First we get sunny and calm days, and then cold and windy. Heck, it snowed at my home in Leavenworth last Friday. The unsettled weather has made fishing inconsistent. I picked a cold but clear and calm day to try for kokanee on Lake Chelan. I will blame the weather and a mechanical issue I created myself for a less than spectacular day.

As I mentioned in my reports, the plan was to get on the water early. The week before a friend had boated 18 kokanee by 9 a.m. and I wanted to get in on that morning bite. I got there early alright. In fact, it was pitch black. I was so eager that I had the riggers set up with the weights on them so I would just have to put them over the side and get to fishing. Well, I got the first one out just fine, but I hit the switch on the second one to take out some slack and ran the cable under the spool. Rats. It was out of action.

I did have some lead balls in my box, so I rigged some other rods with sliders and 4- to 6-ounce leads. We started the day above the Yacht Club at Green’s Landing. When we arrived my brother in law Tom brought my attention to the screen on the Garmin fish finder. It was loaded with fish. They were everywhere. By the time we got everything in the water and started trolling they were gone! Amazing. We were passing over some schools, though, and getting a fish here and there.

We found the Kokabow Copper Series Inferno blade and the orange Talon squid were working well again. We had that on three of the four rods and put the Sunburst Tail Feather on the other. They all caught fish. I was surprised to see the corner rod, the one with the 4-ounce lead on it, catch as many or more fish that the rigger rod. I ran the rigger anywhere from 83 feet to 137 feet, chasing schools. I had the corner rod out 120 pulls and the one with 6 ounces on it out 100 pulls. All the set ups were baited with white shoe peg corn and scented with Graybill’s Guide Formula Kokanee flavor. I kept our speed from 1.3 to 1.5 mph, and once had it up to 1.7 and got a fish.

When the fish disappeared at Green’s Landing we moved out in the middle of the lake, and that’s where we found the occasional school. We trolled around out here for a few hours, and then moved down into the Yacht Club channel to see if there were any fish down there. Nope. We packed it up at 1 p.m. and headed home. We had 11 kokanee and one cutthroat for the day. My buddy sent me a photo later and he had an even dozen kokanee, a lake trout and a small king. He agreed it was a tough day for kokanee fishing on Chelan. When the weather settles down it will be much better.

I got a really good report from my brother Rick on the fishing at Rufus Woods. He and my cousin Greg Preston spent a few days in Grand Coulee and bounced around exploring Rufus Woods, Lake Roosevelt and even ran up to Porcupine Bay on the Spokane Arm. Rufus Woods was by far the best. On two separate outings that only lasted a few hours due to wind, they caught double digit numbers of triploids. They were just casting 1/4-ounce jigs to the shore and twitching them back to the boat. Rick thought that the trout were larger than usual. Many were in the 4- to 6-pound range, and one they figured weighed well over 10 pounds. They were launching at Seatons Grove and working their way down to the Nespelem Bar, across from the net pens. They did spend some time looking for walleye on Rufus, and even in Porcupine Bay. They got blown off before they could give this a decent try, or the flow just wasn’t strong to expect good fishing. The photo in this week’s column is of the big trout Greg got on Rufus Woods.

I also got a report on the walleye fishing on Banks Lake. Tim Reichmann, who I fished with earlier this winter for big rainbow on Banks, said he got a bunch of walleye, and they were 18 to 22 inches. This is good news. The walleye fishing on Banks, Potholes and Moses Lake has been off its usual pace the past couple of seasons. I sure hope that it improves this year. I am going to be fishing with Shelby Ross on Potholes and will get a better idea of what to expect on this reservoir. It looks like the forecast is for decent weather, but still very chilly at night. We have had an early spring and thought that we would see fishing for walleye take off a little earlier this year. However, our nighttime temperatures have still been low, especially this past week. This may stall the pre-spawn bite and even the spawn this year.

This is the time of year when many fishing events for kids are scheduled. With the health concerns that are spreading widely across the state, I expect that many of these will be cancelled. I am thinking of the very popular event at the Pitt Pond in Rock Island, near East Wenatchee. I will be contacting the city to see what the plan is for this year’s event, which is held the third week of April. Keep an eye on my website and Facebook pages to see what I have learned.

A good way to avoid contact with crowds is to get outdoors. With schools closed and many other businesses either operating on short hours or closing, it’s a good time to get out in the boat or fish from shore at one of our many year-round lakes. So, grab the kids, hook up the boat and go fishing!

I know I am going to be able to get out at least once this week. There are some clear and sunny days ahead, and I am going to take advantage of them!