Cold temperatures have been great for fans of ice fishing.  Ice should be of a safe thickness on most of our popular lakes in the region.   In spite of the cold weather, nice fish are being caught on Lake Roosevelt and Rufus Woods Reservoir.  Both of these big reservoirs get lots of attention through the winter months.

I got a chance to fish Lake Roosevelt for big kokanee and rainbow late last week.  My buddy and guide Kevin Witte invited me to come up to Spring Canyon and jump on his boat for the day.  You may have seen the videos I have done with Kevin earlier this year.  We were fishing for northern pike off the mouth of the Colville River, and I landed a walleye that weighed around 14 pounds.  We got a bunch of nice walleye trolling along the shore later on.  I went back up later in the summer and got a sturgeon that was just short of the slot limit and released it.

I always enjoy spending time on Kevin’s boat and I was really looking forward to this trip.  As an avid angler I am always optimistic about how we are going to do.  I have seen some photos of great catches of big kokanee with some very nice rainbow sprinkled in.  I have been watching the graph of the lake level for Lake Roosevelt, and it is going down.  That means that the daphnia that the big kokanee feed on are moving down the reservoir.  Our timing could be just right for catching some giant kokanee.

It was about 16 degrees with a stiff breeze on Lake Roosevelt when I met Kevin Witte at Spring Canyon on Thursday morning.  He already had the boat tied to the dock and the heater fired up on the covered boat when I jumped on board.  It was good to be back on the boat with Kevin.  I really appreciate Kevin’s approach to fishing.  It’s all about having fun.

We took a left turn when we left Spring Canyon and trolled toward the dam.  He likes this path when looking for kokanee, and there are lots of rainbow in this area as well.  He was running a side planer on one side of the boat and rods in holders on the other.  There were a mixture of colors and styles of lures on the end, and all were behind Kokabow blades.  We continued down this direction past the small bay and along the low cliffs.  We turned toward the middle of the lake and back toward Spring Canyon Park and were adding to our catch of rainbow all along the way.  This week’s photo is of Kevin with one of the rainbow we landed.

We made our way past Spring Canyon Park and were on a path toward Plum Point when we got our tenth rainbow.  We didn’t run into any kokanee on this particular day, but we got our ten rainbow.  As the water drops, the kokanee fishing will really improve.  We decided to make plans for another trip to Lake Roosevelt when the water has dropped a bit more.  I did shoot a video of our day on the water.

I wanted to get the video I did on my fishing trip to Lake Roosevelt out while it is still early in the season, so I got the editing done and posted the video.  If you are interested in fishing for kokanee and rainbow trout out of Spring Canyon this should be helpful.  To watch it just go to the Dave Graybill channel on YouTube.  There is some good information in this one.

On my way to Grand Coulee, I noticed that there were quite a few people parked on the dike near the Coulee City Marina.  They were fishing through the ice just off the island out there.  I hear the perch fishing has been pretty good and the ice was safe.  On my way home I saw people gathering in the parking lot at Coulee Playland.  It was in the afternoon, and I know that many people fish through the ice here at night.  They are targeting the big whitefish that migrate to this area on Banks in the winter.  Closer to my home, the cold weather has kept the ice in good shape on Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee.  This is one of the most popular spots to fish for perch through the ice in the region.

I have been asked to provide some photos of my survey of four ice fishing lakes up north.  I spent three days and visited Curlew, Bonaparte, Palmer and Patterson Lakes.  I can do even better because I made a video of my trip, and it is now available on the Dave Graybill channel on You Tube.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  Since we have had some warm days I thought that Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee, would be a slushy mess.  I drove up there to see for myself.  There was just one rig in the parking area when I arrived a little before 8 a.m., so I thought the word was out that the ice conditions were poor.  I walked out on the lake and was surprised to see that there was no snow on the surface and no sign of slushy conditions at all.  Just after 8:00, the troops started to arrive.  Two big groups and a couple of pairs of anglers made their way out on the ice.  I could see that the two anglers that arrived before me were catching perch.  I think everyone had a great day on Fish Lake.
Since the weather has continued to be darn cold, I expect that Fish Lake should still be a good place to go to catch some perch.  Ice fishing off the island across from Coulee City Marina should be good for a while and the area off Coulee Playland would be the place to find big whitefish.  Also, a place where big rainbow and brown are being caught through the ice is Waitts Lake, near Spokane.

I would also expect fishing to be good at the four lakes I visited up north recently.  Curlew, Bonaparte, Palmer and Patterson are all worth a try.  You can learn about what to expect from these lakes from the video I did, that can be seen on the Dave Graybill channel on YouTube.

There are lots of great opportunities out there this winter.  Get out there and get after ‘em!