I love this time of year. More and more anglers are getting out on the water, and there are some great events coming up that the whole family can enjoy. Trout fishing can be excellent in the early spring on the lakes that are open year round or opened on March 1st. Even the walleye and bass are waking up on the big reservoirs in the region.

Interest in trout fishing is really ramping up. Although the general lowland lake opener isn’t until the fourth Saturday of this month, anglers are already wetting their lines. I traveled to the Tri-Cities recently and saw the shores of several of the I-82 Ponds lined with anglers. These ponds receive generous plants of catchable trout in the early spring. Both Rotary Pond and Tims Pond are also loaded with rainbow trout. Closer to home here in Leavenworth, there are people fishing from the dock and out in boats on Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee. Close to Lake Chelan, Roses Lake anglers always get an early start on the trout fishing season, as the lake is planted with 20,000 catchable rainbow every year in the fall. In Douglas County, the lakes around the town of Rock Island are open year round and are loaded with rainbow. Burke and Quincy lakes, which opened on the first of March continue to provide good catches, with the occasional whopper that was planted in the lakes prior to the Trout Derby that was held in late March. There are several other lakes that opened on March 1st in the region that should offer good fishing for carryover trout.

I like to look at last year’s planting reports to see what year-round lakes would be good in the spring, and when they are scheduled to be planted for the season. I get a good idea about the abundance of fish that are in some of these lakes. In some cases, the opportunity to catch the biggest fish of the season is prior to the plants of catchable rainbow. If you go to the WDFW website and go to the Fishing and Shellfish page, you can find the “Fishing and Stocking Reports”. You can download the stocking schedules with the number of fish to be planted in lakes by county. They recently put up the schedule for 2024.

I know some of you have seen me on the water the past two seasons, driving a 20 foot Smoker Craft Phantom. Thanks to Bob Feil Boats and Motors, I have been able to visit the lakes, reservoirs and rivers in our region and give you the reports on the fishing. Well, the new Smoker Craft that I will be driving has arrived and is being rigged. That means the one I have been using is available for sale. The boat comes with a Mercury 150 and a 9.9 kicker with electric start and power tilt. On the bow is a 36-volt Minn Kota Ultera with 112 pounds of thrust. This is the model that self-deploys and stows by remote, and you can drive the boat with it remotely as well. It also has an onboard charger. There are two electric Scotty 1106 downriggers on the boat. It has a Garmin fish finder at the helm. It also comes with a full cover with side curtains and back curtains, that allows you to enclose the cabin in cold or wet weather. It comes on a dual axle trailer. The boat is priced at thousands of dollars below what a new one would cost. Better call soon. It won’t be there long!

I love fishing Banks Lake. Not only is it one of the most scenic places to fish in Washington, but it also has terrific fishing for a variety of species. If you haven’t tried Banks you may want to plan a trip on April 12 through the 14th. That’s when the annual Reel Recreation Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge fishing derby is scheduled. This is a very family friendly derby with special emphasis on making sure the youngsters have a great time. On Friday, there’s a special “pond” set up and Pacific Seafoods loads it up with rainbow trout for the kids to catch. On Saturday participants head out to catch bass, walleye, whitefish or trout to be entered into the derby. Fishing continues on Sunday and concludes with a weigh in when winners for catches made on both Saturday and Sunday are awarded their prizes. The aim of the derby is to get families involved in fishing, and the derby is a fun way to do it. To learn more about the Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge, just Google Real Recreation and check out their website. You can even register for the event on the site. I hope to see you there!

I recently posted a video that is intended to help anglers who plan to fish the Triple Fish Challenge. Austin Moser, Nic Alexander and I fished for walleye, bass and trout and were successful in catching all three species. In the video we describe the tackle and techniques we used. You can find the video on the Dave Graybill YouTube Channel or copy and paste this link into your browser: YouTube/SyrWSxSlhFM. This week’s photo was taken while shooting the video.

I have reminded everyone that it is time to get your fishing license for the season. You needed a new one by April 1st. Now I want to remind you that you need to send in your salmon catch record card. You need to send these in by the end of April each year, whether you fished for salmon without success or not. My wife is really good at telling me it’s time, often putting her old card right next to my computer. Even though she didn’t get a chance to fish for salmon last year. I spent most of my salmon fishing days on Lake Wenatchee and had a lot of check marks under sockeye. So, before you toss it out when you get a new license and card this year, remember to put it in an envelope and mail it to Olympia. The address is WDFW CRC Unit, P.O. Box 43142, Olympia, WA 98504-3142. It looks like we are going to have another good salmon season this year. The forecast for summer runs is over 50,000 again. The sockeye season looks good, too. The total number expected to the Columbia is over 400,000 with 97,000 for Lake Wenatchee.