We welcomed the New Year with a few days without new snow, which was very welcome. It seemed like about all I was doing, between football bowl games, was shoveling snow. I am going stir crazy from lack of getting out fishing somewhere.

Tumwater Canyon had opened for driving last Thursday, so I just had to run up to Fish Lake to see what was going on. Conditions were good on Highway 2, and I found the road into the lake plowed and in good shape. The parking area had not been completely cleared of snow, but I found a place to pull in where I wasn’t worried about getting stuck. There were some other rigs there and when I went out to look, I saw a couple of ice fishing huts and some other folks sitting on chairs over their drilled holes. I walked over to visit with some anglers and saw that they had a nice catch of perch. I was impressed with the size of them. I laid a couple beside a small propane tank and when I measured a tank when I got home I found that one perch was 8 inches long and the other 10 inches. The people I was talking to were packing up. They said the bite was great from 7 a.m. till just before 10, then it died. They reminded me that the early morning bite is best.

I checked in with Pete at the store at Mar Don Resort, and he said there are people out ice fishing in the area. Some of the smaller lakes in the Seep Lakes Wildlife Area are frozen and people are catching everything from perch to largemouth bass through the ice. Also, there are people out on Lind Coulee. I recall several years ago when the Coulee had a good thick layer of ice, and the perch fishing was very good. Pete mentioned that the lower end of Lind Coulee, actually off the mouth of the Coulee at Perch Point has open water, but further up is where anglers are drilling their holes. Soda Lake, which is the first lake below O’Sullivan Dam, is also frozen and that one can produce good catches of perch and even walleye. I heard from my fishing buddy who had traveled to Scooteney Reservoir that perch fishing is hot, and everyone is catching bunches of them. However, the perch are small. He had hoped to catch some walleye while they were there but had no luck. His group were going to give Soda Lake a try. He called me later to say that he didn’t feel comfortable going out on the ice at Soda.

The sudden shift from below zero to daytime temperatures into the mid-30s has created some interesting conditions for anglers here in Central Washington. Lakes in the Columbia Basin that had a thick layer of ice may have thawed. It would be a very good idea to check to see how many inches of ice are on your favorite lake before walking out too far to drill a hole. One of my fishing buddies traveled to Royal City and tried his luck at Red Rock Reservoir, which is just outside of town. I fished this lake several years ago and had a great day of bass fishing, and I knew there was a good population of perch in the lake. My friend said that they were very busy catching perch on Red Rock, but they were pretty dinky. Not really worth the trip. A lake that he wants to try soon is Scooteney Reservoir. We fished there last June and caught some nice walleye. He said that walleye of the same size that we caught last summer are being caught through the ice on Scooteney. Now that is something I would like to try. I have never caught a walleye through the ice, and I have some great jigs that would do the trick.

My buddy Austin Moser has been guiding on Rufus Woods for triploids for the last couple of years, and no one puts more big trout in the fish box than he does. So, when I want to know how the fishing is up there, he’s the guy I call. When I talked to him earlier this week he reported that fishing is going great at the net pens. He consistently puts limits of these big trout in the boat for his clients. Many of the fish are in the 4- to 6-pound class, probably the biggest trout most of his clients have ever caught, and he did get a 15-pounder last week. This week’s photo is of the 15-pounder that was landed recently.

The last time I fished with him he reminded me that just fishing bait on the bottom sometimes isn’t the best way to catch fish up there, and you have to be willing to try different methods. We started off fishing bait, then switched to casting jigs, and that really produced. My brother Rick and cousin Greg have had terrific success with jigs on Rufus Woods. Next time I go I am going to take my bobber and jig rigs and fish the shorelines between the pens, just like I do when I was able to fish for steelhead. There are some really productive spots to do this above the net pens, too.

I am sure that many of you know that the Colville Tribal Hatchery at Bridgeport is making a big contribution to our salmon fisheries on the upper Columbia River. I still hear about people complaining about seeing the purse seiner operating in update on what the hatchery is doing and wanted to share it. The number of eggs in incubation: CJH Spring Chinook – 904,211 eyed eggs. MetComp Spring Chinook – approximately 240,000 eyed eggs. Segregated Summer Chinook – approximately 892,000 eggs. Integrated Summer Chinook – approximately 1,124,650 eggs. The number of fry transported to acclimation ponds: Similkameen Pond: 367,527 integrated summer chinook were transported from October 24 - November 1. Riverside Pond: 235,240 MetComp spring chinook were transported from November 7 – November 15. Brooks Tract Pond: 138,439 integrated summer chinook were transported from November 16 – November 21. All of us who fish the upper Columbia benefit from the releases of summer Chinook, and the prospect of spring Chinook fisheries is the future is very exciting.

I am not sure what I will be doing in the way of fishing in the coming week, but I will keep you posted, and maybe see you out there.