Sports

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Pick of the Week: Oak Creek Wildlife Viewing You can see elk and bighorn sheep up close and personal at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Oak Creek Wildlife Area west of Yakima, as the agency feeds the elegant animals to help them through the winter months. Area manager John McGowan said elk are fed at 1:30 p.m. daily at the headquarters complex, six miles west of Naches on Highway 12. Bighorns are fed mid-morning at the Cleman Mountain unit of the wildlife area, just northeast of the Highway 410 and Highway 12 junction, about a half-mile up the Old Naches Road. Washington Environmental Corps volunteers staff a visitor center at area headquarters, and can be reached for information at 509-698-5106. The visitor center offers exhibits and tips on where best to see and photograph the animals. Wayne Kruse   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, January 3, 2008 Conditions not yet ideal for ice fishing By Wayne Kruse Herald columnist Ice fishing in Washington is an iffy business most winters, and because temperatures don't reach the extremes commonly found in the upper Midwest, anglers wanting to jig a few perch or trout must be very, very careful before walking out on what looks like solid ice. "I wouldn't be out there myself, even though a few of the locals are trying it," said Mike Meseberg, owner of MarDon Resort on Grant County's Potholes Reservoir. "Get a couple of nights in the teens, and two or three inches of snow over that, and you have a recipe for disaster." The big reservoir, a popular ice fishing spot during those winters when safe ice develops, was not ready to support a crowd earlier this week, Meseberg said, even though ice on at least portions of the lake looked solid. The Lind Coulee arm, which enters the reservoir on the east side, is normally the first safe ice fishing area to develop, he said. "If we get enough ice on Lind Coulee this winter, fishing can be good," he said. "Perch populations are building back up toward what we had in 'the good old days,' and walleye fishing with blade baits can be excellent at times. When I had to provide the perch for a couple of family fish fries last year, that's where I went." Anglers interested in the latest ice conditions can call the resort from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1-800-416-2736. Meanwhile, pheasant and waterfowl hunting remains a big draw in the basin. "The late pheasant season -- it ends the middle of the month -- is looking really good," Meseberg said. "Ethanol-driven corn production is 72 percent this year above historic levels, which means there was a lot of standing corn during the first part of the season, a lot of habitat for birds to hide in, and thus tough hunting and pheasants not harvested. Now that the grain is coming down, there's a good population left over and some pretty decent hunting available." Corn also has provided the feed necessary to keep northern ducks and geese from pushing south, Meseberg said, making for one of the best waterfowl hunting seasons in years. Hunting remains legal through the last Sunday of the month, and Meseberg said field shooting -- because of all the corn -- has been good for those willing to scout out the fields being used and to obtain permission. Public hunting is available along Winchester and Frenchman Hills wasteways, which, because the birds are moving, and open, can provide good jumpshooting at times. Up in the Methow Valley, the state has opened Patterson Lake to winter fishing in the hopes of interesting a few frostbite anglers in catching some of the burgeoning population of yellow perch. Patterson has never been a top trout lake, but it's managed as such and the perch are taking space and food the department would rather have going to the lake's rainbow and brook trout. Patterson lies seven miles southwest of Winthrop on the Methow Wildlife Area, via Twin Lakes Road and Patterson Lake Road out of Winthrop. Rat Lake, near Brewster, will put out good fishing for 10- to 12-inch rainbows this winter, and both Davis and Little Twin, near Winthrop, should also be good when safe ice develops. Open-water fishing for big triploid rainbows on Rufus Woods Lake remains strong, but dropping temperatures have forced the fish a little deeper. Anton Jones (ANTONJ@aol.com) said float/jig rigs are now being set at about 10 feet by shore anglers fishing from Corps of Engineers access sites above Chief Joseph Dam. Tip the jig with a maggot, worm or a small piece of rainbow Power Bait, he said. Boaters troll Woolly bugger-type flies or small Rapala plugs. As the fish drop deeper, snap weights or downriggers become effective. Most of the trips, Jones said, are running 2 to 5 pounds, with the occasional real heavyweight coming to the net. There are also fair numbers of Spokane-strain rainbows being taken, most in the 15- or 16-inch range. Boater certification: The state's new Boater Education Certification program kicked in Jan. 1, requiring the $10 proof-of-course-completion card to be carried by operators of all boats using a motor of 15 horsepower or more. The program is being phased in by age of operator -- from this year to 2014 -- and the only age group required to carry the card in 2008 is 12 to 20 years. The age requirement jumps in multiples of five years, each year thereafter (25 years and under in 2009, etc.). Those born before Jan. 1, 1955 are exempt from the requirement. The program is being run by the state Parks and Recreation Commission. The card is similar to a driver's license, in that you must carry it with you at all times while piloting a qualifying motor boat, and that includes jet skis and other personal watercraft. For more information, go to www.parks.wa.gov/boating, or call 360-902-8844. Crabbing done for the year: All areas of Puget Sound that were still open to recreational crabbing closed Wednesday, and crabbers have only until Jan. 15 to turn in their winter-season catch reports (crab caught or fished for from Sept. 4 to Jan. 2), even if they didn't catch anything. Either mail your record card to WDFW CRC Unit, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, Wash., 98501-1091, or file online at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov/. Sport crabbers who report by the Jan. 15 deadline will be entered in a drawing for one of 10 free 2008 combination fishing licenses. Although catch rates appeared to be down somewhat this year, state shellfish policy lead Rich Childers said he expects the recreational harvest quota of 1.2 million pounds to be met. About 66,000 crabbers complied with the summer-season reporting requirement, Childers said, out of a total population of 210,000 recreationists licensed. Blackmouth: It's not hot fishing, certainly, but parts of Marine Area 8-2 continue to put out pretty decent blackmouth when weather conditions permit. The Langley shoreline, Elger Bay, Columbia Beach, and a few other spots have all produced the past few days, as water starts to clear from early-December floods. State checks at the Port of Everett ramp on Saturday showed 13 anglers in eight boats, with nine chinook. Steelhead: The best fishing in this general area has been on the upper Skagit and Cascade rivers, and reports indicate that experienced fishermen are banging metalheads at a pretty good clip. Work a float/jig combo on the lower Cascade for fish returning to the Marblemount Hatchery, or try float and eggs. Bob Ferber at Holiday Sports in Burlington said the shop weighed a 16-pound hatchery steelhead recently from the Cascade. Boaters on the upper Skagit have been reporting multiple hookup trips, freedrifting Corky/bait, Steelhead Rags, and other such gear. Waterfowl: Rone Brewer, president of the Northwest Chapter of the Washington Waterfowl Association, said snow goose success in some of the Fir Island quality hunt units has been good, that duck hunting in fields near the Skagit Wildlife Area headquarters has been decent, and that both ducks and geese have started using tilled fields on the delta. Gun Merger: The Outdoor Wire reported Dec. 26 that Remington Arms of Madison, N.C., has acquired another of the country's longest-operating firearms companies: Marlin Firearms of North Haven, Conn. With that acquisition, Remington takes over Marlin models 39 and 336, originally introduced as models 1891 and 1893, and now among the oldest shoulder arm designs in the world. The acquisition also adds H&R 1871, Inc., the Gardner, Mass.-based maker of single-shot rifles and L.C. Smith shotguns to the Remington line. The single-shots, marketed as Harrington & Richardson and New England Firearms, helped make H&R the largest manufacturer of single-shot rifles and shotguns in the world. That company was acquired by Marlin in 2000.

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