Sports

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   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, October 15, 2009 Outdoor Outlook: Duck and deer prospects a mixed bag So you’re hunkered down in the marsh grass, early on a cold, foggy morning, hidden behind a couple of old piling somewhere on Skagit Bay. Your yellow Lab, Babe, sits at your side, looking fine in her new camo vest, shivering with excitement. Suddenly the dog’s head snaps to the left and her ears cock. She knows. There are birds coming. It’s too dark and there’s too much fog to see them yet, but from overhead comes the electrifying whick, whick, whick, whick of duck wings, moving fast through the mist, moving off the bay. Too fast for big ducks, you think; probably teal. Babe whines and her front feet dance in the frosty grass. You feel like dancing, too, although you would never admit that to anyone. It’s the first hunt of the new season, when everything is possible and the ages-old saga unfolds afresh. It’s the best of times. And if that’s how you feel about autumn and the smell of gun smoke in the marsh, or in westside blacktail cover or eastside sagebrush, this weekend is your time of year. Saturday marks the opening of the state’s two most popular hunting seasons — waterfowl and modern firearm deer — and, as usual, the prospects are mixed: Waterfowl: Generally speaking, duck and goose hunters are looking at a better season than are deer hunters. The numbers of snow geese coming down from the Russian side of the Bering Strait, for instance, could set some kind of modern record, according to biologist Mike Davison. Snow populations are expected to reach 110,000 to 125,000 birds in the Skagit/Fraser wintering areas and — more important to hunting success than total numbers — the ratio of “dumb” juvenile birds is expected to exceed 40-plus percent. While there are a few snows in the area right now, the majority of the flight won’t arrive until late October and early November. The popular and very successful, limited access. snow goose “Quality Hunt” is on tap again this year, on Fir Island and in the Stanwood area, but some changes have been made. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife waterfowl manager Don Kraege, in Olympia, said that drawings for specific, reserved, hunting areas will be for Saturdays only this year and that they’ve already been drawn. These slots are open the other days of the week to the general public, first-come, first-served, on the days other than Saturday when the Quality Hunt is open — on Fir Island Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and in the Stanwood area seven days a week. Written authorization is required, however, to legally hunt snows on the quality hunt areas, or anywhere else in the three-county Goose Area 1. It was automatically granted to those who entered for the Saturday drawings but, if you need one, there is a provision for submitting information and printing out the authorization on the quality hunt Web site. Go to www.wdfw.wa.gov, then to hunting, then to game species, then to waterfowl, then to special hunts and permits. The hunt coordinator is state employee Brandon Roozen, working out of La Conner. E-mail him for more information at snowgoosehunt@dfw.wa.gov, and/or visit the above Web site, or call the state Region 4 office in Mill Creek at 425-775-1311. There are special situations surrounding the quality snow goose hunt which require a little research in advance. Skagit, Padilla and Samish Bays are expected to over-winter somewhat above-average numbers of ducks this year, and hunting should be good. Weather is the critical factor, however and, since this is predicted to be a warmer, drier winter, quality duck hunting may not occur until into December. Local duck production in the Columbia Basin is down about 25 percent this year, which will affect early-season opportunity. Migration numbers from Canada, a little later in the season, should be similar to last year. Basin goose numbers are high and stable, with hunting picking up in November when birds begin to scatter from staging areas at Stratford Lake, Moses Lake and the Columbia River. Investigate the department’s Corn Stubble Retention Program, designed to provide public field hunting opportunity, by calling the Ephrata office at 509-754-4624. The program operates primarily in the Quincy area and north of the Tri-Cities. Deer: Prospects for rifle deer hunters are a mixed bag, with northeast Washington whitetail suffering losses from two bad winters in a row, but mule deer on the eastslope Cascades escaping relatively unscathed. Because of whitetail winter mortality, the state has cut back on northeast doe hunts, and harvest in general will be down. State deer and elk section manager Jerry Nelson in Olympia said consistent whitetail producers would include GMUs 121 and 117 in Stevens County, and GMU 124 in Spokane County. Populations of mule deer in Okanogan and Chelan counties are doing well, Nelson said. Weather last season didn’t trigger muley migration early enough to provide good hunting, he said, but the upside is that good percentages of bucks survived to provide opportunity this year. In our own backyard, blacktail numbers (and harvest) have been slowly improving the past two or three years, Nelson said. They’re not great yet, but starting to rebound from hair-slip problems, possibly. No significant winter mortality has occurred with blacktail in southwest Washington and on the Olympic Peninsula for the past couple of years, so deer populations are stable. Better hunting in the southwest is almost always in GMUs along the Columbia River Gorge, from Goldendale to Vancouver, plus the Winston, Ryderwood and Coweeman units. On the Peninsula and coast, consistent producers include the Satsop and Wynoochee units, and the Vail Tree Farm in south Thurston County. The tree farm can be crowded, but it holds excellent numbers of younger deer each autumn, Nelson said. For an expanded version of Wayne’s Outdoor Outlook, see www.heraldnet.com. HANFORD REACH CLOSES TO SALMON: Fall chinook fishing on the Hanford Reach has been a little too good, according to WDFW regional fish program manager John Easterbrooks in Yakima. That, along with a total run not as strong as expected, has caused the department to issue an emergency closure of salmon retention on the Reach beginning at midnight tonight (Oct. 15). Easterbrooks said the 2009 recreational fall chinook harvest (“upriver brights”) is well above the anticipated level and has already surpassed the 2008 take by over 40 percent. Hatchery steelhead retention will remain open. NEW YEAR’S ON THE BEACH: Minus tides don’t always cooperate with holiday plans, but razor clam aficionados will be pleased to learn they can mark their calendars for a scheduled dig on the very popular New Year’s weekend this winter. WDFW has tentatively scheduled an opening for Dec. 31, Jan 1, Jan 2, and Jan. 3, with some very good tides on tap. The low on the evening of New Year’s Day, for instance, is a minus 1.8 feet. RIVER COHO: If the rain this week doesn’t put local rivers out of shape completely, there should be some good coho fishing still available over the weekend. Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram reported taking four silvers on the lower Skykomish on Tuesday, 5 to 11 pounds, pulling holograph Kwikfish and casting Dick Nite spoons, despite strong winds and junk in the water. The party also boated several pinks, a couple of which were still in keepable condition. Green plugs took coho, Ingram said, while pink plugs took both coho and humpies. The Stillaguamish below I-5 is still putting out coho. John Thomas of Rotten Chum Guide Service (lamiglas@hotmail.com) did very well on the Snohomish over the weekend, boating a total of 10 coho. All but one were taken on either a Wee 50/50 Dick Nite or Wee chrome/red Dick Nite drifted and retrieved very slowly. The largest silver went 13 pounds, Thomas said. BASIN STEELHEAD: Record cold temps for this time of year hit the north Columbia Basin early this week, slowing a steelhead bite which had been pretty good up to that point on the Methow River. Hatchery steelhead are still staging below Columbia tributaries, however, and this week’s warmer temperatures and a little rain could spark action on the Methow, Entiat, Okanogan, and Columbia proper. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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