I have in the Tonasket area for the last ten days. I fished Rufus Woods five of those days. This report will be of my last day of fishing. The previous days fishing were just as good as this day.
I arrived at Timm ranch launch 5:30 am. I launched the boat and motored up to an area that had been holding fish in the past days. I anchored the boat in about six feet of water casting into deeper water with 1/8 oz marabou jigs. The second cast, fish on. After about three or four min. the fish came unbuttoned. In the next half hour four more fish on but none to the net. Fishing barbless hooks you tend to lose a few fish. But since most of my fish are released unharmed, thats okay. Things soon turned around. Fish were coming to the net at a fast pace. By ten am I was heading back to the launch with tired arms and a big simle on my face. There were maybe 30 fish released, ranging in size from twelve inches to ten lbs. Most of the fish were in the three to four lb range. The only variance to my tackle used was 1/8th or 1/16th oz. black marabou jig. What a great day of fishing. All I can say is,Wow!
The only downer to the trip was seeing dead fish floating by that were being released by persons fishing with power bait and releasing them to die. What a waste of such a wonderful fishery. I wish there could be more inforcement on the river because violations are way too many.