Mac Huff

Trout and smallmouth bass fishing continue as the primary hunting and fishing activity in northeast Oregon this week.

Bear season opened earlier this month, but hot, dry weather is keeping this season from becoming much of a reality. Archery seasons open a week from Saturday and hunters may be scouting opening-morning hunting areas, but elk hunters won’t be getting too excited until later in September when elk enter their rut.

Armchair fish enthusiasts can find great entertainment this week at the weir on the Imnaha River where spring Chinook are passing upriver in preparation for spawning during the next few weeks.

Active anglers are finding good fishing in all of the local rivers and lakes. It’s difficult to assess where the best fishing is this week, but Wallowa Lake is certainly at the top with abundant trout and more than its share of big fish.

Wallowa Lake is fishing well literally because it received more than its share of fish during the last three weeks. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Bill Knox, in Enterprise, says the department has stocked more than 12,000 trout in Wallowa Lake since late July. In addition to regularly-scheduled plants of trout, Wallowa Lake received additional releases of fish because of surplus fish that couldn’t be used at their intended destinations. The reasons weren’t stated for the surplus, but widespread wild fires could be a reason that trout couldn’t be released at their intended locations.

This week Wallowa Lake received 5,000 legal rainbows and another 1,000 trout that are 12 inches long and larger. The results have been measurable with consistent angling success at the lake for the last few weeks.

In addition to the great rainbow fishing, Gina Barstad at Wallowa Lake Marina notes that kokanee fishing picked up again last week. Attributing the remarkable improvement to last week’s cool weather, she notes that she was catching bluebacks at a 25-foot depth, very shallow for August. The kokanee she caught were at the smaller end of the scale, she says, but she notes that some anglers jigging for these sockeye salmon were catching fish measuring into the teens. She was also incidentally catching 18 and 19 inch rainbows while trolling for kokanee, thanks to the liberal fish-stocking program recently.

Barstat says that Wallowa Lake water temperature dropped to 61 degrees last week, and probably accounted for some of the improvement in fishing, but this week the temperature is climbing back above 70 degrees – great for swimmers and water skiers, but may slow fishing this week.

Wallowa County rivers remain relatively low this week. During the first week of August all of the river flows came up during the few rainy days then, but warm temperatures and dry weather have the river levels dropping again.

Generally, fishing conditions have remained good. The low, clear water makes the fish very wary and the large fish have learned to remain hidden during the day, but early and late in the day can produce some very good fishing opportunities.

Through the middle of the day grasshoppers are a good bet, whether you are imitating them with spinners or flies or using the real thing. In the evenings, when cooler temperatures halt grasshopper activity for the night there are abundant caddis and mayfly hatches to fill in the fare. Somewhat surprisingly, in the evening shadows, trout seem to appear from out of nowhere and often rise four or five feet away, in water that an hour before seemed to lack any fish. The fish remain somewhat wary and quickly recognize the repeated presentation of the same fly, but a change of flies often brings that hesitant trout back for another look.

GAME BIRD REGS ADOPTED

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted 2002 – 03 season game bird regulations last week.

Waterfowl hunters received a liberal 107-day season for ducks. Breeding surveys show canvasback and pintail duck numbers are low, so there is no season for canvasbacks and limited hunting opportunities for pintails for the first 60 days of the season.

Eastern Oregon seasons open Oct. 5, a week earlier than western Oregon seasons.

Hunters should find waterfowl and upland bird regulations at license agents by the end of August.

Some bird seasons of interest and early opening dates include:

Sage Grouse: A Sept. 7-11, 2002, a controlled hunting season was established with 1,250 tags. The Wagontire unit was split into two hunts to better distribute hunters and the total number of tags reduced by 15.

Turkey: A general season was established Oct. 15 – Nov. 30, 2002. The number of available tags was doubled to 2,000. They are sold on a first come, first served basis. A spring controlled hunt was established April 15 – May 31, 2003.

DEER, ELK IMPORTS BANNED

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife last week placed a temporary ban on importing live deer and elk into the state because of an expanding risk of chronic wasting disease (CWD) infecting Oregon herds.

There are implications for hunters, too. The prohibition includes importing hunter-harvested deer and elk, “except for boned meat or processed cuts of meat, hides, and heads that have no part of the spinal column or brain attached,” the news release states.

The temporary ruling is effective immediately and continues for six months, but the Commission plans to implement a permanent rule, following further study and input from other agencies, game ranchers, the agriculture industry and the public.

Last week’s action by the Commission was in response to a petition submitted by a coalition of hunter, conservation, and animal rights organizations called “MADElk Coalition.”

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offers further information about CWD. “CWD is found in free-ranging and captive mule deer, white-tailed deer and elk in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The untreatable disease leads to progressive loss of body condition, behavioral changes, excessive salivation and death. In the later stages, small holes in the brain tissue of affected animals are visible with a microscope, producing a spongy look characteristic of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). Similar TSE diseases exist in domestic sheep (scrapie), cattle (bovine TSE or mad cow disease), and humans (Crueutzfeldt-Jakob disease).”

In a separate news release, ODFW notes that the agent for CWD was not detected in any samples taken during last year’s big game hunting seasons.

ODFW checked samples from 124 deer and elk harvested throughout Oregon during the 2001 hunting season. During five years prior to 2001 ODFW tested 12 animals that showed symptoms of CWD, but all samples tested negative for the agent.

State biologists continue to be concerned and the ODFW report continues, “We can’t say the disease is not here. The results are not statistically significant and we need more samples,’ said Don Whittaker, ODFW wildlife biologist. He noted CWD has been found in wild deer from western Colorado, Wisconsin, and most recently, southern New Mexico, which indicates the potential exists for the disease to cross major rivers and mountain ranges.”

DEER AND ELK MANAGEMENT PLANS

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission heard summaries of three draft management plans for deer and elk herds. The drafts were prepared by committees of ODFW staff members and representatives from the public.

“The mule deer working group identified concerns with habitat degradation, harassment of mule deer, increased archery hunter densities, population data, declining hunter opportunities, illegal harvest, hunter management and ethics, disease, and game farms. The group developed potential strategies to address the concerns,” the report states.

“The elk working group noted that elk populations have largely stabilized in recent years with some local declines or increases. Hunter success has increased in some areas and declined in others. However, calf ratios have declined recently in many areas of eastern Oregon. The elk working group developed potential strategies to address the following concerns: habitat degradation, need for cooperation with land owners, hunter access to private lands, poor age distribution and bull ratios, predation, hunter management, and budget cuts,” the committee reports.

The draft plans and a public meeting schedule are posted to the ODFW Web site at www.dfw.state.or.us .

PETITIONS DENIED FOR WOLF MANAGEMENT

Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commissioners denied two petitions concerning wolf management last week because both petitions failed to meet procedural requirements for Oregon Administrative Rules.

The ODFW report notes, “in a memo to the Commission, Assistant Attorney General Bill Cook provided a detailed analysis of his findings regarding the two petitions. ODFW’s administrative rules require the Commission to adopt survival guidelines only for those species added to the endangered species list after 1995, Cook’s memo said. Wolves were included on the state’s endangered species list in 1987 when the Legislature enacted the statute.”

Two workshops concerning wolf management have been held by ODFW and the next workshop is scheduled for Oct. 9 in Portland.