I had a great weekend. The annual Burke Lake Trout Derby took place on Saturday, and my wife and I spent some time there. On Sunday we ran up to Lake Chelan and spent a few hours trolling for kokanee.

My wife and I had a great fishing trip out of Loreto BCS, Mexico recently. She had such a great time being out on the water that she wanted to go again as soon as possible. So, I brought the boat home from its winter storage and rigged it for kokanee fishing at Lake Chelan. She did remind me that we were in a phase of the moon that was pretty full, but off we went on Sunday.

We launched at the State Park and ran up above the Yacht Club where we found several boats trolling. I wasn’t marking any fish, and although we did hook a double, losing them both, we decided to try our luck in the lower Basin. I have found fish here this fall and in early winter. I still wasn’t marking any fish near Rocky Point and even when I trolled over to the Blue Roofs I was looking at an empty screen the whole way. I trolled back over the Rocky Point area and finally a downrigger rod, set at 127 feet went off. It turned out to be a small laker. That was it for the day, which we both enjoyed in spite of the lack of action.

As you all know, the annual Burke Lake Trout Derby, sponsored by the Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce was delayed this year. It is usually scheduled for the first weekend in March, when many of the lakes in the Columbia Basin open for fishing. However, our prolonged winter made that impossible. I visited the lake on March 5th and saw a bunch of people out fishing on the ice!
The date of the derby was moved to March 19th. There was some concern that this would be too late, since people could fish Burke Lake prior to that day. I am happy to report that everything worked out great. There were 160 anglers registered for the event, one of the biggest turnouts in years.
Fishing was slow, but the fish that were turned in were much larger than usual. I guess the smaller fish were caught earlier. I saw many stringers of fish that were 15 to 18 inches long and very fat. These must have been carryovers from the previous year’s stocking.

So, there were a lot of happy anglers lined up at the weigh station. Cash and prizes were handed out to the adult winners, and the youth winners received prizes and gift certificates and trophies. One of the very special things about this event is the attention they give to young anglers. They made sure that every kid aged 12 and under left with a new fishing rod.

Here’s a big thank you to the folks at the Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce. 

The volunteers and sponsors make this one of the best events ever. This week’s photo is of the top three youth winners at the derby.

I have been getting questions about the Colville Tribe’s plans for planting triploids into Rufus Woods Reservoir. This is one of the most popular fisheries in Eastern Washington, and all of the fish that are planted in Rufus Woods are done by the tribe. They put approximately 50,000 fish into Rufus every year, and this year is no different.

There was a small plant made last month, and in March they boosted the number of fish they released. The fish that are going in now will average about 1.8 pounds. In April and May additional releases are planned with the fish averaging 2 pounds and the biggest releases of the year will occur in May and June.

Although these fish aren’t the whoppers people are after in Rufus, the growth rate of these fish is phenomenal. They are able to track this through their tagging program and have seen fish recorded that grew from 1.4 pounds to 13 pounds in just two years. There will be excellent fishing for big rainbow again this fall, thanks to the Colville Tribe.

There’s good news and bad news for anglers here in Central Washington. The bad news first. We have had one of the longest ice fishing seasons in many years. I got to try some new lakes, like Curlew and Bonaparte. Even Roses Lake, near Lake Chelan, offered good fishing for perch and trout this winter.
I ran up to Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee last week and although the main lake is still covered with ice, there is a lot of water on top of the ice, and open spots around the edges. I made a few trips to Fish Lake this winter and had a blast catching perch. I heard reports of some kokanee caught through the ice, too. I think the ice fishing season is winding down.

Now the good news. Both Moses Lake and Potholes are free of ice, and when the water warms just a bit more the fishing for walleye and bass will start to happen. I’m sure that Banks Lake will also clear soon and offer early walleye and bass fishing. Slow presentations will be the way to go for a while, but I have caught smallmouth even in December on Banks, so find ‘em and you can catch ‘em.

I also got word that Billy Clapp Lake has filled and anglers can use the launch now. One of the people at the Burke Lake Trout Derby showed me a photo of two limits of big rainbow taken on Billy Clapp recently. Another buddy of mine sent me a photo of a fat fish. Anglers should expect to catch rainbow of at least 14 inches, and there are always some carryovers weighing 2 to 3 pounds taken in the early season.

My favorite way to fish Billy Clapp in the early season is trolling Rapalas or Flicker Shads flatlined way back behind the boat. Sometimes I will put these plugs out on side planers and put them 25 to 50 feet away from the boat. This isn’t always necessary though. The jointed models of Rapalas are particularly effective, and I have caught a lot of fish on the biggest floating models in orange.

It looks like spring fishing is off and running in the region. Finally!