I thought we were going to make it through the season without serious wildfires and enjoy clear skies into the fall. Things can change quickly though, and they sure did this week. It has been hazy for many days where I live in Leavenworth and things really took a turn. Last Sunday the smoke was so thick it obscured the sun at times.

My good friend Rollie Schmitten and I have been trying to plan a trip with Rufus Woods, grandson of the founder of the Wenatchee World. We have talked about this many times. He made a serious effort to contact Rufus and found that he was out of town. I had a plan for him that I thought he would enjoy. Rufus Woods Reservoir is named for his granddad. He was very instrumental in the promotion of the idea of what the construction of Grand Coulee Dam could mean. He envisioned a rich agricultural region created from the desert when provided the water that would be delivered from the vast reservoir formed by the great dam. We all have seen the abundance and variety of the crops that are grown in the Columbia Basin and the benefits of this ambitious irrigation project.

Lake Roosevelt was named for the U.S. President that got this great project done and the waters of the Columbia River below the dam were named Rufus Woods Reservoir after the construction of Chief Joseph Dam. I am not sure that the present day Rufus Woods had even been on this 50-mile stretch of the Columbia. Rollie and I thought he would enjoy a day on the water on the upper reservoir, not only seeing the sights, but doing some fishing while we were there. I know we could have a wonderful day with Rufus, on Rufus Woods, but we will postpone the trip until the skies clear. Part of the experience is watching the wildlife from the boat. With visibility as bad as I imagine it is right now, we will wait until the smoke clears.

As many of you know I have spent several days fishing on Rufus Woods this summer. Also, I have had the joy of introducing a number of my family and friends to the fun of catching big triploid rainbow trout and walleye below the net pens. I have been fishing Rufus Woods since the early 90s, even before the accidental releases of the fish from the net pens that made this reservoir famous. The fishing for monster rainbow attracted anglers from all over the state to try their luck here.

There were four state records broken in as many years on Rufus Woods. A fish of 29 pounds, 6 ounces was landed in November of 2002 and that hasn’t been broken since. There are rumors of divers working beneath the net pens seeing trout that would easily beat this record. All of us anglers hope that it is still possible.

Although many anglers fish Rufus Woods in the winter I think I have fished the reservoir every month of the year over time. The accidental releases of large numbers of big triploided rainbow may be a thing of the past but there is a healthy population of trout maintained by the Colville Tribe. They plant up to thirty or forty thousand triploids in the reservoir annually. Earlier this year, they planted 14,000 triploids that averaged nearly 5 pounds and that’s what everyone is catching this summer.

The parking lot at Seatons Grove has been crowded with trucks and trailers with most boaters heading for the uppermost net pens. Here they anchor between the pens and the shore and fish bait on the bottom and, depending on how many people are in the boat, have their limits in an hour or so.
I chose to troll below the net pens. I troll downstream with bottom bouncers and spinners and usually have no trouble getting limits of the big trout and even add a few nice walleye to the catch.

In the winter, when my boat is tucked away, I fish Rufus Woods from the shore. My favorite spot is at Brandts Landing. This is a federal park with a vault toilet and several spots along the shore that have fire rings and some with picnic tables. I have had good success getting my two-fish limit almost every time I fish here.

Dave Marchaud, a fish checker with the Colville Tribe, always stops by to see how I am doing when I’m at Brandts Landing. He patrols the lower end of Rufus Woods checking the catches of anglers from the public access just above Chief Joseph Dam up to Brandts Landing. I checked in with him earlier this week to ask how the fishing was and he reported that fishing pressure was low due to the heavy smoke in the area. Then he followed up with a video he shot out the window of this pickup. I was shocked to see the smoldering remains of where the wildfire has passed through Brandts Landing. If you would like to see the video, it is posted on my FishingMagician.com Facebook Page. The photo in this week’s column is of Tom Verschueren with a nice triploid taken from the shore at Brandts Landing.

I sure hope the smoke clears from the Coeur d’Alene area by the end of the week. That’s when my wife and I will join her two sisters and families for a long weekend on the lake. We have a house on the water rented so I will take the Kingfisher along and we will all fish for kokanee while we are there. Last year, at close to the same time, we had a terrific time catching big kokanee on the lake. I had never fished Coeur d’Alene but took my Kokabow Fishing Tackle blades and spinners and squidders and we had a ball. We piled into the boat the first evening we were there and headed out of the bay and when I saw boats trolling, I put out the gear. We were into fish immediately and caught a bunch and even had a couple of doubles. What fun! I called the folks at the Fin and Feathers tackle shop and asked if the kokanee were as big as they were last year and they said they were bigger! Boy, am I excited.

Well, I hope the smoke clears out enough for people to get out on the water here locally. There’s a lot of great fishing to be had this fall in the region.