by Dave Graybill, April 01, 2013

Dozens of lakes opened in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge near Potholes Reservoir on Monday. The number of great trout fishing lakes that anglers can now fish has greatly expanded, and should keep them busy until the general lowland lake opener at the end of the month. Meanwhile, kokanee fishing continues to be the best ever at Lake Chelan, and now Palmer Lake has kicked into gear. This Saturday and Sunday is the Triple Fish Challenge Derby at Banks Lake, where anglers will be after rainbow, smallmouth bass and walleye.

I got some great tips on how to catch all three species this time of year from Lou Nevsimal at Coulee Playland, organizer of the new derby. The first thing he mentioned is that anglers can focus on catching smallmouth with certain bait, and they will catch big rainbow while they are at it. “Every spring some of the better catches of rainbow are made by bass anglers throwing hard baits,” said Nevsimal. “If you cast crank baits and jerk bait across shallow boulder fields you will catch rainbow. That’s guaranteed. Don’t be surprised if the rainbow are 4 to 6 pounds, and that’s a nice rainbow for any lake in our region.” Bass will be found in these shallow boulder fields and around points this time of year, he said. Anglers should “run and gun” making several casts in these areas and then moving on. What they are looking for are pre-spawn females that are aggressively feeding.

“I would suggest a drop shot rig for the walleye,” said Nevsimal. “The fish will be deep for the most part, and I would put a leech, Gobie or minnow imitation on the hook.” Walleye will be hanging out in 35 to 45 feet of water and he suggested that you drag these lures across the bottom to attract fish. Another strategy for taking walleye in the early spring is to troll crank baits off the old weed bed lines where the perch are spawning. Pre-spawn females will be looking for small bait fish in these areas. Focus on water about 15 feet deep.

Hopefully this will give anglers an edge in the derby. They will be competing for some serious money. Cash prize for biggest fish in the adult division each day could be $600.00 and biggest stringer as much as $1,000.00! The overall winner will be taking home a 14-foot Achilles inflatable boat and motor. Registrations will still be accepted all day on Friday and early Saturday morning. You can call derby headquarters, Coulee Playland in Electric City, for information at 509-633-2671. Good luck everyone!

I talked to Chad Jackson with the Department of Fish and Wildlife office in Ephrata about the lakes that open on April 1st, and the ones that he felt were the best bet for the coming weekend are North and South Teal lakes. “We rehabbed these lakes a couple of years ago and they should hit their stride this season,” He said. “Last year the juveniles in these lakes were a surprising 14 to 15 inches. That means the carryover rainbow should be 16 to 17 inches this spring. This year’s juveniles are going to be at least 12 inches, so these lakes are going to make a lot of anglers happy.”

Upper and Lower Hampton lakes are going to offer slow fishing again this year, but the fish people catch are going to be large. The lakes are due for a rehab and fingerling survival has been poor. People that are willing to spend some time catching their fish could see trout of 18 to over 20 inches from the two lakes. Another lake that opened on the first of April is Dry Falls Lake, which is a selective fishery lake, with a one fish limit. This lake is very popular with fly fishers and has been excellent the past two or three years. Anglers catch double digit numbers of trout here, and they are mix of rainbow, brown and tiger trout. Most of the fish average 14 inches at Dry Falls, but much larger fish of each of these species is possible. Another quality lake that opened on March 1st is Dusty. This one is worth mentioning now as it is a very cold lake and gets better as temperatures warm in the spring. Anglers have already reported good fishing for the rainbow, brown and tiger trout here, and it is really just getting started. Dusty Lake anglers can expect to catch fish to 20 inches.

Kokanee fishing at Lake Chelan is showing no signs of slowing down, and is expected to get even better. Anglers have experienced lulls in the action, which is typical when fishing for kokanee, but when fish are encountered the action is hot. You can expect doubles, triples and even quadruple hook ups when you hit a hungry school of fish. They are deep. My experience has been when running two rods at 90 feet and two at 70 feet the deep rods go off first. It is possible to find fish as shallow as 35 and 40 feet off Rocky Point at first light, but they go deep as the day brightens.

Jerrod Gibbons, Okanogan Valley Guide Service, tells me that the kokanee bite is going strong at Palmer Lake now. Five fish limits can come quickly up here. Kokanee aren’t as large as they were a couple of years ago, but they make up for it in numbers. Most of the fish range from 10 to 14 inches right now at Palmer, and will be much larger by June. The Department of Fish and Wildlife has adipose fin clipped some of the fish at Palmer and they would like to hear from anglers that catch them. They are considering adjusting the number of kokanee they plant in Palmer to get larger fish.

We are getting some nice weather this spring and that makes for excellent fishing earlier than in the past two years. I hope you can get out and take advantage of it. I know I will!

By Dave Graybill

FishingMagician.com