Die-hard hunters press on in winter

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas is just around the corner. It’s that time of year when all but the most avid hunters and anglers are done for the year. And who can blame them? As I get older, the call of a warm fireplace and a good book, or a football game on the new HDTV, is tough to ignore.

But December brings with it some new oppor-tunities in the region that are unique, enjoyable and can bring as much success as outings earlier in the year.

While most of the big-game hunting seasons are now over, there are still several weeks left of the upland and waterfowl hunting seasons. And even though the seasons have been open since early October, some of the best hunting of the year may be ahead.

This is the time of year when pheasants start to group up in larger flocks. With most of the large corn fields in the lower Yakima Valley now cut, the birds are concentrated in some of the heavier, weedy fields in the area. Not easy to hunt, because of their size and density, these areas do hold birds and for hunters working in small groups with good dogs, they offer some decent hunting.

This past weekend a group of friends and I hunted several of the feel-free-to-hunt fields on the Yakama Reservation and got into several groups of pheasants. By placing a few hunters at the ends of the fields to help block the escape routes of the running birds, we were successful in bagging a number of long-tailed roosters.

Duck hunting in the Valley should start picking up now, too. Old time waterfowlers in the area will tell you the first of the “northerners” — ducks arriving from the Canada on their annual migration south — will begin showing up around Thanksgiving. Of course, the timing of their migration depends on the weather in Canada, but you can bet the duck hunting will pick up in the days ahead.

Anglers in the area have some new opportunities, too. North Elton Pond, located next to I-82 near Selah, opened for trout fishing on Monday. According to local Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist Eric Anderson, North Elton recently was planted with 2,000 rainbow trout weighing approximately a half-pound apiece. The daily catch limit at North Elton is two trout.

In some of the colder years, North Elton is iced over and becomes a favorite ice-fishing spot, but this year the lake is ice-free and can be fished easily from the banks or even from small rowboats or float tubes.

Year-round Mattoon and North Fio Rito lakes in Kittitas County were also recently stocked with some big trout. Each of the lakes received 140 rainbow trout weighing in at 5 to 8 pounds.

This is also the time of year when the whitefish become much more active, and many of the local streams opened Monday to fishing for whitefish. The upper Yakima, the Tieton, the Naches, the Klickitat and several other Eastern Washington rivers all opened Dec. 1 for whitefishing.

Whitefish gear is restricted to one single-point hook with a maximum hook size of 3/16-inch from point to shank (hook size 14). Up to 15 whitefish can be retained daily. Most whitefish will run from 10 to 13 inches in size, but the bigger fish are out there.

Most veteran whitefishermen will wait until the temperatures drop into the teens before they get too serious about getting out there after the fish. But the rivers are in pretty good fishing shape right now, so it might be worth a try.

Sure, a warm fire and a good book can sound pretty inviting on these cold, gray December days. But for those who haven’t quite had their fill of the outdoors, some new and fruitful opportunities await in the days and weeks ahead.

• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.