I almost pulled my boat home earlier this week. We have had a good stretch of warm weather. The snow had been moved out of my driveway and there was room for the boat. However, Mother Nature had other plans, so I am still looking for good places to fish from shore.

I wanted to see if the Quincy lakes were still frozen, so I pulled off of Whitetail Road and found that the gate is still closed. Oh well, I am pretty sure that they still have ice on them, and I will check again as we get closer to the March 1st opening of these lakes. I knew that the ice was off of Billy Clapp Lake. I had my shore fishing “go bag” and a couple of rods in my truck and wanted to give it a try. As I drove down onto the sandy shore I saw one other angler had just arrived. He told me that he lives only ten minutes away and had been fishing here almost daily. He showed me some photos of a few of the rainbow he had caught earlier, and they were very impressive. He has been catching some that were 3 to five pounds and had been broken off by larger fish. I had brought my video gear along and did a short video on fishing Billy Clapp in the winter. After I had packed up my video gear I reeled in the two rods that I had cast out earlier. One was baited with Power Bait and the other with a shrimp and marshmallow combo. The shrimp baited the rod had a 15-inch rainbow on it! This week’s photo was taken at Billy Clapp last Friday. The video I did is now posted on the Dave Graybill YouTube channel.

Just like every other fisherman out there I am getting tired of winter. Not that there aren’t things to do, but wouldn’t it be nice to be out in a boat and not freeze? I remember in low snow years in the past that I could go up to Fish Lake, near Leavenworth, and fish in the sun on calm waters in March. I wanted to see if the ice was breaking up and maybe going away, so I drove up there the other day. Sorry to report that there is still plenty of ice on the lake. Not enough to fish on, and no signs of it leaving for a while. The lake is at about 2,000 feet in elevation, so it makes sense. I was very close to bringing my boat home the other day. The ten-day forecast was for temperatures in the 40s. However, things do change, and now I am expecting snow here in Leavenworth the next couple of days. Heck, we just put the snow shovels away. I will still be looking for ice-free water and will let you know if I can find any. There are lakes in the Columbia Basin that open March 1st.

Many of you know that I am a big fan of fishing from the shore at Brandts Landing on Rufus Woods Reservoir. I have spent many days over the years casting from one of the accesses at this Federal Park. If you haven’t been to Brandts Landing, you will find this location, about six miles from the boat launch above Chief Joseph Dam, is very fishing friendly. There are several accesses to the shoreline, all with fire pits and some even have picnic tables. There is a vault toilet at the site that is well maintained. The water along the park is shallow, and most anglers use at least a half-ounce egg sinker, rigged to slide, to cast as far as possible to tempt a strike from passing rainbow. Dough baits are by far the most popular bait to toss to cruising trout, but others will use a nightcrawler and marshmallow or marshmallow and shrimp combo. Success can vary, and I have had some terrific days. I have a great contact to find out how the fishing is, and his most recent report is that fishing is slow. Hopefully that will change with the seasonal plants of triploids by the Colville Tribe.

Mark your calendars for the Central Washington Sportsmen Show. It’s coming up on Friday, February 23rd at the Sundome in Yakima. This show has been going on for over 30 years, and I think I’ve been at 20 of them. There’s a few things that I really like about this show. Number one is that it is truly family friendly. They always have several activities that the kids can enjoy. Number two is that you can easily take in the show and visit with the exhibitors. There isn’t the crush of the big shows in Puyallup and Portland. Number three is that you can see some great seminars and meet the presenters and ask questions. I also like the fact that you can pay one entry fee and attend all three days of the show. Another reason I enjoy going to this show is that I meet a lot of people that follow my reports, either online or in the newspaper. I am so busy having fun talking to folks that my voice is failing by Sunday afternoon. I will be hanging out with the folks at Bob Feil Motors again, so be sure to stop by and say hello.

We had a long weekend coming up with President’s Day last Monday, so I was thinking about what I would recommend for a fishing trip. If you wanted to put a boat on the water, the trout fishing on Lake Roosevelt has been good. Limits of trout that average 16 inches are possible. Anglers are fishing out of Spring Canyon and Keller and trolling basically kokanee type gear to get their rainbow. Another good place to launch a boat is on Lake Chelan. Anglers are launching out of the State Park or Mill Bay and running up as far as Mitchell Creek to find the kokanee. There are days that some anglers are even limiting on kokanee, and there are a lot of fish that are measuring 13 to 14 inches. There are a couple of places I would suggest to fish from shore right now. Both the Federal Park at Keller and Spring Canyon can be very good.