Northwest Fishing Reports

We fished Rufus on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a fun trip and we caught lots of fish. Soooooo before we even start and I'm only going to say this once. No bait was used, selective grear only. We caught a dozen or so fish a day and had a great time picking our keepers. Lots of people fishing and didn't really see a whole lot of catching. A few boats using bait came in banged their limits in short order but I didn't really see any other big fish taken. On the first day they were running the turbines at the dam and with lots of water comes lots of fish and big fish too. On the second day we had blue skies and a bit of wind out of the canyon. Wind turbines on, dam shut down, just a trickle over the dam and the water was barely moving. We fished hard and caught a lot of fish but no big ones till we had some boat traffic that stired up the water. Wow! Stir up the food and the fish come to life! Size? Keepers, 7 + to 10 +. Here we go some pics from the trip.

Very nice pictures. It looks like a great time to be fishing. I've got to get myself over there one of these days. I keep saying that but haven't had time to make the trip yet.

BIG FISH + FULL TAIL = GREAT BATTLE. Thanks Bodo for posting the pic, that's one nice fish. It's great to hear the larger ones are coming to net. It amazes me how the water movement affects the catch percentages of the bigger fish, when at times you can hook up with bunches of the smaller ones, then get water movement, and Bang, the big boys are out. What was the most favored presentation for you on this trip?
You and Yours Have a Happy and safe New Years Holiday

1/4 jig as long as it had black or dark purple.

PS: Thanks and you too!!!!

Thanks for the reply Bodo. Appreciate your sharing.

Nice bows Bodo!

very nice, bodo. you've got me drooling...

Awesome pics Bodo. You guys had a great time and caught some super fish. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks!!! It was a really fun trip. Weather was nice enough to drop dead gorgeous. Stayed at my favorite motel and ate out every night. How can ya go wrong? Selective gear and catching fish all day. Nothing but a jig a light rod and a little line in between, it doesn't get any better. We should have a WL day on Rufus. All of us converge for the day and fish were you want.

To the fellow that emailed me from some function of the website:

When I fish Rufus I always try to fish with 1/8 to 3/8ths oz jigs in any dark color. I cast them out, let it sink as far as it will go and slowly jig it back up. I try to keep track of how deep the the jig is when I get the first bite. It has to be heavy enough to sink in the current but not to fast. If I don't get any bites I switch to spoons, plugs or spinners and as a last resource I'll go to bait. Drift a worm without weight or bobber and eggs, steelhead drift rigs. I like to say Rufus is a kitchen sink fishery. If you aren't catching fish chnage what you are doing, be ready to toss everything you have and the kitchen sink. Everything works to catch the fish, its just a matter of when. keep tossing it till it sticks.

Bodo. Those are some awesome fish photos! Thank you for sharing with all of us! The Jigmiester

sure doesn't look like it gets much better than that guys! way to go!!!

Wow... It just makes me get there. Where do you launch your boat to get to the nets? And do you anchor or drift/trolling?
Thanks for posting!

There are quite a few threads on where to launch so you're on your own for that. To anchor or not? We do both as it suits our fancy. Normallly anchor near the pens or drift our fav stretches. Premium members have access to the 'heat" maps. They look pretty darn good for picking spots.

Looks like you boys had fun!!

Always glad to see the old farts gettin' out too!

ha ha DUDE We're married but we still fish!

Those are some awesome fish and scenery pictures! Thanks for sharing!

I just used the "search forum" feature to help those looking for info on the fishery. It's been about nine years since I popped a boat in there at one of the unimproved access points. Check the below and use "Search Forum" feature to find tons more info!

Recent reports show that the regs have some confusion surrounding them. Use care in your interpretation. At first look it seemed pretty clear to me: If you use bait, barbed hook, a hook with more than a single point(ie. treble) or if the trout is injured, then, you are required to retain the first 2 trout caught and you're done. Because: "Only uninjured TROUT caught using artificial lures or flies with single-point barbless hooks may be released."
This isn't a selective gear fishery, I'd have to check definition of "artificial lures or flies" to see if scent is addressed.
Just checked definitions, "artificial lures or flies" isn't defined! Fly and lure is defined individually, not artificial.

Here's the regs:RUFUS WOODS LAKE (Douglas/
Okanogan Co.)
CLOSED WATERS - from Grand Coulee Dam downstream to SR155 Bridge.
ALL SPECIES - chumming permitted.
Licensing Requirements - Douglas County shore (State license), on the water (either State or Tribal license
accepted), Reservation (Tribal permit required or either license accepted at a signed "Designated Fishing
Areas" (DFA) located and marked as such on the Colville Reservation shoreline).
TROUT Year-round No min. size. Daily limit 2. KOKANEE are included as part of the daily
TROUT limit. Only uninjured TROUT caught using artificial lures or flies
with single-point barbless hooks may be released.
Other Game Fish Year-round Statewide min. size/daily limit.

Doesn't seem to prevent the use of scent or bait added to a single/barb-less fly or lure to participate in a catch and release fishery on Rufus Woods Lake. What are your thoughts?

Lot's of info on the site to get some ideas.
A couple videos:
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/WatchVideoHD.aspx?id=61" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/WatchVideoHD.aspx?id=57" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A couple recent articles:
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReadArticle.aspx?id=397" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/ReadArticle.aspx.." onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

I don't recall seeing this before: DFA..... "either license(state or tribal) accepted at a signed "Designated Fishing
Areas" (DFA) located and marked as such on the Colville Reservation shoreline."

Nice to see as an option.

MarkFromSea wrote:Those are some awesome fish and scenery pictures! Thanks for sharing!

I just used the "search forum" feature to help those looking for info on the fishery. It's been about nine years since I popped a boat in there at one of the unimproved access points. Check the below and use "Search Forum" feature to find tons more info!

Recent reports show that the regs have some confusion surrounding them. Use care in your interpretation. At first look it seemed pretty clear to me: If you use bait, barbed hook, a hook with more than a single point(ie. treble) or if the trout is injured, then, you are required to retain the first 2 trout caught and you're done. Because: "Only uninjured TROUT caught using artificial lures or flies with single-point barbless hooks may be released."
This isn't a selective gear fishery, I'd have to check definition of "artificial lures or flies" to see if scent is addressed.
Just checked definitions, "artificial lures or flies" isn't defined! Fly and lure is defined individually, not artificial.

Here's the regs:RUFUS WOODS LAKE (Douglas/
Okanogan Co.)
CLOSED WATERS - from Grand Coulee Dam downstream to SR155 Bridge.
ALL SPECIES - chumming permitted.
Licensing Requirements - Douglas County shore (State license), on the water (either State or Tribal license
accepted), Reservation (Tribal permit required or either license accepted at a signed "Designated Fishing
Areas" (DFA) located and marked as such on the Colville Reservation shoreline).
TROUT Year-round No min. size. Daily limit 2. KOKANEE are included as part of the daily
TROUT limit. Only uninjured TROUT caught using artificial lures or flies
with single-point barbless hooks may be released.
Other Game Fish Year-round Statewide min. size/daily limit.

Doesn't seem to prevent the use of scent or bait added to a single/barb-less fly or lure to participate in a catch and release fishery on Rufus Woods Lake. What are your thoughts?

Looks like you read one of my replies to a recent report.

In answer to you last question, no, if you plan to catch and/or release only two trout. The one part of the regs you didn't post is the most important and applies to ALL waters in WA state when fishing for TROUT with bait,

When fishing with bait, all TROUT (except STEELHEAD) equal to or greater than the minimum size are counted as part of the daily limit whether kept or released.

You can fish with bait using barbless hooks, but the bait rule still applies, and since the legal limit on RW is two trout, that's all you can catch when using bait, barbless hooks or not.

hewesfisher wrote:

MarkFromSea wrote: In answer to you last question, no, if you plan to catch and/or release only two trout. The one part of the regs you didn't post is the most important and applies to ALL waters in WA state when fishing for TROUT with bait,

When fishing with bait, all TROUT (except STEELHEAD) equal to or greater than the minimum size are counted as part of the daily limit whether kept or released.

You can fish with bait using barbless hooks, but the bait rule still applies, and since the legal limit on RW is two trout, that's all you can catch when using bait, barbless hooks or not.

Cool, thanks for the clarification!

Bait defined>>>>"Bait Anything that attracts fish or shellfish by
scent and/or flavor. This includes any device
made of feathers, hair, fiber, wood, metal, glass,
cork, leather, rubber, or plastic, which uses scent
and/or flavoring to attract fish or wildlife."