I had a terrific Thanksgiving Weekend.  My daughter visited from Seattle and with the help of my wife we whipped up a Turkey Day dinner that was fantastic.  We had a great morning in Leavenworth, touring the town and having lunch at my cousin’s son’s restaurant.  Saturday was spent recovering and watching football.  On Sunday I made a tour of some of my favorite bank fishing spots up north.
Wondering where to spend my Sunday I recalled that years ago I stayed in touch with Rosie, who worked with Gordon Steinmetz at Big Walley’s in Coulee City, and she would give me fishing reports.  She loved to fish Banks in the fall and winter and did so mostly from the breakwater at the Coulee City Marina.  She caught a lot of dandy rainbow here, so I thought I would start my day there.
I parked out on the point and put two rods out.  Nothing was happening for me, and I noticed a guy across the way, and it looked like he was cleaning fish.  I packed up and drove over there and sure enough he had just landed two rainbow. One was about 12 inches long and the other was at least 22 inches long.  His name was Mark and he had traveled from Buckley to fish Banks at this spot—because years ago he had met Rosie and she showed him how to fish here!  He was planning to fish the whole day at the marina, spend the night and hit again in the morning.  I checked on him later and he had added another nice rainbow to his stringer.  He may have limited before he left for dinner.  This week’s photo is of Mark with one of his fish.

The weather had turned out to be much better than I had anticipated.  The forecast called for very high winds, but it wasn’t too bad here at the bottom end of the Banks.  I hadn’t been to the beach at Spring Canyon yet this winter, so I headed up there.  The wind was blowing here, but I hiked down to a spot between the swimming area and the dam.  Here I met Mike from Quincy, who said that the wind had actually laid down a bit.  He had landed a rainbow of 18 or 19 inches just before I met him and had lost another.  
I set up and put two rods out a distance from him.  One had my tried and true shrimp and marshmallow bait, and the other had Power Bait molded on the hook.  I put the rods into my sand spikes and waited for a bite.  I waited and waited.  And I started thinking about the Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge at home, and Sunday Night Football.  My tummy was grumbling, and the leftovers were too tempting.  I left without a fish.  I didn’t see Mike get another fish, and when I left the wind was howling.  I have all winter to fish from shore at Spring Canyon.

I have had very good days fishing between Spring Canyon Park and Grand Coulee Dam in the winter.  I walk down to the beach below the swimming area at Spring Canyon, and when I see that I can cast into what appears to be 10 or 12 feet of water, I set up my rods.  I have limited several times from this area on Lake Roosevelt with trout averaging 16 inches.  Another favorite destination of mine on Lake Roosevelt is at Keller.  I drive down to one of the spots in the park along the shore below the marina.  Putting my rod holders up the beach from the irrigation pipe.  This is a gradually sloping bottom, and I put on up to an ounce sinker and cast it as far as I can.  Power Bait is effective when fishing from shore with a slip sink rig, and I like to use a large pinch of marshmallow and a jarred shrimp with the head removed on a size #4 hook.   

Just prior to the Thanksgiving Weekend I usually load up the smoker.  I like to have a good batch done so I can give friends pieces of smoked fish, or smoked fish spread.  I use a dry brine when I prepare my fish for the smoker.  Next a layer of fish is laid skin side down in a large bowl and sprinkled with kosher salt.  A generous amount of brown sugar goes on top of the fish.  Many people stop here, but I add basil and a dash of Worcestershire sauce.  I don’t measure any of the ingredients and can’t say it’s a quarter cup of this or that.  Just make sure the layer of fish is covered with the different spices and sugar.  This goes in the refrigerator overnight.  The next day I rinse the fish and let it dry a bit before I load it into the smoker.  I have one of those units that gives me the temperature and automatically feeds the “biscuits” of alder chips into the smoker.  It only takes about four hours in this well-insulated box to finish.  I let it cool and then refrigerate until I vacuum seal the fish, and freeze it so it doesn’t spoil.  People love it!
When I loaded the smoker I was surprised that I was out of Rufus Woods triploids.  I caught a bunch of them last year, but it appears that we already consumed my supply. No surprise really, they are so good.  I had better make a plan to get back up there.  The Colville Tribe released almost 50,000 triploids into Rufus Woods last year, so there will be a good supply of them to catch this winter.  

We are into December now and I wanted to let folks know that there are some sport shows scheduled for this winter.  Last year, the Washington State Sportsman’s Show in Puyallup and the Seattle Boat Show were both cancelled.  The Boat Show was done “virtually”, and I provided a couple of seminars that were recorded and replayed during the virtual show.  This year I am on the schedule to be there in person.

I will remind you of the dates for both of these shows and the Schuyler Productions shows in Pasco and Yakima as we get a little closer to the scheduled dates.  We are far from being out of the woods with COVID-19, and there is still a possibility that all of these shows could be cancelled.