The first snow has fallen here at my home in Leavenworth. Well, a “wintery mix” is what they call it. I managed to pick a couple of sunny days last week to get out on the water and try my luck. It is getting near the time when I change my fishing tactics.

This time of year, I often choose to fish from the shore at several locations in our region. Rainbow trout and triploid rainbow trout are my target, and the possibility of landing some really big fish is very good.

This year, the Colville Tribe released over 45,000 triploids into Rufus Woods. They released 15,000 in February, weighing 2 pounds each. In the period of April through May, they released 25,000 2 pounders, and an additional 5,000 were released later in May and June. The fish in this plant weighed 1.8 pounds. When you consider the rapid growth rate of these fish, anglers can realistically expect to catch trout weighing 4 to 6 pounds now. The possibility of getting one that weighs double digits is very real.

Most anglers will fish Rufus Woods at the public accesses above Chief Joseph Dam, or at my favorite spot, Brandts Landing, which is a Federal Park six miles above the boat launch. Fishing from shore at the middle net pens is very popular, even though this requires a Tribal Access permit.

I also like to fish Lake Roosevelt from shore. Near Coulee Dam, I fish at Crescent Beach or Spring Canyon. I also fish from shore at Keller. The trout I catch on Lake Roosevelt average 16 to 20 inches. At all of these locations, I use the same method. A sliding slip sinker rig with the hook baited with either Power Bait, a marshmallow and shrimp, or a nightcrawler combo. This week’s photo is of two limits of trout Tom Verschuren and I landed at Keller in November a few years ago.

I keep a backpack handy, that is loaded with what I need for a day of fishing from shore. There are rod holders, extra leaders and sinkers, a stringer, a good selection of Power Bait, a jar of shrimp, and marshmallows. I can grab this and hit the door with everything I need to catch Rufus Woods or Lake Roosevelt trout. I will also often bring hand and foot warmers, my Fishing Buddy propane heater, or even some wood to start a blaze in the fireboxes that are located at many of the public access points at Brandts Landing.

The weather forecast was for another sunny day last Thursday, so I called my friend James Lebow in Moses Lake and asked if he would like to give Potholes a try. He was willing, so we fished it Thursday morning. I wanted to see if we could catch some walleye with crankbaits off side planers, and we trolled the area at the very top end of Medicare Beach. It was here we scored a first—a catfish on a plug! We also landed a nice smallmouth. We weren’t getting any hits on the plugs and really weren’t marking many walleye, so we headed to the other side of the reservoir, where we usually find and catch walleye. We switched from trolling side planers and plugs to bottom bouncers and spinners. Well, that didn’t really pay off either. We only caught one whopper perch. We marveled at the huge flocks of Canada geese and snow geese that were flying overhead or rafting up on Potholes.

We contemplated what we wanted to do next, and I called Dave, who checks catches on the bottom end of Rufus Woods for the Colville Tribe. He said that there are still mostly small trout being caught, and no one seems to know where they are coming from. I will call my contact at the Colville hatchery and see if they have released any small fish lately. So, we may wait a while before we fish from the shore at Brandts Landing. I have had some great days here over the winter months.

We have many clear, calm, and sunny days in the winter over here, and last Tuesday was one of them. It was a great day to be on Lake Chelan, and we had very good kokanee fishing. Tom Verschueren and I had a great start just above the Yacht Club, with a double. One was a small cutthroat and the other was a small kokanee. I thought, oh boy, here we go! We landed seven kokanee trolling in this spot. There were three other boats trolling above the Yacht Club. Traditionally, this is a good place on the lake to find schools of kokanee in the winter.

Then, the bite really slowed down, and the wind started to blow a bit. We figured that this would be a good time to try another area, so I drove the boat to the “Blue Roofs,” which are on the shore across the road from Pat and Mike’s. There were no other boats here in the lower basin. We got a fish within ten minutes of getting our gear out, but then nothing for about 20 minutes. We crossed the lake and started trolling below Rocky Point and things changed—for the better. We were getting more fish, even spotting some schools of fish on the depth sounder, and they were larger than the kokanee we were getting above the Yacht Club. We got 13 in about an hour and a half. Several were 13 to 14 inches.

We were running the downriggers at 80 feet, and rods with five-ounce leads at 80 on the line counter out the back. The back rods were catching as many or more than the downrigger rods. I had my favorite orange spinners behind orange Kokabow blades on a couple of rods and pink spinners behind pink Kokabow blades on a couple of rods. I started running more pink earlier this season with good results. I was keeping my speed at about 1.2 mph.

There is a lot of good fishing to look forward to this winter. I have too many things to be thankful for this Holiday. I hope you all have a great Turkey Day!