Snipe – 600; Shoveler – 750; Cattail – 1,500; Poacher – 150; Lemna – 450; Hourglass – 300; Sago – 300; and Widgeon – 1,650.  Access to this lake chain is just southeast of Soda Lake. Try either the entire chain or at least three or four of the lakes to catch some 12- to 13-inch yearlings and carryover trout in the 18-inch or better range.  Shore fishing is available at most, but consider packing in a float tube to increase chances for success. The best tend to be Widgeon, Sago, and Pillar, but all can produce well.
* Hutchinson and Shiner lakes on the refuge in Adams County with excellent largemouth bass and bluegill fishing.  Only non-motorized boats are allowed.
* Coyote, Bobcat, and Hayes creek ponds, located just south of Morgan and Halfmoon lakes, on the refuge in Adams County.  These ponds are relatively small and shallow, warming up quickly for good largemouth bass fishing
* Deadman Lake located just off McManamon Road next to Halfmoon Lake, on the refuge in Adams County, for bass and other warmwater species fishing.

In the north end of the region, in Okanogan County, a few other fisheries open April 1. Bob Jateff, WDFW Okanogan district fish biologist, said Spectacle Lake – nine miles southwest of Tonasket – should be good for rainbow trout in the 10- to 12-inch range. During the month of April, Spectacle will receive up to 800 one- to two-pound triploid rainbows.

Washburn Island Pond, located four miles east of Brewster on the Columbia River, offers largemouth bass and bluegill fishing starting April 1. A Colville tribal license is required if fishing from shore, but not if fishing from a boat. No internal combustion engine boats are allowed, only electric motors.
Jateff notes several Okanogan lakes switch to catch-and-release, selective gear rules, and electric boat motors only on April 1:

* Davis, Cougar, and Campbell lakes, located within the Methow Wildlife Area near Winthrop, with rainbow trout 10 to 12 inches and carryover fish up to 15 inches; small graveled boat launches at all three; could still have some ice during the first part of April.
* Rat Lake, located north of Brewster, with rainbow and brown trout 10 to 12 inches; WDFW access site with concrete boat ramp; should be thawed out by first week in April.
* Big and Little Green lakes, located five miles northwest of Omak, with rainbow trout 10 to 13 inches; WDFW access site on Big Green with concrete boat ramp;  should be thawed out by first week or two in April.

Many more Okanogan County lakes will open April 30 to provide good trout fishing, including:

* Pearrygin Lake, near Winthrop, with rainbows 10 to 12 inches and carryover fish up to 15 inches; up to 500 triploid rainbows (one to two pounds each) will be stocked before the opener; boat launching facilities available at State Park, resort and WDFW access site.
* Conconully Reservoir and Lake, near town of Conconully, with rainbow trout 10 to 12 inches and carryover fish up to 15 inches; boat launching available at State Park and resorts at both lakes.
* Blue Lake, located within the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, with rainbow trout 10 to 16 inches and some brown trout also available; selective gear rules, electric motors only; camping and gravel boat launch sites.
* Big Twin Lake, near Winthrop, with rainbow trout 12 to 16 inches; selective gear rules and electric motors only; resort and WDFW access site with gravel boat launching facilities.
* Chopaka Lake, near Loomis, with rainbow trout 12 to 18 inches; fly fishing only and no boat motors allowed; Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campsites and gravel boat launch.
* Aeneas Lake, near Tonasket, with rainbow trout 12 to 16 inches, brown trout up to 18 inches; fly fishing only and no boat motors allowed; WDFW access site with camping and gravel boat launch.

SOUTH-CENTRAL

This is the time of year that area anglers start thinking seriously about trout, because the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is planting plenty of fish in local waters right now. Thousands of catchable-size trout are scheduled to be planted in Columbia Park Pond, Dalton Lake, Powerline Lake, Quarry Pond, Marmes Lake, and other lakes in April. Many lakes are also being stocked with jumbo trout, weighing over a pound apiece.

“This is a good time to get outdoors and celebrate spring by catching some fish,” said Paul Hoffarth, a fish biologist for the Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). ”Thousands of fish around southcentral Washington are just waiting to be caught.”

A complete trout-planting schedule for southcentral lakes and ponds is available on the WDFW website.

Hoffarth reminds anglers over the age of 14 that a 2011-12 fishing license is required to fish for trout and other species after March 31, when 2010-11 licenses expire. Licenses ranging from a three-day razor-clam license to a multi-species combination license are avaiIable online, by phone (1-866-246-9453) and from sporting goods stores and other retail license dealers around the state.

Most steelhead sport fisheries are now closed in the Columbia and Snake rivers, although a “bank only” fishery adjacent to WDFW’s Ringold Springs Hatchery near the Tri-Cities is open April 1 through April 15. The daily limit is two hatchery steelhead along the Franklin County shoreline from the WDFW marker a quarter-mile downstream from the Ringold irrigation wasteway outlet to the marker a half-mile upstream from Spring Creek.

Meanwhile, spring chinook salmon will be moving into the area in increasing numbers throughout the month of April. On the Columbia River, anglers can keep two adipose-fin-clipped hatchery chinook per day through April 24 from Bonneville Dam upstream to the Washington/Oregon state line, 17 miles upriver from McNary Dam. The lower Yakima River opens to spring chinook fishing May 1.

“Springers usually start arriving in fishable numbers around the middle of April,” Hoffarth said. “Anglers should keep an eye out for emergency rules that open and close fishing on short notice.” For updates, he recommends checking the department’s website, the Fishing Hotline (360-902-2500) and local news media.

Sturgeon anglers are also advised to stay abreast of new regulations. As of late March, anglers could still catch and keep legal-size sturgeon in Lake Umatilla (John Day Dam to McNary Dam), but that fishery will close as soon as the 500-fish quota for those waters is reached.

Rather catch warm-water fish? Catch rates should continue to improve on area rivers for smallmouth bass, channel catfish and walleye in April right through spring.

50K Triploids Set To Be Stocked In WA Lakes

A total of 50,000 triploids will once again be planted in Washington lakes this spring, including nine new ones in Central and Western Washington.

The trout, which average 1 1/2 pounds according to WDFW, will be released mostly in April in the lead-up to opening day, but thousands are also going in in May, including follow-up stockings at a number of Region 4 waters.

All totaled, 108 lakes will be stocked with the voraciously feeding sterile trout.

Here’s the skinny on the fat fighters:

2011 Triploid trout stocking plan
Region	2011 lakes	County	Surface Acres	Current Mgnt.	Season & Special Regs	Number of Fish Stocked		Total
						April Total	May Total
Region 1	Fishtrap Lake	Lincoln	196	Trout	O. D.	1,851	0	1,851
	Diamond Lake	Pend Oreille	754	Mixed	O. D.	703	0	703
	Badger Lake	Spokane	244	Trout	O. D.	666	0	666
	Clear Lake	Spokane	401	Mixed	O. D.	696	0	696
	West Medical Lake	Spokane	235	Trout	O. D.	1,851	0	1,851
	Williams Lake	Spokane	319	Trout	O. D.	1,036	0	1,036
	Deer Lake	Stevens	1163	Mixed	O. D.	2,073	0	2,073
	Loon Lake	Stevens	1119	Mixed	O. D.	1,036	0	1,036
	Bennington Lake	Walla Walla	52	Trout	Y-R	510	0	510
R1 Total	9 lakes					10,423		10,423
Region 2	Roses Lake	Chelan	131	Trout	Y-R	500	0	500
	Beehive	Chelan	60	Trout	O. D.	180	0	180
	Wapato Lake*	Chelan	186	Trout	O.D.	500	0	500
	Jameson Lake*	Douglas	332	Trout	O.D.	800	0	800
	Canal*	Grant	92	Trout	Y-R	0	700	700
	Deep Lake	Grant	107	Trout	O. D.	300	0	300
	Heart*	Grant	26	Trout	Y-R	0	175	175
	Perch*	Grant	15	Trout	O.D.	100	0	100
	Vic Meyers*	Grant	12	Trout	O.D.	100	0	100
	Windmill*	Grant	37	Trout	Y-R	0	270	270
	Spectacle Lake	Okanogan	315	Trout	O.D.	800	0	800
	Pearrygin Lake	Okanogan	192	Trout	O.D.	500	0	500
	Alta Lake	Okanogan	187	Trout	O.D.	588	0	588
	Patterson Lake	Okanogan	143	Trout	Y-R	525	0	525
R2 Total	14 lakes					4,893	1,145	6,038
Region 3	Columbia Park Pond	Benton	7	Mixed	Y-R, YFA	147	0	147
	Dalton Lake	Franklin	60	Mixed	Y-R	344	0	344
	Powerline Lake	Franklin	50	Mixed	Y-R	423	0	423
	N. Fio Rito Lake	Kittitas	39	Mixed	Y-R	740	0	740
	Lost Lake	Kittitas	145	Trout	Y-R	0	1,014	1,014
	Mattoon Lake	Kittitas	27	Mixed	Y-R	521	0	521
	Clear Lake	Yakima	265	Trout	Y-R	1,377	0	1,377
	Dog Lake	Yakima	60	Trout	Y-R	0	427	427
	Leech Lake	Yakima	40	Trout	Y-R, F	0	725	725
	Mud Lake	Yakima	4	Trout	Y-R, S	74	0	74
	Myron Lake	Yakima	13	Mixed	Y-R, S	206	0	206
	Tim’s Pond	Yakima	1	Trout	Y-R	39	0	39
R3 Total	12 Lakes					3,872	2,167	6,039
Region 4	Lone Lake	Island	92	Trout	Y-R, S	0	393	393
	Angle Lake	King	102	Mixed	Y-R	442	147	589
	Beaver Lake	King	63	Mixed	Y-R	245	0	245
	Green Lake	King	255	Mixed	Y-R	442	196	638
	Meridian Lake	King	150	Mixed	Y-R	442	196	638
	Rattlesnake Lake	King	112	Trout	Y-R, C&R	491	0	491
	Sawyer Lake	King	279	Mixed	Y-R	491	196	687
	Egg Lake	San Juan	7	Trout	Y-R	175	0	175
	Hummel Lake	San Juan	36	Trout	Y-R	152	0	152
	Mountain Lake	San Juan	198	Trout	Y-R	0	447	447
	Campbell Lake	Skagit	370	Mixed	Y-R	525	280	805
	Clear Lake	Skagit	223	Mixed	Y-R	702	0	702
	Heart Lake	Skagit	61	Trout	O.D.	1,205	0	1,205
	Lake Erie	Skagit	111	Trout	O.D	1,455	0	1,455
	Pass Lake	Skagit	98	Trout	Y-R, F, C&R	0	162	162
	Vogler Lake	Skagit	4	Trout	O. D. F-C&R	0	59	59
	Cassidy Lake	Snohomish	125	Mixed	Y-R	442	0	442
	Flowing Lake	Snohomish	135	Mixed	Y-R	382	0	382
	Gissburg Ponds	Snohomish	37	Mixed	Y-R	0	393	393
	Howard Lake	Snohomish	27	Trout	O.D.	455	0	455
	Martha Lake (Warm Beach)	Snohomish	58	Mixed	Y-R	275	0	275
	Roesiger Lake	Snohomish	297	Mixed	Y-R	501	0	501
	Silver Lake (Everett)	Snohomish	102	Mixed	Y-R	393	0	393
	Tye Lake	Snohomish	40	Trout	Y-R	196	0	196
	Lake Padden	Whatcom	152	Trout	O.D.	2,517	0	2,517
	Squalicum Lake	Whatcom	33	Mixed	Y-R, F	0	162	162
	Toad Lake	Whatcom	30	Trout	O.D.	835	0	835
	Terrell Lake	Whatcom	438	Mixed	Y-R	569	250	820
R4 Total	28 lakes					13,332	2,882	16,214
Region 5	Battle Ground Lake	Clark	30	Trout	Y-R	256	0	256
	Klineline Pond	Clark	11	Trout	Y-R	256	0	256
	Horseshoe Lake	Cowlitz	80	Mixed	Y-R	608	0	608
	Kress Lake	Cowlitz	30	Mixed	Y-R	352	0	352
	Merill Lake	Cowlitz	344	Trout	Y-R, F, C&R	224	0	224
	Northwestern Reservoir	Klickitat	97	Trout	O. D.	256	0	256
	N. Rowland Lake	Klickitat	40	Trout	O. D.	928	0	928
	Kidney Lake	Skamania	12	Trout	O. D.	224	0	224
	Wahkiakum Co. Ponds	Wahkiakum	6	Trout	Y-R	96	0	96
	Carlisle Lake	Lewis	20	Trout	O. D.	315	0	315
	Fort Borst Park Pond	Lewis	5	Trout	O.D., YF	372	0	372
	Mineral Lake	Lewis	277	Trout	O.D.	687	0	687
	S Lewis Co. Park Pond	Lewis	17	Mixed	Y-R	580	0	580
R5 Total	13 lakes					5,154		5,154
Region 6	Aberdeen Lake	Grays Harbor	64	Trout	O.D.	77	45	122
	Failor Lake	Grays Harbor	65	Trout	O.D.	100	59	159
	Sylvia Lake	Grays Harbor	31	Trout	Y-R	74	45	119
	Vance Creek Pond #1	Grays Harbor	10	Mixed	O.D., YFA	66	0	66
	Gibbs Lake	Jefferson	37	Trout	Y-R, S, C&R	70	0	70
	Teal Lake*	Jefferson	15	Trout	Y-R, S	30	0	30
	Kitsap Lake	Kitsap	238	Mixed	Y-R	493	0	493
	Mission*	Kitsap	88	Trout	O.D.	190	0	190
	Panther Lake	Kitsap	100	Trout	O.D.	220	0	220
	Benson Lake	Mason	82	Trout	O.D.	170	0	170
	Haven Lake	Mason	69	Trout	O.D.	150	0	150
	Island Lake	Mason	108	Trout	Y-R	0	230	230
	Phillips Lake	Mason	110	Trout	O.D.	230	0	230
	Tee Lake	Mason	38	Trout	Y-R	0	0	0
	Wooten Lake	Mason	70	Trout	O.D.	150	0	150
	Trails End (Prickett)	Mason	74	Trout	Y-R	0	160	160
	Tiger	Mason	103	Trout	O.D.	230	0	230
	Bradley Lake	Pierce	13	Mixed	Y-R		100	100
	Clear Lake	Pierce	155	Mixed	O.D.	100	100	200
	Lake Kapowsin	Pierce	512	Mixed	Y-R	90	0	90
	Ohop Lake	Pierce	236	Mixed	O.D.	165	150	315
	Rapjohn Lake	Pierce	56	Mixed	O.D.		100	100
	Silver Lake	Pierce	138	Trout	O.D.		100	100
	Spanaway Lake	Pierce	262	Mixed	Y-R	190	0	190
	Steilacoom Lake	Pierce	313	Mixed	Y-R	100	0	100
	Tanwax Lake	Pierce	173	Mixed	O.D.	200	200	400
	Clear Lake	Thurston	173	Mixed	O.D.	196	147	344
	Lawrence Lake	Thurston	330	Mixed	Y-R	196	147	344
	Long’s Pond	Thurston	10	Mixed	Y-R, YF	147	147	295
	McIntosh Lake	Thurston	116	Mixed	O.D.	196	0	196
	Offutt Lake	Thurston	200	Mixed	Y-R	196	98	295
	Ward Lake	Thurston	68	Mixed	O.D.	196	79	275
R6 Total	32 lakes					4,224	1,908	6,132
Statewide	108 Lakes
C&R = Catch and Release F = Fly Fishing Only O.D. = Opening Day S = Selective Gear Rules YF = Youth Fishing YFA = Youth Fishing (and ADA) * New triploid trout lake

Family Fishing Event At OR’s Cottage Grove Pond

(OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE PRESS RELEASE)

Families interested in angling can find a great fishing opportunity Saturday, April 9 at Cottage Grove Pond in Cottage Grove.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has contracted with Desert Springs Fish Hatchery to release 1,550 rainbow trout into Cottage Grove Pond, including 50 “one pounders” as part of the Family Fishing Event. These fish are in addition to several other trout releases at Cottage Grove Pond in the past month, and some of those fish should still be available. ODFW staff and volunteers will be on hand from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to provide access to fishing equipment and angling instruction.

Under Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations, anglers under the age of 13 can fish for free. A juvenile license is required for anglers 14-17 years of age. Juvenile angling licenses can be purchased for $9 from ODFW field offices and license outlets. All other anglers must have an Oregon adult fishing license.

“This event is for kids, so while the standard fishing regulations will apply, we would like to ask adults to leave the fishing to the young ones for a few hours,” said Erik Moberly, ODFW biologist.

Cottage Grove Pond is located off Row River Road east of Cottage Grove. From I-5, take the Cottage Grove exit (Exit 174). Head east on Row River Road about 1.5 miles. Turn north into the Cottage Grove Ponds parking area near the weigh station

Columbia Springer Update

How murky has the lower Lower Columbia been?

So murky that one springer angler fishing the Cathlamet area last weekend decided to shorten up his 5-foot leader between Fish Flash and herring because otherwise he doubted any fish would even see his bait behind the flasher.

“Visibility sucked,” says Jim Uehara, who is also a manager in the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Inland Fisheries Division.

With all this winter’s rains, the Willamette and Cowlitz have both been mudding up the Columbia.

“I don’t think it was 3 feet, more like 2 1/2,” he says.

Uehara came home with two over two days, but says he had to cover ground and practically hit the fish on the head with his bait.

Indeed, the lower end of the mighty river has seen the best bite in recent days.

According to fresh data from ODFW, anglers fishing below the Wauna powerlines near Cathlamet averaged .60 springers a boat last weekend.

That’s about 50 percent better than fishermen in the Portland-to-Longview stretch, who averaged .39 Chinook a boat.

Those fishing the Troutdale/Camas area only managed .07 salmon a sled.

However, a little birdy tells us they’ve found some springers above Chinook Landing in very shallow water, though getting them to bite has proved to be another thing.

Bankies plunking the estuary also did better than their upstream compadres, averaging .13 springers vs .06 from Portland to Longview.

Here are the raw numbers from ODFW:

Troutdale Boats:

Weekend checking showed six adipose fin-clipped spring chinook kept, plus one unlipped spring chinook released for 102 boats (257 anglers).

Portland to Longview Bank:

Weekend checking showed 11 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook and 14 adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus four unclipped spring chinook and two unclipped steelhead released for 245 bank anglers.

Portland to Longview Boats:

Weekend checking showed 80 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook and one adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus 21 unclipped spring chinook released for 256 boats (726 anglers).

Estuary Bank: (Clatsop Spit to Wauna Powerlines):

Weekend checking showed one adipose fin-clipped spring chinook and two adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus one unclipped steelhead released for eight bank anglers.

Estuary Boats (Tongue Point to Wauna Powerlines):

Weekend checking showed 21 adipose fin-clipped spring chinook and one adipose fin-clipped steelhead kept, plus four unclipped spring chinook released for 42 boats (115 anglers).

Tonight, commercial anglers have a four-hour gillnet fishery between the mouth of the Willamette and the mouth of the Columbia.

The timing doesn’t sit so well with some sport fishing interests.

“To conduct this fishery is a tough time when you have one of the most important recreational fisheries in Oregon and Washington finally starting to do well,” Ed Wickersham of the Coastal Conservation Association told Allen Thomas of The Columbian.

Netters are expected to catch 2,700 springers, 58 percent of which are predicted to be fish headed to tribs above Bonneville Dam.

Sport fishing continues through April 4 below Bonneville Dam. Boat fishing is only allowed below Rooster Rock.

$156K In Elk Grants For WA From RMEF

(ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE)

Elk research at Mt. St. Helens and habitat improvements on four national forests and other public lands in Washington headline a slate of projects selected for 2011 grants from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

The new RMEF grants total $156,380 and affect Asotin, Cowlitz, Columbia, Garfield, Jefferson, Kittitas, Lewis, Pend Oreille, Skamania, and Stevens counties.

“Along with research on elk population densities and forage use at Mt. St. Helens, we’re also funding habitat projects like prescribe burns, forest thinning, weed treatments and guzzler installations. These projects could add well over 25,000 acres to the 391,805 acres that we’ve already helped to conserve or enhance for wildlife in Washington,” said David Allen, RMEF president and CEO.

Nationally, RMEF hopes to impact about 100,000 acres in 2011 to reach the 6 million-acre lifetime mark in lands conserved or enhanced for elk and other wildlife.

Allen thanked RMEF volunteers and fundraiser attendees for building the organization’s grant coffers, saying, “Because of their amazing passion and generous support, a major conservation milestone is within reach.”

RMEF grants will help fund the following 2011 projects, listed by county:

Asotin County: Prescribe burn 1,200 acres to improve forage quality on elk summer range in Umatilla National Forest; enhance grassland habitat by treating new outbreaks of invasive weeds (rush skeletonweed, sulfur cinquefoil, spotted knapweed, etc.) countywide, plus targeted projects to reduce weeds on 938 acres and reseed native grasses along the Grande Ronde River and to treat Mediterranean sage on 300 acres of public land in the heart of Asotin County; continue multi-year project to treat 20,204 acres of weeds in the Blue Mountains Wildlife Area Complex.

Cowlitz County: Begin a two-year research project on forage quality and elk population densities in late-succession forest habitat surrounding Mt. St. Helens (also affects Lewis and Skamania counties); lime, fertilize and reseed native grasses on state lands in the Mt. St. Helens area.

Columbia County: Treat 1,100 acres of yellow starthistle and spotted knapweed to improve habitat for elk and other wildlife in the Jim Creek/North Touchet River area; treat noxious weeds on 1,450 acres in Robinette Mountain area.

Garfield County: Install 1,800-gallon guzzler as a critical wildlife drinking station on Abels Ridge in the W. T. Wooten Wildlife Area.

Jefferson County: Thin 247 acres of dense forest to improve forage in high-use elk areas in Matheny Creek area of Olympic National Forest.

Kittitas County: Redevelop nine springs as critical water sources for elk that winter in the arid Quilomene Wildlife Area.

Lewis County: Enhance elk forage areas by thinning (pre-commercial) forest plantations in the Davis and Greenhorn creek areas of Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Pend Oreille County: Improve elk forage areas by removing encroaching conifers using prescribed fire in Sullivan Creek area of Colville National Forest.

Skamania County: Treat noxious weeds and prescribe burn retired nursery fields to improve forage for elk and deer in the Wind River area of Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Stevens County: Rejuvenate browse vegetation for elk and reduce wildfire fuels by prescribe burning 355 acres in the Cottonwood Creek area of Colville National Forest.

Projects are selected for grants using science-based criteria and a committee of RMEF volunteers and staff along with representatives from partnering agencies and universities.

Partners for 2011 projects in Washington include Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, University of Alberta, other agencies, organizations, corporations and landowners.

Since 1985, RMEF and its partners have completed 449 different conservation and education projects in Washington with a combined value of more than $102 million.