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Fishing is picking up statewide with advancing spring weather, although anglers will have to wait a bit longer than usual this year for the season’s biggest opener. The statewide lowland lake fishing season always opens on the last Saturday of April, and this year that falls on the last day of the month, April 30. Fish biologists are testing some waters now to check on over-wintering fish growth and condition and are expected to report their findings by mid-month.
A month-long, spring wild turkey hunting season opens April 15 statewide, with a special youth-only (under 16) preview April 9-10 in select units. Again this year about 75 percent of the harvest of these big birds is expected to come from the northeastern corner of the state, spanning game management units 101 through 136 in Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln and Spokane counties. The southeastern units in Whitman, Walla Walla, Columbia and Garfield counties should also produce a good number of birds, as will Klickitat County. The season is for shotgun or archery hunting only and a valid hunting license and turkey tag is required. See the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 2005 Spring Turkey Pamphlet (online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/turkey/ or available at license dealers and WDFW offices) for bag limits and other details. Regional hunting reports below offer more specifics on prospects.
The spring hunt is a reminder to young hunters to register for Hunter Education classes, conducted this spring and summer in preparation for general fall hunting seasons. Hunter Education training is required in Washington for all hunters born after Jan. 1, 1972. Class schedules can be found at 2005 Hunter Education Class Calendar, which can be found at http://wdfw.wa.gov/outreach/hed/ on the WDFW website
or by calling any WDFW office.
Here is a roundup of current recreational opportunities around the state:
Northern Puget Sound:
Fishing: The winter blackmouth fishery is all but history. Marine Area 8-2 remains open through April 10, while the season in Marine Area 9 wraps up April 15. A few anglers are reporting success by fishing spoons with a herring strip just off the bottom. Fish checks from the Everett and Edmonds boat launches during the first week of April indicate about one in four anglers bagged a blackmouth. Try waters off Hat Island, Camano Head, Possession Point or Point No Point. Fluctuating flows have made for frustrating catch-and-release steelhead fishing on rivers that are still open. The north fork of the Stillaguamish River and the Skykomish River are closed to all fishing through May 31 to protect weak steelhead runs. Emergency fishing rule changes can be found at https://fortress.wa.gov/dfw/erules/efishrules/index.jsp on the Internet, or by calling (360) 902-2500. Spring plants of rainbow trout are continuing throughout the region. Snohomish County’s Roesiger Lake, which is open to fishing year-round, has received more than 12,000 catchable-trout plants in the past few weeks. Whidbey Island’s Lone Lake, near the town of Langley, recently received a plant of more than 4,000 quarter-pound rainbow trout – but you can’t take home those recent arrivals just yet. While Lone Lake is open to fishing year-round under selective gear rules (motors are permitted) with a one-fish daily limit, fish must be 18 inches in length to retain. So toss back those quarter-pounders and keep fishing for super-sized trout instead. See http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/plants/weekly/ on the Internet for the latest information on WDFW’s trout-stocking activities. WDFW is teaming with the C.A.S.T. for Kids Foundation and local businesses, organizations and volunteers to provide several fishing opportunities for children ages 5 to 14. A Fishing Kids event is set for April 23 at Green Lake in Seattle. For $5 each, kids fishing these events get to catch and keep a couple of fat rainbow trout, they receive a Fishing Kids t-shirt, and they can keep the rod and reel they're given at the start of the event. Pre-registration is required, and the number of kids per event is limited. Registration for the Green Lake event is available by calling (425) 251-3214. More information on the program, including the schedule of additional Fishing Kids events in the region, is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/youth/fishing_kids.htm on the Internet.
Wildlife viewing: A Baikal teal, a brightly colored, rare out-of-town visitor, has been keeping birders hopping in the Kent Valley. According to a post on the Tweeters birding website, (http://www.scn.org/earth/tweeters/digests/), the teal is still hanging around the Green River Natural Resources Area just north of downtown Kent. Another rare visitor, a Harris’s sparrow, was sighted recently on WDFW’s Skagit Wildlife Area west of Conway. The Harris’s is North America’s largest sparrow and is typically found well east of Washington. The birds’ migration route takes them from wintering grounds in the Great Plains north to the very edge of the boreal forest in the Northwest Territories in northern Canada. The same sharp-eyed birders who reported the Harris’s sparrow also spotted a pair of western bluebirds a few miles south of Lake McMurray on Highway 9. As their name implies, mountain bluebirds are typically spotted in Washington’s alpine terrain, including the Cascades, Selkirks, and, yes, the Blue Mountains. They are considered a rare visitor to western Washington lowlands. Gray whales can be seen occasionally in waters along Whidbey Islands’ eastern shoreline. The big mammals are slowly migrating north from winter calving waters in the Sea of Cortez to summer feeding grounds off Alaska.
South Sound/Olympic Peninsula Fishing: For thousands of anglers, “fishing season” gets under way with opening day of the lowland lakes trout fishery, set for April 30 this year. To prepare for that event, WDFW hatchery crews are planting thousands of legal-size rainbows, triploids and two-year old fish in lakes throughout the region. But a number of year-round lakes will be stocked and ready to fish well before the end of the month. Cady Lake in Mason County, for example, was stocked with 300 cutthroat in late March, while Black Lake in Thurston County will get 7,500 legal-size rainbows in mid-April. At Long’s Pond, a juvenile fishing lake in Thurston County, hatchery crews will plant 2,000 catchables, along with 200 two-year-old fish, each measuring 16-18 inches, in preparation for “spring break,” which begins April 11 for most area schools. Additional fish will be planted for a kids’ fishing event there April 23. (Call the Lacey Parks Dept. at 360-491-0857 for more information.) For the latest information on trout plants, see on the WDFW website. Rather dig razor clams? Four Washington razor-clam beaches – Long Beach, Mocrocks, Copalis and Twin Harbors – will open for digging on morning tides April 9, 10 and 11. Digging will be restricted to the hours between midnight and noon each day. Low tides those days are as follows: April 9 (Saturday), 7:37 a.m., -0.6 feet; April 10 (Sunday): 8:20 a.m., -0.8 feet; and April 11 (Monday): 9:01 a.m., -0.7 feet. WDFW confirmed plans to proceed with the scheduled three-day dig after marine toxin tests showed that the clams on four beaches are safe to eat. That was not the case for Kalaloch Beach, which will remain closed to digging due to elevated levels of domoic acid. Kalaloch could, however, open for the next round of digs – tentatively scheduled April 23, 24 and 25 on morning tides – if the results of future toxin tests prove favorable. Meanwhile, anglers continue to pull in two-fish limits of lingcod (minimum size 24 inches) in marine areas 1-3 off the Washington coast. Many also take their daily limit of 10 rockfish, excluding yelloweye and canary rockfish which must be released unharmed. Others, though, are waiting until April 16, when Marine Area 4 opens for lingcod. “The waters off Neah Bay are historically the best spot to catch lings,” said Greg Bargmann, WDFW marine fish manager. “If the weather cooperates, we should see some excellent fishing there again this year.” To catch them, Bargmann recommends fishing around rocky shelves and kelp beds, with steep changes in depth. “You can find lingcod fairly close to shore, provided you can find an area with rocky outcroppings and heavy tidal action,” he said. Anglers still looking for blackmouth are running out of time. Several areas still open to fishing close April 10, although Marine Area 13 will remain open through April 30. Catches are spotty in most areas, although anglers are still catching some nice fish in Hood Canal, said Chuck Johnson, WDFW Puget Sound recreational fishing enhancement coordinator. Time is also running out for steelhead fishing on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula. The Hoh River, rendered “unfishable” by heavy rains as of April 5, closes to steelhead fishing April 15. Sections of the Sol Duc, Calawah, Bogachiel, Dickey and Quillayute rivers still open to fishing will close April 30. “Most of the action lately has been focused on the Sol Duc River for steelhead and spring chinook,” said Randy Cooper, WDFW fish biologist. “But the forecast calls for more rain through tomorrow (April 6), which could put all the rivers out of shape for fishing.” Anglers planning to fish the north coast rivers should check stream flows () and current fishing rules () before heading out.
Wildlife viewing: Spring has sprung at the Port of Olympia. For the third straight year, a pair of peregrine falcons is nesting in one of the two tall cranes that loom over the port docks. No chicks were produced the first year, because the falcons’ eggs were addled when a beam on one of the cranes was moved during maintenance. Last year, with the port’s approval, WDFW wildlife biologist Kelly McAllister installed a nest box 175 feet up on the southernmost crane. The birds used it, producing one chick. In recent days, the female falcon has been spotted on the front lip of the nest box. “She’s associating with the box and may be close to laying eggs,” McAllister told a reporter for The Olympian. Last year’s chick was hatched the first week of May, so it appears Olympia’s falcons are right on schedule. Meanwhile, a drama of a different kind is playing itself out in Hood Canal. Camille Speck, a WDFW biologist at the Point Whitney Shellfish Lab, spotted a gray whale about 50 feet offshore on April 4. That has sparked some debate about what might happen if the gray whale encountered the six transient killer whales that have been dining on harbor seals in the canal for the past 10 weeks. Although transients have been known to attack gray whales at sea, Robin Baird at the Cascadia Research Center in Olympia doesn’t think this particular whale is at much risk. “With fairly large numbers of harbor seals in Hood Canal, it seems unlikely they’ll go after a gray whale,” she told the Sun newspaper in Bremerton. Farther west, Lake Quinault’s Community Action Forum and WDFW are teaming up to produce the first Quinault Rain Forest Roosevelt Elk Festival, set for April 9 and 10. The festival will include a Saturday morning breakfast at the Lake Quinault Lodge, guided tours highlighting Roosevelt elk in the Quinault Rain Forest and a buffet dinner at the lodge. Speakers will give lectures on big-game habitat, conservation and management. For more information, see and click on “ Festivals.”
Southwest Washington:
Fishing: Spring chinook salmon fishing continues to be slow in the lower Columbia River, but some anglers nevertheless have found their fish, reports Pat Frazier, WDFW’s deputy regional fisheries manager. The best stretch of the river appears to be from the Interstate 205 bridge to Bonneville Dam, where checks indicate good fishing during the first weekend of April, with 98 boat anglers keeping 23 hatchery chinook and 108 bank anglers keeping five hatchery salmon. Below Longview, the fishing is slowed by muddy water conditions, although catches are expected to improve once the water clears. Between Longview and the Interstate 205 bridge, 84 bank anglers kept seven hatchery chinook and 481 boat anglers found slower going with 25 kept hatchery fish. Sturgeon fishing is slow as well, with the river above the Interstate 205 bridge offering up the only recent catches. During the week of March 28, 16 boat anglers kept five legal-size sturgeon there, Frazier said. Sturgeon fishing effort has been slowing as more anglers set their sights on chinook, he noted. Up in the pools, sturgeon prospects were somewhat better during the week of March 28. In Bonneville Pool, 82 bank anglers interviewed kept one sturgeon and 11 boat anglers also kept one sturgeon. In The Dalles Pool, five boat anglers kept one legal-size sturgeon, while in John Day Pool 63 bank anglers kept one legal-size fish and 44 boat anglers kept three sturgeon. Walleye fishers are doing well in the pools, with 30 boat fishers recently finding 40 keepers and releasing one in The Dalles Pool, and 68 boat anglers keeping 16 walleye and releasing 12 in John Day Pool. Bass fishing is improving in all three pools, as well. On the tributaries, winter hatchery steelhead fishing has been rewarding in spots as rains and higher water flows draw in fish. Near Barrier Dam on the Cowlitz River, 13 bank anglers recently were checked with one kept fish, and five boat anglers kept two fish. On the Kalama River, 93 wild winter steelhead and 22 hatchery fish were counted returning to the Kalama Falls Hatchery from March 24 through the end of the month. Spring chinook salmon are also beginning to appear in lower Columbia tributaries, with 54 bank anglers keeping one hatchery chinook and three hatchery steelhead and 10 boat anglers keeping four hatchery chinook and one hatchery steelhead in the Lewis River. To date, a total of 58 spring chinook-- 57 wild fish and one hatchery fish-- have returned to Cowlitz Hatchery, which Frazier says is the largest total through this date since at least 1986. Trout stocking is shifting into high gear in anticipation of the official lowland lake opener April 30. See http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/plants/weekly/ on the Internet for the latest information on WDFW’s trout-stocking activities.
Wildlife viewing: Birders recently spotted a loggerhead shrike as it hunted over fields near Vancouver Lake, according to a report filed on the Tweeters website, at http://www.scn.org/earth/tweeters/digests/ on the Internet. Shrikes are predatory songbirds, hunting insects, rodents, small lizards and even small birds. Since they lack the foot strength to hold down larger prey, shrikes will impale their prey on a thorn, barbed wire fence or small branch while they feed. They winter in the southern U.S. and typically arrive in Washington in mid-March. A palm warbler was spotted in brush in the vicinity of the shrike. Despite their tropical-sounding name, palm warblers breed in northern Canada and winter in the southeastern U.S. Reports are trickling in of rufous hummingbirds frequenting backyard nectar feeders. The rufous is North America’s most-widely distributed hummingbird and is a common springtime sight across the region. They can be attracted to backyards with a plantings such as salmonberry, honeysuckle, foxglove and azalea, or with a feeder filled with a simple nectar of four parts water to one part sugar. Be sure to bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to cool to room temperature before filling the feeder. Leftover nectar can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week.
Hunting: Spring turkey hunting gets under way April 15, and Klickitat County is expected to offer up its share of the big birds. Visitors to the Klickitat Wildlife Area are advised to watch for recently-posted signs limiting areas in which camping is permitted. The restrictions are aimed at reducing the disturbance to wildlife from campsites. The month-long season is for shotgun or archery hunting only and a valid hunting license and turkey tag is required. See the WDFW 2005 Spring Turkey Pamphlet (online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/turkey/ or available at license dealers and WDFW offices) for bag limits and other details.
Eastern Washington:
Fishing: Fishing is stepping up at year-round and early-opening waters throughout the region – a good warm-up for anglers counting the days until the biggest season opener of the year on April 30. The Spokane arm of Lake Roosevelt is ripe with walleye now. Newcomers to walleye fishing might want to take in WDFW Fish Biologist Marc Divens’ talk on the subject at the annual “Fish Fest” on Saturday, April 9, at White’s Outdoors, 4002 E. Ferry Ave., in Spokane. Fish Fest offers 20 free seminars by local experts on fishing techniques. This month should see the start of northern pike hits at Long Lake, the Spokane River reservoir. Yellow perch and crappie are being caught in the shallows Bonnie and Silver lakes in Spokane County. Rock Lake in Whitman County and Crab Creek in Lincoln County are producing brown trout. Lincoln County’s Coffeepot Lake is yielding nice sized rainbow trout. The catch-and-release rainbow and cutthroat trout fishing at Spokane County’s Amber Lake continues to be outstanding and will shift April 30 to a catch-and-keep limit of two trout over 14-inches. WDFW Fish Biologist Joe Bumgarner of Dayton reports that most Snake River drainage streams have dropped back down after recent rains and are “in great color and fishing appears to be pretty good.” His latest creel check tallied less than three hours per steelhead caught on the Lower Grand Ronde River, from Bogans Oasis to state line. Touchet River steelheaders averaged a little over four hours of effort per fish caught. The mainstem Snake River, from Ice Harbor to Lower Monumental dams, showed 5-1/2 hours of fishing per steelhead caught. From Little Goose Dam to Lower Granite Dam, Snake River steelheaders averaged a little over 11 hours per fish.
Hunting: This region offers the most wild turkey spring hunting in the state. About 84 percent of all spring turkey harvest in Washington occurs in the northeast game management units spanning Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Spokane and Lincoln counties, and in the southeast units across Whitman, Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties. Rio Grande subspecies occupy the southeast and Lincoln County areas, and Merriam’s subspecies are available in the northeast units. Turkey populations throughout the region continue to expand, from the foothills of the Blue Mountains to the farmland in Stevens and Ferry counties, even in suburban Spokane County. More high harvests are expected during the special youth-only hunt April 9-10 and the April 15 through May 15 general season. In fact, there may be too much a good thing. WDFW Regional Wildlife Program Manager Kevin Robinette explained that in the north half of the region, some hunting areas are becoming so popular that hunter crowding and safety are becoming a concern. He reminds turkey hunters to play by the rules, and review the tips for safe and ethical turkey hunting found in WDFW’s Spring Turkey Pamphlet (online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/turkey/ or available at license dealers and WDFW offices). Obtaining advance permission to access private property is especially important, as turkeys are often found on or in close proximity to agricultural lands. Ponderosa pine nuts are a staple of a wild turkey’s winter diet, but the grain is an easy supplement, especially as the birds spread out. The spring hunt is for gobblers or turkeys with visible beards only. The region’s wildlife biologists report they have been hearing a lot more gobbling as they go about field work. Lincoln County’s Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area Manager Juli Anderson reports that turkeys are on the move there. “They don't like the open shrub-steppe habitat much,” she said, “but we do see them traveling through here occasionally.” Anderson noted that a big tom turkey and two hens wandered into a grove of trees behind the headquarters building one recent morning. “The tom was very compliant in putting on a great show of displaying his tail feathers for the hens and for us,” she said.
Wildlife Viewing: If you haven’t already, it’s time to take a walk in the woods to enjoy spring wildflowers and newly emerged or arrived wildlife. That’s the word from the region’s wildlife biologists who have recently noted various species popping up as they go about their field work. Spring beauties, buttercups, glacier lilies, phlox, and other tiny, colorful wildflowers are blooming now throughout the region. Pine squirrels, thirteen-lined ground squirrels and yellow-belly marmots are up and at it, some after being holed up in winter dens. Wild turkey toms and rooster pheasants are displaying and sounding as breeding season advances. Eagles, hawks, owls, ravens, crows and magpies are all tending nests. Great blue herons are also incubating eggs now, visible mostly by watching traditional nesting areas carefully. WDFW Spokane Regional Office Manager Lois Blanchette reports incoming calls on bothersome northern flickers and other woodpeckers, now hammering out territorial signals on everything from wood-sided houses to aluminum gates. “I have my very own personal flicker who rattles me awake every morning by thumping on a vacant bird house,” she said. “It makes a wonderful resonant echo throughout the neighborhood.”
North Central Washington:
Fishing: WDFW District Fish Biologist Bob Jateff of Omak reports good fishing this month at several waterways in Okanogan County. Spectacle Lake, nine miles northwest of Tonasket, opened last month and continues to be stocked by WDFW hatchery crews. “This month Spectacle is getting 1,500 triploid rainbow trout—the one-and-a-half-pounders, plus at least 20,000 catchable- size rainbows, eight to nine inches,” he said. Fishing should be good for these as well as the lake’s winter-carryover rainbows that run up to 13 inches.” Jateff also noted that Davis Lake, southeast of Winthrop, which opened April 1 for catch-and-release fishing with selective gear rules, has plenty of trout in the 11- to 12-inch range. Palmer Lake, about four miles north of Loomis, has been open year-round but Jateff says April is a good month to try for 10- to 13-inch kokanee there. Washburn Island Pond, a diked former river channel near Fort Okanogan State Park, opened April 1 and is producing largemouth bass. Rufus Woods Lake, the year-round Columbia River reservoir on the Okanogan-Douglas county line, is a good bet now for triploid rainbows and some larger, 2- to 3-pound kokanee. Jateff reminds anglers to check for tribal restrictions if fishing from certain bank areas on Rufus Woods or Washburn Island. The seventh annual Rock Island kids fishing day is Saturday, April 9, from 9 a.m. to noon, when anglers 14 years and younger can fish rainbow-trout-stocked Juvenile (Pit) Pond. The Ephrata Lions Club annual kids fishing derby is Saturday, April 16, starting at 6 a.m. at the pond at Oasis Park just outside Ephrata.
Hunting: The Spring wild turkey hunting season that opens April 15 and runs through May 15 should bring some action in Okanogan and Chelan counties where the Merriam’s subspecies occurs. Populations of the big birds are thought to be expanding, thanks to relatively mild winters in recent years. Turkeys are colonizing tributary streams of the lower Methow River. Chelan County turkeys have been boosted with releases in the last several years. Only one bird of each hunter’s two-turkey limit in the three eastside regions can be taken in Chelan County. The season is for shotgun or archery hunting only and a valid hunting license and turkey tag is required. See WDFW’s Spring Turkey Pamphlet (online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/turkey/ or available at license dealers and WDFW offices) for other details.
Wildlife Viewing: Sandhill cranes might still be seen in groups throughout the Columbia Basin for into mid April, but more and more are heading north to breeding grounds. Birdwatchers trying to catch their last glimpses of the big birds will be rewarded with many other species as well. Brewer’s, red-winged, yellow-headed and maybe even tri-colored blackbirds can be spotted throughout the Basin’s wetlands and farmlands. Long-billed curlews have been seen from Royal Slope north. Mourning doves might be spotted at backyard feeders, but most are sitting tight on their first nests of the year. Yellow-bellied marmots are running around rocky slopes. Porcupines, beaver and muskrats are moving out of natal nests and looking for new territory to pioneer, although their activity is more likely encountered at night.
South Central Washington:
Fishing: This region’s many year-round fishing waters are being stocked by WDFW hatchery crews with rainbow trout of various sizes – “catchables” running eight to ten inches, “jumbos” running up to a pound each, and some “triploids” that go in as one-and-a-half-pounders and keep growing to trophy size.
Yakima, Myron and Rotary lakes keep producing catch limits, including some 2-to 3-pound triploid trout. This month Yakima County’s I-82 ponds #4 and #6 were stocked with 4,000 catchables. Mud Lake got 250 more catchables and 300 jumbos, and Tims Pond received 400 catchables and 200 jumbos. Two juvenile-only waters in Yakima County– Sarge Hubbard Pond and Yakima Sportsmen’s Pond– were each stocked with another 400-450 catchables. .All regional lakes that have been stocked are listed on the WDFW website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/reg/region3.htm; look for the "South Central Washington 2005 Catchable Trout Plants".
Hunting: Most of the south central region is marginal wild turkey habitat, but parts of Kittitas and Yakima counties host enough of the big birds to draw hunters during the April 15 – May 15 spring season. Although Rio Grande sub-species turkeys have been released here in the past, most thriving turkey populations seem to be of the Merriam’s sub-species. Only one of each hunter’s two-turkey limit in the three eastside regions can be taken in Kittitas and Yakima counties. The season is for shotgun or archery hunting only and a valid hunting license and turkey tag is required. See WDFW’s 2005 Spring Turkey Pamphlet (online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/water/turkey/ or available at license dealers and WDFW offices) for bag limits and other details.
Wildlife Viewing: Yakima-area birdwatchers are reporting lots of newly arrived species at their backyard feeders. White-crowned sparrows, Brewer's blackbirds and brown creepers have been noted by many. A white-headed woodpecker has become a regular at a backyard suet feeder in the Nile Valley area. Local birders say they know of four pairs of these striking woodpeckers along Clover Springs Road up to the old Nile Valley burn area. Beyond backyards, other birders recently reported a true sign of spring—groups of up to 30 American white pelicans along the Yakima River near Prosser.
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