I had a great time this past week, fishing for sturgeon out of Kettle Falls on Lake Roosevelt, and for Lahontan cutthroat trout on Omak Lake, on the Colville Indian Reservation. More than one person I spoke with this week remarked about how fortunate we are to live where we do, with all the great places to visit and the great fishing to be had. 

Even since the Colville Tribe opened their reservation to non-tribal members, I have been trying to get up to Omak Lake. I have been fishing this lake for over 20 years and it’s one of my top favorites. The Lahontan cutthroat that inhabit the lake are abundant, and produced the state record, set by my old friend Dan Beardslee, at just over 18 pounds. 

I traveled to Omak with my fishing buddy Rollie Schmitten last week and we fished Friday evening and Saturday morning. We caught fish that first evening, but most important, we found out where good numbers of fish were hanging out, and a couple of lures that they liked. We ran down to that spot at the east end of the lake the following morning and put out a large Flicker Shad and a Mirro Lure. We did change to one of my favorite plugs at one point, but we figured that we caught and released a fish every nine minutes. The average size was about 17 inches, and we caught one that was 26 inches and probably weighed 6 or 7 pounds. We had released 30 by 11:00 a.m. and headed home. We were the only boat fishing the lake both days. Check out this week’s photo from Omak Lake.

As some of you may know, the Colville Tribe has introduced some new fees for fishing on the reservation. The biggest change is an access fee of $80.00 per year. This allows non-tribal members to enter the reservation to fish its many quality waters. Anglers also need to purchase a Tribal fishing license, which are good for one day, three days, a week or annually. The license fees haven’t changed. Also new this year are launching permits, which are $10.00 per day. All of these licenses and permits can be purchased on the Colville Fish and Wildlife website. 

As soon as I learned these permits and licenses were available I went on-line and bought my access fee, an annual license, and a two pole permit. As I recall the total came to about $130.00. I figured I would buy launch permits as needed, which I did for last Friday and Saturday. I hope to fish Omak Lake several times, Buffalo Lake and Twin Lakes this season. I also enjoy fishing the San Poil River. I can also launch my boat right at the second net pens on Rufus Woods at the new boat ramp there. I consider what I pay to fish the Colville Reservation a bargain. The quality of the fishing is amazing.

As many of you know, there has been a white sturgeon fishery open on Lake Roosevelt for the last four years. The number and quality of the fish taken during this exciting fishery has attracted a lot of attention. Anglers are having good success in the vicinity of Kettle Falls, and in August the area above China Bend will open to fishing. My good friend James Lebow traveled with me to Kettle Falls last Monday to do camera duties while we fished with Kevin Witte, of B & K Fishing Adventures. 

Kevin lives in Kettle Falls and knows this fishery intimately. He has boated good numbers of sturgeon this season, which opened on June 12th. He has also sent home clients with keeper sturgeon that fit in the slot limit on Lake Roosevelt. I can’t say enough about what a great experience it is to be on the scenic waters here, and you’ll want to watch the video that I am editing right now about our day on the water with Kevin. We landed a very nice sturgeon that was just short of the slot size and released it. I will be going back to fish with Kevin. Fish or not it’s a blast.

Kevin took the time to show us some of the more popular spots to fish for sturgeon. We started near the mouth of the Colville River, where I landed a monster walleye this spring. We ran as far north as China Bend, and I plan to fish here with Kevin when it opens in August. The sturgeon fishing should be excellent in this area at that time. We also stopped by the mouth of the Kettle River, which is another sturgeon fishing hot spot. We ran up the river a short distance and he pointed out an area that is known to produce northern pike, particularly in the spring, but are caught throughout the summer.

I got a note from one of my readers about the opening of the Columbia River above Wells Dam to the Highway 173 Bridge in Brewster on July 16th. 

Years ago, I ran into Shane Magnuson, who was just coming in with this clients at Pateros. He told me that rather than fishing the Brewster Pool the next morning, to try fishing just off the debris barrier above Wells in the afternoon. So that is what we did. My fishing partner, Brian Anantatmula and I hooked two very nice kings trolling the edge of the debris. We were trolling close enough to allow our flashers to swing under the debris. You have to keep your drag tight so you can pull the fish out from under all the junk. We managed to land the first fish, but the second one ran under the debris and snagged on a tree limb. Brian just couldn’t stop the big king that was determined to get under there. 

I talked to a couple of friends that fished the Brewster Pool this week. They wanted to get up there before the Columbia closed for sockeye fishing last Sunday. They both had good success, catching both kings and sockeye. Even last Friday the number of boats on the Pool made navigating a challenge. If you plan to fish the Pool, better keep your head on a swivel and be aware of the other boats around you. The fishing for kings has been excellent this year. Boat numbers may fall off a bit now that sockeye fishing is closed.