Hunting and Fishing Report: Dry Conditions Makes Arena For Bee Movie-Like Battle

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An impressive display of aerial combat broke out within the stifling confines of my greenhouse this week.

More accurately, the outbuilding is a glass gardening house with clear windows that are ill fitting to their sagging metal frames. In fact, the structure seems to constantly threaten to collapse in on itself in B-grade horror flick fashion. But we continue to use it because it is already there, and, heck, it hasn’t shattered on us yet.

Anyhow, a nectar drunk fleet of honeybees engaged in an antennae and stinger fight with a surly gang of black and yellow jackets as well as one bald faced hornet going hell bent on going berserk. The winged battle was waged over a brimming jar of sugary syrup and a few drizzled honeycomb frames wedged inside of a low rent beehive swarm box complete with flaking paint and yawning seals.

In setting out the swarm box the hope was to catch a wayward swarm in the waning days of summer, or to at least feed a hungry hive from the neighborhood.

The drought has created what a beekeeping acquaintance of mine once referred to as a “bee desert”. His particular rant was directed at “English style lawns,” but that is another discussion for another day. In the here and now, where clovers and other wild flower weeds would once flourish, roadside ditches and fallow pastures are filled only with bristly yellow grasses. Farmers who cut hay early in the summer have watched the sun recede their crew cut crop into a withered wisp of male pattern baldness.

Even when the rain comes, like it did last Thursday, it all too often brings along its mischievous friends, thunder and lightning. As a consequence, that record setting day of rain also saw three brushfires sparked by lightning out along Lincoln Creek in Centralia alone. Other wildfires continue to roar. The quenching relief was temporary. The threat is real and relentless.

As a result of the scorch this year’s nectar flow has been as bad as or worse than the region’s river flows. Honeybee numbers have thrived in the heat but the hives have been unable to put away much honey for the winter. That imbalance will spell doom for a great many hives before next spring’s blooms.

Like an oasis in the desert where predators and pacifists congregate in tenuous relation for a chance to lap at the water, the baited apiary draws in all varieties of personalities on the wing.

Brave bands of honeybees pushed back valiantly against the relentless attack of maddening yellow jackets. The yellow coats sometimes turned on each other in undisciplined fits of blind rage. The gargantuan hornet patrolled the peripherals and picked off solitary honeybees as they hovered around the hive. Relinquishing my Red Cross neutrality, I squashed the bald faced bugger under the cold steel of my hive tool as he mercilessly pricked at a helpless honeybee trapped in the corner.

The bees ultimately won the battle but they did not claim the new hive as their own. The bees are smart and they know that as time grows short in these times of scarcity it is not wise to greedily divide resources in hopes of establishing new fanciful outposts. Instead they retreated back to their fortified hive of origin with their plundered bounty safely sloshing in their belly tanks, primed to be turned into honey for winter savoring.

The bees intend to double down on their fortune right at home. After all, their hive is already there, and it hasn’t collapsed on them yet.

FISHIN’

The Nisqually River is the latest local river to be placed under “hoot-owl” fishing restrictions. Beginning Thursday, Aug. 20 the river will be closed to all fishing from 2 p.m. until one hour before official sunrise.

The closure was prompted by spiking water temperatures which caused high mortality rates in salmon which had been caught and subsequently released. The river will be closed from the mouth up to the military tank crossing bridge about one mile above the mouth of Muck Creek. All of the originally scheduled closures for tribal fishing days still apply.

Meanwhile, angling has been picking up on the lower stretch Columbia River. Statistics provided by the WDFW indicate that 7,841 angler trips were made on the lower Columbia last week. Those expeditions resulted in 824 adult Chinook and 2,027 summer steelhead finding the bottom of a net. Just thirteen of the salmon were released while 685 of the steelhead were tossed back.

Last Saturday alone the WDFW tallied more than 400 boats and 500 bank anglers trying their luck in the Lower Columbia. Almost a third of those boats were clustered around the menthol cool mouth of the Cowlitz River. In between Vancouver and Cathlamet anglers averaged more than a full fall Chinook or steelhead per boat.

Anglers bobbing around Buoy 10 last weekend were rewarded rather reasonably for their efforts in the face of a moody wind. About 1.22 fall Chinook and 1.67 coho have been landed per boat.

Out in the past the breakers the most recent catch statistics from Marine Area 1 (Ilwaco) show that anglers have been landing 1.41 salmon per rod, with coho comprising 87 percent of the bounty.

Off of Westport in Marine Area 2 the daily Chinook salmon limit has been increased from one to two kings.

“We’re keeping a close eye on the catch rate and are in a good position to allow anglers two chinook per day without exceeding the harvest guideline for Westport,” said Doug Milward, ocean salmon manager for the WDFW, in a press release.

Back on the Columbia, boats in the Bonneville Pool last week averaged a half Chinook per ramblin’ rod with most of the action happening near Drano Lake. The Dalles Pool was mostly quiet, although the mouth of the Deschutes River received a bit of angling attention.

Looking ahead, a number of Columbia River tributaries are set to close to fishing on Sep. 1. Those rivers include portions of Abernathy, Cedar, Cougar, Coal, Germany, Lacamas, Skamokawa and Mill creeks as well as the Coweeman River. All of those closures, other than Cougar Creek, are intended to protect spawning fall Chinook. The Cougar Creek closure is targeted to protect spawning kokanee.

On the Cowlitz River boat anglers have been hooking steelhead in the battleship waters near the mouth. A smattering of fall Chinook have also made it onboard. River flow at Mayfield Dam on Monday was reported as 2,720 cubic feet per second.

Last week at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery separator Tacoma Power employees recovered 1,267 summer-run steelhead and 150 spring Chinook. Employees also released 135 spring Chinook adults into the Cispus River, as well as 19 fall Chinook adults into the Tilton River. Another round of recycled steelhead were also dropped back down river for a second tour of duty.

Salmon season opens in Mayfield Lake on Sep. 1 with a daily limit of six fish, of which no more than two may be adults. All wild Chinook and coho must be released. Kokanee should be savored.

A warehouse fire in Winlock on Tuesday, Aug. 18 destroyed and untold volume of stored food and killed an equally staggering, if untold number of fish when a mass of cooking oil seeped into Olequa Creek and approached the mouth of the Cowlitz. Crews have been working to contain and clean up the spill. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.

The going has been slow on the Kalama River lately. Beginning Sep. 1 the river will switch over to fly fishing guidelines from the natural gas pipeline down to the lower salmon hatchery. It’s a pace of life choice.

A small contingent of bank anglers on the North Fork Lewis River has wisely been catching steelhead near the salmon hatchery.

Boat anglers on the Wind River and Drano Lake have both been hooking a good deal of steelhead although the vast majority of the catch has been released because of its non-hatchery origins. Drano Lake saw an increase in fall Chinook activity as well.

HUNTIN’



Wildfire concerns have prompted the WDFW to eliminate target shooting at the Methow Wildlife Area. That closure of the 34,000-acre wildlife area in Okanogan County went in to effect on Aug. 15 and will remain in place until at least Sep. 14.

Legal hunting is still permitted within the Wildlife Area however.

Sherry Furnari, manager of the WDFW wildlife area, noted that two wildfires have been started in the shooting range in the recent past. The DNR also considers the area to be a “very high” fire risk.

Fireworks and other incendiary devices like tracer rounds and exploding are always prohibited at WDFW wildlife areas and water-access sites

The dog days of summer will soon give way to the hunting dog days of fall. Coyotes and bears are the only targets on the game list these days but a litany of openings are just weeks away.

Deer archery season will begin in some areas on Sep. 1, in addition to forest grouse, mourning dove, crow, bobcat, fox, raccoon, rabbit, hare and cougar seasons. In Pacific County goose season will also begin on Sep. 1.

For the kiddos, the season opening youth duck hunt will start with a series of bangs in less than a month on Sep. 19.

SHELLFISHIN’

The domoic acid takeover continued its creeping sprawl north this week resulting in the closure of multiple shellfish opportunities in northwest Washington.

A Dungeness crab harvest along the coastal strip of Olympic National Park closed on Aug. 19 and will likely remain shuttered through the previously scheduled closing date of Sep. 15.

State officials previously shut down crab fishing from the Columbia River north to the Queets River due to elevating levels of the toxin.

Earlier in the week, on the other side of the Olympic Peninsula all shellfish harvesting was closed in Dyes Inlet. The closure covers all recreational shellfish harvesting for clams, oysters and mussels. Shrimp and crab are not subject to the harvest closure but crabs should be cleaned thoroughly and all crab butter should be discarded.

Domoic acid is not neutralized by cooking or freezing and can be fatal if consumed in large enough quantities. The naturally occurring toxin is generated by decomposing algae in the ocean. Warm water temperatures have amplified the prevalence of the toxin in west coast waters this year.

WILD LIFERS

Gold diggers and aquatic plant enthusiasts are finally feeling the wrath of this year’s drought

The WDFW recently released emergency regulations that restrict or eliminate suction dredging for gold and the mechanical harvesting of aquatic plants in more than 60 rivers and streams around the state.

Additionally, the WDFW is planning to modify work permits that have previously been issued on certain hydraulic projects like culvert replacements and gravel harvesting in river beds.

The rivers subject to these emergency regulations have already been put on emergency closure or hoot-owl restrictions for fishing.

“The department is taking unprecedented action in response to an unprecedented threat to fish life in our state,” said Randi Thurston, manager of WDFW’s habitat protection division, in a press release. “Current low flows and soaring water temperatures are a deadly combination for fish and we need to do everything we can to avoid adding to their distress.”

Thousands of salmon, steelhead and sturgeon have already gone belly up due to elevated water temperatures and dismal flows in the region’s river this summer.

On the paper trail, the WDFW is seeking nominations for their Willapa Bay salmon advisory group.

The advisory group is charged with guiding the WDFW on Willapa Bay watershed policy issues such as salmonid and sturgeon management and conservation.

“We are looking for a diverse set of people who represent various interests and affiliations to serve on the advisory group,” said Steve Thiesfeld, regional fish program manager for the WDFW, in a press release.

Any group or individual can nominate a candidate to the advisory group and self-nominations are also accepted. Nominations must include the following information:

· The nominee’s name, address and telephone number.

· The nominee’s affiliations, if any.

· The name, address and telephone number of any organization submitting a nomination.

· Experience, including the type of experience, and any species or areas of interest, as well as references.

Nominations for the advisory group are due by Sep. 15 and should be sent to Mike Scharpf at 48 Devonshire Road, Montesano, WA, 98563, or by email at Raymond.Scharpf@dfw.wa.gov.