If you are going to fish this time of year, you are going to flirt with some nasty weather. No matter how carefully you watch the forecasts and plan for the best days, Mother Nature can surprise you. In spite of threatening winds and heavy rain, I managed to spend some quality time on the water this past week.

I joined my long-time fishing friends Brian Neilson and James Lebow for a walleye trip last Saturday. Brian was hesitant to have me come all the way down there as the forecast was for high winds. I wasn’t going to miss a chance to fish Potholes with these guys, so I made the drive from Leavenworth to meet my fishing buddies near Moses Lake.

We shoved off from the launch at Mar Don Resort. James had his batteries charged and had been on the reservoir just a couple of days before so he knew where to look for fish. We spent most of our time in 25 to 30 feet of water northeast of the State Park and, although we occasionally marked some walleye, we were only able to put one 18-inch walleye in the live well. I was so confident that we were going to catch a bunch of walleye I even released an 11 1/2 -inch perch, which I never do. My brother can’t believe I did it! This week’s photo is of me with the 18-inch walleye I landed.

We were frustrated that this spot wasn’t producing more than a walleye, a couple of perch and two catfish (way to go, James). Brian had an idea for what he called Plan B, so we ran across the reservoir to a bay just below the mouth of Lind Coulee. This was a good move. All of us got good worm-stealing strikes but didn’t hook up. Then Brian landed a 16-inch walleye and we were excited about getting more fish. We were rushing to get our baits back in the water in hopes of adding to our catch.

Then Brian noticed the ominous cloud bank headed our way. It looked really ugly. It appeared to be a wall of blowing dust. His wife called to tell him the wind was blowing hard at home. We knew we had better get off the water. As good as this spot was it wasn’t worth taking a beating getting back to the launch so we called it a day. We knew we made the right decision. By the time we got to the launch, we couldn’t see the top end of the reservoir and the calm water we ran in over to Mar Don had turned to a heavy chop.

It was a tough day of fishing, not catching, but always fun when I’m on the water with these two. I was happy to have enough fish for a fresh walleye dinner!

I described my plan for a fishing trip to Rufus Woods in last Monday’s website, radio, and Facebook Page report and promised to share how it turned out. So here it is:

It got off to a rough stutter start. One of my buddies had to drop out at the last minute. He caught a cold and didn’t want to expose me and the others. Darn, but you don’t take any chances these days. My other friends, Jim Passage and Dennis Broughton, showed up with their boat and wanted to fish from it so off we went.

I had them follow me down to the net pens since they hadn’t been there before. That was the whole idea, to show them the fishing area so they could do it themselves later on. You know how we have talked about wanting to really show off a fishing spot and wow your friends—and then it didn’t happen? Well, it was close to this.

We wanted to fly fish and actually caught some doing it. I got a pig on a black bullethead leech I was casting with a sink tip line. Dennis Broughton hooked a fish behind his boat which ran upstream and jumped twenty yards above the boat. Then it ran downstream and jumped forty yards below the boat. It slipped the hook next to the boat but so what. What a show.

Then it started to pour down rain. We just wanted to get some fish and get out of there. I had two bait rods in the boat, just in case and I got a fish in about two minutes. I put a nightcrawler on and dropped it 30 feet down. I passed the rods to my buddies and they broke one off and landed one and then we took off for home.

I have to tell you about a special thing that happened while we were fishing. There was a boat with two anglers in it fishing near us, right below the net pens. I saw them land their four fish, and we applauded each other on our catches as they were netted. They got four nice fish that day, and said they landed a 17-pounder the day before.

When they had their four fish, they came over to my boat and gave me the fly that they were using! What a great gesture. I have done the same thing a few times over the years. I have tossed a Kokabow blade and spinner to an angler who was struggling and it was much appreciated. These guys reminded me what a special bunch we anglers can be. Always wanting fellow anglers to have as much success as they do.

My wife has told me that there are some folks that are taking advantage of this mild early-winter weather and going to Fish Lake near Lake Wenatchee. They are fishing for perch and having a blast. They are getting limits and having some great perch fries. Yum!

Well, there is snow in the forecast in the coming week here in Leavenworth. I have the Kingfisher tucked under its cover and the batteries on the charger. It looks like there will be a weather break in the middle of the week. I am not sure what I might do for fishing, but I will be ready!