March 7 - 20, 2001

Contact: Virginia Painter, (360) 902-2256

OLYMPIA – Anyone who was out fishing in a boat last Wednesday when the 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit the area was lucky enough to miss the unsettling feeling of earth moving underfoot. But they may have missed out on a good day's catch, too; some Puget Sound anglers reported the salmon stopped biting just about the time of the quake and didn't strike again the rest of the day.

Now the dust has settled, and the fish are biting once more -- in Puget Sound, it's blackmouth, and in the mainstem Columbia River, spring chinook fishing is heating up. In eastside lakes, the trout are beginning to warm up and flirt with fishers' bait; slow ice melt got that season off to a slow start, but things are looking promising.

The Columbia River chinook sport season, open now from the mouth upstream to I-5, switches to a selective fishery Monday (March 12) and expands to include the mouth, upstream to the Bonneville Dam. Beginning Monday, anglers may keep only adipose fin-clipped chinook from the mainstem Columbia, no more than two of which may be adults, and two hatchery steelhead.

Starting today, fishers may dip for smelt in all Washington tributaries of the Columbia River below the Bonneville Dam. The fishery has been expanded to Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays (March 7 through March 31) between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Daily bag limit is 10 pounds per person -- approximately one-quarter of a five-gallon bucket. Meanwhile, the mainstem Columbia is open for sport dipping seven days a week, 24 hours a day, through March 31.

The reason for the expanded season on smelt, according to WDFW fish managers, is that commercial test fishing with small mesh gillnet-type gear on the lower Columbia River and tributary dipnet test fisheries indicated that this year's smelt run may be one of the strongest in years. Fish Biologist Joe Hymer reported that at opening time today, schools of fish were plentiful on the Cowlitz as far upriver as Castle Rock, and it took him just a few dips to get a 10-pound limit.

Smelt is one of the only fisheries in Washington (along with tuna and carp) that does not require a license, however, there are limiting factors to keep in mind. First is the daily bag limit of 10 pounds per day -- approximately one-quarter of a five-gallon bucket. Second is the reminder that access to this fishery is often over private property. Fishers need to obtain permission from property owners before parking on or traversing over private property to get to the fish.

Spring at WDFW means it's time to think about new recreational hunting and fishing licenses. WDFW is making it easier than ever to get them, with the new Washington Interactive Licensing Database (WILD) system that began operating March 1. The WILD system handles purchases of recreational hunting and fishing licenses, transport tags, special permit applications and turkey tickets, in person at license dealers statewide and by telephone at 1-866-246-9453. License purchases over the Internet are scheduled to be available by May 1.

Blue Mountains spring black bear hunting permits and raffle tickets for Washington spring turkey hunting both have a March 18 deadline and will be handled electronically through the WILD system. Hunters may buy bear hunt applications now through dealers or by using the toll-free telephone line 1-866-246-9453. Beginning March 10, the toll-free number 1-877-945-3492 also will be available for submitting hunt information.

For wildlife viewers, the approach of spring means the return of many species of birds to migration stopovers. In the Columbia Basin, thousands of sandhill cranes are back. You'll want to make reservations now for field trips and other events during the fourth annual Sandhill Crane Festival, March 23-25, in the Othello area of Adams County. See the north central Washington report for more details. Songbirds are moving back in southwest Washington, where thousands of geese also are visible in various locations. And Grays Harbor County, a favorite bird-watching place this time of year, is beginning to get shorebirds, cranes, swans, eagles and peregrine falcons. It's also time to start watching the water for gray whales on their way north.

As WDFW employees assessed the damage from the quake last week, attention was turned to what are perhaps the agency's most vulnerable facilities, the hatcheries. They reportedly fared well, thanks to quick-thinking hatchery workers and good backup systems. Hatchery fish depend on a continual flow of clean water, and even though landslides and power outages temporarily threatened water quality in some areas, fish managers said no fish were lost. Tokul Creek and Cedar River hatchery facilities in King County and the McAllister Creek Hatchery in Thurston County had mud slides which were quickly cleared away. The quake caused power outages at Soos Creek and Puyallup hatcheries, but backup power systems were employed to save fish. A small slide temporarily blocked the springs that feed Garrison Springs Hatchery near Steilacoom, but hatchery workers cleared it away quickly.

Here are some region-by-region details on fishing, wildlife viewing and hunting opportunities around Washington:

North Puget Sound:

• Fishing: With the Puget Sound blackmouth season at its midpoint, WDFW's Tony Floor reports fishing is good in the northern Sound and outstanding in some spots such as Anacortes and Possession Bar at the south end of Whidbey Island. Fishing pressure has been light, presumably increasing the chances of success for those anglers who do get out on the water. Triploid rainbow trout averaging 1 ½ pounds each will be stocked in the following King and Snohomish County year-round fishing lakes the week of March 19: Angle (480), Meridian (710), Blackman's (280), and Silver (480).

• Wildlife viewing: With unseasonably warm recent weather and the actual arrival of spring right around the corner, birds are on the move. Bird-watching enthusiasts should note that the National Audubon Society has designated Quartermaster Harbor on Vashon Island as an Important Bird Area. According to the Vashon-Maury Island Audubon Society, the harbor is a major wintering area for western grebes, which feed on Pacific herring that spawn in the harbor's eelgrass beds.

Olympic Peninsula/South Sound:

• Fishing: Two weeks into the winter blackmouth season, fishing has been hot and cold throughout the region. Anglers fishing the "winter hole" near Port Angeles have generally done well, pulling in fish averaging 9 to 10 pounds. Fishing also has been good on the outgoing tide at Protection Island and in the Strait itself, with most keepers running right along the bottom – 90 to 130 feet down. The big disappointment so far this year has been Mid Channel Bank at Port Townsend, where fishing has been described as lackluster. Farther south, blackmouth fishing off Point Defiance near Tacoma has been fair, with most fish running 6 to 8 pounds. Meanwhile, steelhead fishing on north coast rivers sprang to life with a splash of rain the first weekend in March. Ninety-one anglers fishing the Bogachiel/Quillayute system caught 52 wild steelhead and seven hatchery fish, while 47 anglers fishing the Sol Duc River reported catching 28 wild steelhead and two hatchery fish. On the Hoh, 11 anglers reported catching six wild fish and one hatchery steelhead. Clam diggers are already starting to book rooms for the three-day opener tentatively scheduled at all razor-clam beaches April 26, 27 and 29. But they'll need something else too: a 2001 license. All recreational licenses for the new year went on sale March 1 and can now be purchased over the phone (1-866-246-9453) or through the usual dealers. As always, final approval for the clam dig will depend on the results of marine toxin tests conducted several days before clamming is scheduled to begin. Call the Shellfish Hotline at 360-796-3215 or check WDFW's website for razor clam updates. Triploid rainbow trout averaging 1 ½ pounds each, will be stocked in the following year-round fishing lakes the week of March 19: Kitsap, Kitsap County (700); Gibbs, Jefferson County, (100); Offut (400) and St. Clair (600),Thurston County.

• Wildlife viewing: Like the rest of us, most land-based animals were shaken by the Ash Wednesday quake. But now that the tremors have stopped, they've gone right back to business preparing for spring. A drive through Grays Harbor County reveals bald eagles and peregrine falcons nesting in the trees above. A swing around Brady Loop near Montesano offers a view of tight groups of sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans. Damon Point, a mile-long stretch of sand jutting into Grays Harbor near Ocean Shores, is alive with sea ducks and shorebirds – and at least one off-course Snowy Owl. If you happen to visit Damon Point or any other promontories along the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula in the next month, be sure to check the sea for the arching backs of gray whales making their own pilgrimage north. The Earth rocked but the dance of nature goes on.

Southwest Washington:

• Fishing: The moment many have been waiting for: The smelt are running, and starting today sport fishers may dip for them in all Washington tributaries of the Columbia River downstream of Bonneville Dam, instead of just in the Cowlitz. The season is open to sport dipping for smelt in those tributaries on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays March 7 through March 31, between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. each day. The daily bag limit is 10 pounds per person. That's about one-quarter of a five-gallon bucket. "If people don't carry a scale, they should use the measure of 1/4 of a five-gallon bucket to be more certain of the limit," said Joe Hymer, fish biologist. "Last Saturday there were quite a few people who got a little carried away." Smelt have been present in the Cowlitz up to Castle Rock. Smelt have also been spotted recently in the lower Grays River and the mainstem Columbia near County Line Park just west of Longview.The mainstem Columbia is open 7 days/week 24 hours/day through March 31. Smelt are one of the few fish for which a license is not needed in Washington. Spring chinook fishing in the mainstem Columbia has started and should continue to improve, Hymer says. Currently the fishery is open from I-5 downstream to the mouth of the Columbia. Come March 12, it expands upstream all the way to the Bonneville Dam and becomes a selective fishery. That means only adipose fin-clipped salmon may be kept, with a daily bag limit of six fish, only two of which may be adults. Fishers may, in addition, keep two hatchery steelhead, and there's no limit on shad. A reminder: when releasing fish with the adipose fin intact, do not remove them from the water and avoid using a net in order to increase their survival chances. Starting March 15, spring chinook fishery opens in Wind River and Drano Lake, two weeks ahead of schedule because of the large forecasted return. The Klickitat River is expected to open on April 2. Stay tuned. Sturgeon fishers are having success in the Dalles Pool of late, where the average catch has been a fish per rod. Walleye catches in the John Day Pool have been about half a fish per rod average.

• Wildlife viewing: Early spring is an excellent time to watch resident and migrant songbirds that use deciduous habitats, before leaf-out obscures visibility. Some of the more visible and colorful songbirds currently seen on the Cowlitz Wildlife Area include varied thrushes and rufous-sided towhees. Look for these birds at ground level near dense shrub and sapling cover. A survey of Canada geese in the Vancouver lowlands near Shillapoo Wildlife Area yielded about 4,500 cacklers and 200 taverner's geese, but there were thousands more that went uncounted. A spring spectacle to view, to be sure. Meanwhile, another spectacle in the region, this one quite rare: a Vancouver woman who took out her new boat on Silver Lake in Cowlitz County saw what she believed to be a moose standing belly-deep in water and later was able to videotape the moose swimming in the distance. Later, others reported seeing it, too. The nearest known moose population is in Okanogan County in the northern Cascades, and moose also live in northeastern Washington. Wildlife biologists speculate the stranger could be a wide-ranging individual checking out new habitats in Western Washington or may have escaped from captivity, but Northwest Trek Wildlife Park staff indicated all their moose were present and accounted for. Riffe Lake in the Cowlitz Wildlife Area continues to drop, exposing locations usually below water. Law enforcement is continuing enhanced patrols because of visitors not complying with signs restricting vehicle access to protect resources. The public is reminded that restrictions on the Cowlitz Wildlife Area include no use of off-road vehicles (ORVs) which includes operating on-road vehicles as recreational vehicles. No removal of rocks, minerals, petrified wood or artifacts is permitted.

• Hunting: The late goose season comes to an end March 10. This is the goose depredation season done with the participation of local property owners and open to hunters with advanced hunter education certification who sign up for specific hunting parties. Hunter success remains high in Clark, Wahkiakum and Northern Cowlitz Counties, and low in the Woodland bottoms. While the season totals look like they will be lower than in the last two years, they are not dramatically lower. Season totals for the region so far are: 325 hunter-days, 156 Successful hunters (48% success rate), and 323 geese harvested (including 2 duskies).

Eastern Washington:

• Fishing: Rainbow trout fishing at the lakes that opened March 1 should be good since the opener was slowed by waters still being iced up. The Tucannon lakes in the southeast have all been stocked and should provide limits of fat rainbows. Coffeepot Lake in Lincoln County may take longer to thaw, but when it does, it will offer some of the best early season fishing for not only rainbows but also crappie and bass. Meanwhile, year-round Sprague Lake has been yielding catches of crappie and perch through the ice. While you're waiting for spring fishing to warm up, try some "virtual reality" fishing, hunting, and other outdoor activity at the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council's Big Horn Sports and Recreation Show, March 15-18, at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds; WDFW will be going "WILD" there, selling fishing and hunting licenses through the new Washington Interactive Licensing Database.

• Wildlife viewing: Birds are busting out all over with advancing spring. Red-winged blackbirds, robins, and even a few of the earliest bluebirds are making appearances from urban backyards to rural meadows. Northern flickers and other woodpeckers are hammering away on the noisiest telephone poles or snags they can find to let others of their kind know they're around and up to the task of raising a family. Hawks, eagles, owls, and other birds of prey are well into nesting throughout the region, as are ravens, crows, and magpies. Nesting activity is also well underway by Great blue herons at traditional rookeries like the one on the Little Spokane River. Those familiar V-shaped strings of Canada geese are streaking skies across the region as families are setting up housekeeping, making migration feeding and resting stopovers, or moving through to homes further north. Mallards and other ducks are paired up or seen in three-bird-flight, with drakes vying for each hen.

• Hunting: March 18 is the deadline to apply for Blue Mountains spring bear hunting permits (see www.wdfw\.wa\.gov/wlm/game/hunter/blkbear.htm for more details), and to purchase raffle tickets for a couple of special spring turkey hunting permits that allow longer hunting and more birds for harvest (see www.wdfw\.wa\.gov/wlm/game/water/turkey/turkeyraffle.pdf for more details.)

North Central Washington:

• Fishing: Most of the 40-plus lakes in the Columbia Basin that opened to fishing March 1 should start producing good catches of rainbow trout by the middle of this month. The opener was slow due to ice in some places, cold water temperatures and lake water turn-over with recent thaws and re-freezing in others where fish were not actively biting. Opener checks showed very good size fish caught at the Hampton lakes, 14-1/2-inch yearling rainbows and over 17-inch carryover rainbows at Lower Hampton (where anglers averaged just over one fish each) and all 16-22-inch carryovers at Upper Hampton (where anglers averaged 0.2 fish each.) The Caliche lakes gave up 14-inch yearlings and 17-20-inch carryovers, mostly in the springs area of Upper Caliche; anglers averaged less than one fish each, but catch rates should improve dramatically this month. Quincy and Burke lakes were almost completely ice covered and few anglers were checked; rainbows there run 12 inches for yearlings and 15-16 inches for carryovers and should provide excellent angling with the thaw underway. Other Quincy walk-in lakes were mostly ice-free (except for Cup) and Spring lakes were best with a two-fish-per-hour catch rate; yearlings in these waters are running 13 inches, carryovers 16-20 inches. In the Pillar-Widgeon chain of lakes, only Pillar and Shoveler were fished on the opener and it took several hours to catch the 10-inch yearling rainbows there. Martha Lake was dismal on the opener with only one carryover trout checked and no yearlings; if available, catchable-size trout will be stocked next month. Dusty Lake saw few fish caught and appears to be infested with speckled dace; a rehabilitation is planned for this spring. Anglers at Lenice Lake, where selective gear rules and a one-trout catch limit is in place, averaged over five fish per angler, with a catch rate of 1.6 fish per hour. Nearby Nunnally, which also has selective gear and one-trout rules, averaged 1.7 fish per angler with a 0.6 fish per hour catch rate. Both these lakes yielded mostly 14-15-inch rainbows, 15-inch brown trout, and a few 18-20-inch rainbows. Fishing at Lenice and Nunnally should pick up significantly next week. Lake Lenore was mostly ice covered, and no fish were checked on the opener; it usually picks up by late March or early April.

• Wildlife viewing: You'll want to get reservations in now for field trips and other events during the fourth annual Sandhill Crane Festival, March 23-25 in the Othello area of Adams County in the Columbia Basin. In the past, these opportunities to see thousands of sandhill cranes and learn about the area have filled up fast! Friday, March 23, field trips depart at 4 p.m. from the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge office (735 E. Main St., Othello).One crane-viewing bus will depart at 4:30 p.m. and stay until sunset, catching the cranes at their noisiest. The main Festival will be 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. at Othello High School on Saturday, March 24, including 12 presentations such as Spring Migration in the Columbia Basin, Shrub Steppe Flora and Fauna, Othello History within the Drumheller Channeled Scablands, Human and Natural History of the Columbia Basin, and other topics. The keynote speaker at 2 p.m. will be Joe Engler of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Complex on "The Status of Breeding Greater Sandhill Cranes in Washington." Saturday field trips include eight, two-hour crane-viewing bus tours leaving from the high school on the half-hour beginning at 7:30 a.m. (five busses) and at 4 p.m. (three busses). A 2 ½-hour geology field trip leaves at 11 a.m. Jack Nisbet, author of "Singing Grass, Burning Sage, will be the Saturday banquet speaker at 7 p.m. on "Condors, Cranes, and Curlews: Columbia Basin Birds at the time of European Contact." Sunday's field trips offer visitors a chance to explore more of the Columbia Basin, including a 4 a.m. sage grouse tour to Douglas County led by WDFW research biologist Mike Schroeder, a 7 a.m. tour of the Columbia NWR and Potholes area, a 7:30 a.m. tour to the Lower Grand Coulee, an 8 a.m. pilgrimage to the Wahluke Slope in search of the sage sparrow, and a 9 a.m. history tour of the Drumheller Channeled Scablands. One last crane-viewing bus will depart at 10 a.m. Sunday from the high school. More details and registration information are available from the Othello Chamber of Commerce at their website, by e-mail to othello@othello-wa.com or by phone at 1-800-684-2556.

South Central Washington:

• Fishing: WDFW's Naches Hatchery planted jumbo rainbow trout (one pounders) last week into North Fio Rito Lake (700), Sarge Hubbard Pond, which is for juveniles only, (100), and Myron Lake, which has selective gear rules and one-trout catch limit, (400). WDFW fish biologist Eric Anderson reports that fly fishing action for rainbow trout on the upper Yakima River is picking up. Anglers are reminded that it's catch-and-release only above Roza Dam.

• Wildlife viewing: This area's wintering bald eagles are leaving or are already gone to nesting areas further north. But other birds of prey are taking their place for wildlife viewing entertainment. Watch for nesting pairs of Great Horned owls in the middle of large trees, easily seen before buds leaf out, says WDFW habitat biologist Ken Bevis. The owls are among the earliest birds to start reproducing, courting in the dark of January and nesting by February. By now, owls likely have young already hatched out in the nests and the parents are busily feeding them. GHOs eat mostly rodents, but they can take skunks and even housecats -- another good reason to keep your cat indoors! Ken also suggests watching for red-tailed hawks carrying nesting materials into tops of scattered trees out in open country. Sometimes one of a pair will be seen sitting atop old nest platforms, even in trees right above houses.