The Quincy Chamber’s Trout Derby is behind us, and the Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge was last weekend. These events encourage families to participate and take special care of all of the kids that attend. There are some other events this coming weekend that are just for kids.

Reel Recreation, the organization that puts on the Banks Lake Triple Fish Challenge, hit it out of the park again. According to Nic Alexander, president of the group, Fun Friday was a huge hit. They scheduled the event to stay open into the early evening, to make sure that kids would be out of school, and families could come after their workday. The big attraction was the trout pond, where kids got to catch a fish. In addition, there was food and live music and 500 people enjoyed the activities. In spite of very tough weather last Saturday, there was a very festive atmosphere at the weigh station on Sunday as anglers turned in their catches, which were much better than the day before. There were daily prizes for the biggest bass, walleye, trout or whitefish. Overall participation at this year’s event tied their best ever and had the highest number of youth they had every had. The prizes awarded for both adult and youth winners were of exceptional quality, and there were lots of them. There were so many winners at this event, I just can’t list them all here. If you would like to see the results for all of the categories, you can Google this address: TripleFish.Simplederby.com. Nic also wanted to thank the owners of Coulee Playland for their help and generosity. This week’s photo is of the stage and the piles and piles of prizes and trophies that were going to be handed out.

The opening of the lowland lake general trout season is coming up on the 4th Saturday in April, and there are a couple of fishing events that families can take advantage of a week prior to the opener. For over 20 years the City of Rock Island has invited families with kids under that age of 15 to fish at the Pit Pond, which is a juveniles only lake. They welcome everyone with donuts and coffee in the morning and later in the day serve up free hot dogs, sodas and chips. The Wenatchee Sportsman’s Association will be on hand to help the kids catch fish. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife always makes sure that there are plenty of fish planted in the lake prior to the event and usually throw in some whoppers. This has become a very popular event, and I want to thank the community for making this a special day for the kids and their families. Another kid’s fishing event is the one put on by the Ephrata Lions Club. This one has also been going on for many years, too and takes place at the pond at Oasis Park, on the south edge of the town. These events are a good way to tune up for the general opener the following weekend. So, dust off the tackle boxes, your rods and reels and go have some fun.

My fishing buddies James and Tyler had some business to do in Brewster on Tuesday and asked me if I would like to join them for some fishing. You can probably guess what my answer was. I met the two of them in Coulee Dam and they jumped in with me to try our luck from the shore at the middle net pens. We spread out and started casting on the beach just below the pens. Tyler had never fished Rufus Woods, had never caught a triploid and he got the first one. The action was sporadic at best, and we kept creeping further up the beach to see if our luck would improve. We landed our first fish last week at about nine and we had our six fish limit by 10:30, so it wasn’t that bad of a bite. The fish averaged about 2 pounds or so each and although I did cast a jig for a while, Power Bait was what the fish liked the best. James has already put a batch of these triploids through his smoker and everyone loved them. These triploids are hard to beat.

On my way home from a recent trip to Rufus Woods Reservoir I stopped by the Northrup boat launch on Banks Lake. I’d like to let everyone know that the docks are in place and there were a good number of boat trailers in the parking area. The lake level is up, and I think most of the launches can be used now. Also, the launch at Connelly Park on Moses Lake is open and can now be used from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. except it will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays through the month of April. On my last trip to Lake Chelan, I pulled into Mill Bay to check on the launch situation there. Due to low water, only two lanes at the Mill Bay launch on Lake Chelan are usable. I saw an 18-footer coming off the water that had launched there. The lane that is on the down lake side had some orange cones at the top, so it is too shallow to allow for putting a boat in the water. I talked to someone the other day that said the docks at the State Park are pretty high and dry.

I had already started working on my E-Letter for Spring. I want to have it out before the trout season opener, as I have some great information about where to find the best fishing. I have been doing the E-Letter since 2008. This year those who sign up get four seasonal issues a year at no cost. However, if you want to get the four seasonal E-Letters and the Monthly Updates, the cost is $24.99 for the year. I have a lot of folks signing up for the E-Letter with the Monthly Updates, and I want to thank them for their support. My cost to distribute the E-Letter quadrupled in the past year, but I didn’t want to give it up. So many subscribers have thanked me for the great information in the E-Letters. Stay tuned, I will let you know when the Spring issue is available.