It is still chilly some days, but sunny skies have got anglers champing at the bit for spring. Kokanee fishing at Lake Roosevelt and Lake Chelan is rewarding anglers with limit catches. It looks like we are going to have an early start to great fishing for trout and other species throughout the region this season.

I had told my long-time fishing buddy Dennis Beich about the great trout fishing I had at Billy Clapp a couple of weeks ago. Last week I got a call from him saying that a friend of his, and current WDFW Commissioner Jim Anderson, was going to be in our area. Would I like to join them for a trip to Billy Clapp? You bet, I said. Jim and I had been swapping fishing stories at commission meetings since he came on board and were always talking about getting out on the water. This was going to be fun.

We met at the ramp at 7 o’clock last Thursday. Jim was pulling a trailer, and this was just one stop on his multi-destination fishing trip that brought him to Eastern Washington. He had already had a good day at Pacific Lake and was going to try Rocky Ford before he headed back home. We loaded our gear and Dennis backed his 16-foot boat across the sand to the water’s edge. Billy Clapp Lake is still drawn down and he had just the right size boat to launch here. Like so many of us, our first trip with the boat for the season had some hiccups. After switching out a battery from Jim’s rig, we were soon running up the lake, powered by the bow mounted electric motor.

I rigged four rods with a variety of Rapalas on the business end, and when we reached the fishing area above the big basalt island, I clipped on the side planers and ran the lines out. I put the outside rods 100 feet behind the boat and another 50 feet with the side planers attached. The inside rods went out 75 feet and then 25 feet. There was a slight breeze, which made it darn chilly, and there was a slight chop on the water. The planers were skipping along nicely, and it didn’t take long for the first trout to hit a plug.

The wind died and the sun came shining through and although the action wasn’t as fast as the last time I was here, we were getting fish. At one point, rather than attaching a planer, I ran one of the plugs out flatlined behind the boat. It got whacked almost immediately. When we reeled in the other rods, with a fish on or not, I would put it back out without the planer. Maybe it was because conditions had changed, but it seemed we had better luck without the side planers. Go figure.

When we decided to troll back to the launch at about noon, and we had eight fat rainbow in the cooler. Most were the cookie cutter 14-inchers that I had found here before and one stretched the tape to 17 ½ inches. The trout fishing is definitely good at Billy Clapp already this season, and by this summer these fish will have grown to be real whoppers. The best is yet to come for trout anglers this year on Billy Clapp.

Fishing for the giant kokanee on Lake Roosevelt is going great guns. I am getting photos from anglers showing off whopper fish, and Austin Moser is limiting for his clients now very consistently. The good news is that the really good fishing is still ahead of us. I checked the lake level and it is dropping sharply on Roosevelt. More good news is that if you couldn’t attend the seminar that Austin did earlier this year, you still have a chance to learn how he is getting his clients limits of these whoppers. Bob Feil Boats and Motors has scheduled another free seminar with Austin as the featured speaker. The opportunity to catch these big kokanee seems to only come around every four years, and this is the year to get in on the action. The seminar will be held on Monday, March 2nd, starting at 6 p.m. It will be held at the Bob Feil Boats and Motors Dealership, located at 2131 Sunset Highway North, in East Wenatchee. Austin will give everyone an update on the fishing on Lake Roosevelt, and anything he has learned so far this season. There will be plenty of parking and great giveaways at the seminar, too.

The annual Trout Derby that the Quincy Chamber does each spring has been scheduled for this year. It will take place on Saturday, March 7th, and instead of being held at Burke Lake, it will be at Quincy Lake. This has always been the official kick off of the trout fishing season on the east side of the mountains, and I am sure that the shores will be lined with eager anglers. Once again there will be cash and prizes handed out to the derby winners, and a guided fishing trip is the grand prize in the adult division. Derby tickets are $30 for adults and everyone under 17 years old gets to enter for free. You will want to buy a raffle ticket, too. Rather than give away a boat as they have in the past, they put the money into raffle prizes, so there are going to be lots of great prizes handed out to raffle winners this year. The total cash and prizes that will be awarded this year is valued close $5,000! It sure looks like the weather is going to cooperate this year and Quincy Lake should be ice free for the event. Burke Lake was rehabbed last fall, and although there will be lots of fish in it this spring, the fishing will be much better for bigger fish in Quincy Lake this season.

It was snowing hard when I left Leavenworth for the Wenatchee Valley Sportsmen’s Show last Saturday. It turned out to be a sunny day in Wenatchee that day. Looking ahead, the weather forecasts, there are lots of sunny days ahead and temperatures into the 50s. It is definitely time to get the fishing gear out and get ready for some early spring fishing fun!