I hope you have made plans to try your luck at the Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge. I also got out and fished Billy Clapp Lake, Lake Chelan and Rufus Woods last week.

The Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge, conducted by Reel Recreation, is coming up on April 11th through the 13th. It kicks off with Fun Friday, with a variety of activities. They include a trout pond, gold panning, golf, a climbing wall, and the Ninja Climb. To satisfy your hunger and thirst, there will be a lemonade stand, cotton candy and a taco stand. On Saturday and Sunday anglers will take on the challenge of catching three species. They must catch a bass, a walleye and a “kicker” species, which could be a whitefish or a rainbow trout. If they can do this two days in a row, they qualify for the prizes. Each day, the heaviest rainbow trout, walleye, bass, and whitefish in adult and youth divisions will be awarded prizes. Youth anglers will receive prizes for each day’s heaviest 3 fish stringers. In the Adult class, the angler with the heaviest 6 fish total (2 bass, 2 walleye, and 2 “kicker” fish) will win the Grand Prize. You can register and get all of the rules by logging on to reelrecreation.com. There are some rule changes in place this year that should really help anglers have even better success. I hope to see you there!

My neighbor Dan Fiske, owner of the Yodelin restaurants in Leavenworth and Port Angeles, says that kokanee are his favorite fish. So, Dan and his 13 year old son, Calder, joined me last Saturday for my first trip to Lake Chelan this year to see if we could catch some. I used the city launch above the dam and drove the Smoker Craft up to an area below Rocky Point, keeping a close eye on the Gamin fish finder to start our search. Not long after we started trolling on the Minn Kota, one of the downrigger rods started bouncing, and Calder reeled in a 15 inch beauty. We then left the lower basin and ran up above the Yacht Club. Here we found the kokanee fishing fleet. There were at least a half dozen boats scattered across the water from Green’s Landing to the area I call The Fences, as there are some long, white vinyl fences leading to homes on the lake. One passing angler mentioned that they had started here at first light and had caught five fish. We worked through this area and landed three small kokanee. Fishing for kokanee on Chelan will improve as more of them move down from the upper lake. This week’s photo is of Calder with this 15 inch kokanee from Lake Chelan.

I made another trip to Rufus Woods, hoping to have another busy day catching triploid rainbow trout. My fishing partners Keith Hiatt, Alex Saliby and I did. It took me a while to find the numbers of fish I was looking for on the Garmin fish finder, and I even moved locations a couple of times. When the screen was filled with fish, I would launch the Minn Kota and park on them. The fish were certainly more scattered than on my last two trips. Initially, the current was running so strong that I dug out some heavier jigs, and that helped. Actually, it didn’t matter what Keith and I tried, Alex caught fish after fish. He got a reputation for this kind of “fish hogery” when the three of us fished for bass at Banks Lake a few years ago. At one point I had all kinds of lead head jigs and grubs laid out on the back of the Smoker Craft for Keith and I to try, but we just couldn’t keep up with Alex. I must say that this batch of trout the Colville Tribe released are in beautiful shape, and we had a blast catching them.

I was invited to fish Billy Clapp Lake with Dennis and Monaca Beich last Sunday and I said yes with enthusiasm. I have mentioned in previous reports that I’ve had several great days fishing for rainbow trout here in the late winter or early spring. I stopped by the week before to check on conditions and found the dock floating and people launching their fishing boats. After loading the boat, we headed up to the big basalt island and started looking for fish on the Gamin fish finder. We weren’t really seeing many. There were a few marks that looked like big trout, but nothing was hitting the plugs that we were flatlining out the back of the boat. After a while we decided to make the run up to the top end of the lake to see if we could mark some walleye. We did get some good walleye marks, but they were awfully deep, and we weren’t set up for walleye fishing. We spent a little more time trolling back where we started. We got a couple of hits, but didn’t hook a single trout. We are hoping trout fishing will improve when the water temperature warms up.

I want to remind everyone that fishing licenses must be renewed each year on the first of April. I wouldn’t be the first one to let this get me. I have had to jump online to get one to keep legal. If you haven’t done this, it really isn’t too difficult. However, you can’t get your salmon or steelhead punch cards online, you have to get these at a store that sells licenses. Also, I have had friends who have shown up to go fishing with me that had their fishing license but didn’t know they needed a salmon card. The person at the counter just didn’t ask and they didn’t know. Be sure to ask. They don’t cost anything either. The other fishing license item is that you don’t want to throw last year’s catch record card away. You need to send it to Olympia. The instructions are on the punch cards, and they are due by the end of the month. I stopped by the ramp at the east end of Evergreen Reservoir on my way home from Billy Clapp. The water is up about as high as it gets, and the ramp can be used.

More and more fishing opportunities are coming this spring!