FISHING

deploys these proven ones. His best were swimming perfectly as we progressed up the break line, always flirting with the edge of the main river channel and depths of 18 to 23 feet.

FEMALES SHOW UP far earlier to the spawn in the Burbank/Tri-Cities area than males. By January or February, females have already moved up into shallower waters to feed on big winter baitfish and to stage for their March or very early April spawn. Meanwhile their smaller male counterparts and juvenile females reside in deeper, wintering holes that are often adjacent to or nearby staging areas. As such, most fish caught at night in the 18to 23-foot depth range are females loaded with eggs.

Our first pass resulted in nothing, as did our second, so we made a short run and got on the troll again. Jason Lindgren’s rod was the first to buckle and bend backwards. Breken, Karson and Scott cleared theirs as Jason reeled and reported feeling head shakes. After a short battle and a scoop of the net, we had a very pregnant 24-inch female ready for release after a few pictures. The boat shared the ethic of letting females go, so it was easy to watch the fish go back and for us to get on the troll again.

It’s a rare walleye fishery where a “small” one is about 2 feet, where 30-inchers are the target, and where the dream is a fish 34 inches or larger. Due to the prey base in this stretch, relatively short walleye attain great weights. A previous Washington state record of 19.3 pounds was under 34 inches! Fish topping 34 inches deserve a closer look via scale before releasing.

We got back on the troll over the same line where we had just hooked up and had another takedown in no time, but it was just a quick takedown and not a hookup. Just minutes later, Breken’s rod started ripping out line. The crew cleared lines and the deck, and Breken, under polite instruction from Miller, fought what appeared to be a decent fish. Ripping out line as it neared the boat, the walleye did not immediately show itself. But in true walleye form, the fish quickly finished its fight, appearing large and gold in our headlamps before landing with a gentle thud on the boat’s deck. The fish taped out at 29.5 inches and 11.6 pounds. Her girth was immense! Breken and Miller posed for some pictures, and we looped around again on plane to troll through the same hot zone.

After a biteless pass through the fishy stretch, we made yet another and were briefly rewarded for our persistence. A very large fish grabbed Karson’s Bandit plug and took off the opposite direction of the boat, peeling line in the manner that big ones do. Karson stepped up to the rod and fought the fish through just a few big head shakes before it popped loose. Sometimes they just pop off, and that was one of those times. There was nothing Karson could have done better in the situation. We made a few more passes without another takedown and called the trip a fun success. We had thrown together a short trip at a moment’s notice and went two-forfour on some really nice fish.

THE ONLY WAY to have a chance at a true monster is to fish and fish often. Miller fishes often, and he tells his clients upfront that the fishing can be a grind. He’s especially clear with trophy-seekers who travel from afar like the Midwest and Great Lakes states. At times the females just don’t bite or the lures just don’t find them, or vice versa. But you have to fish and grind to translate time into bites and fish landed. The night had not been much of a grind.

Nobody went home with any fish, but we all got to watch a master at work, see two nice-sized female walleye brought to hand and released, and hear the sizzle of a reel from what may have been a briefly hooked true monster. Some females get retained in the Tri-Cities fishery, but most get released under the community ethic that the biggest walleye are the big spawners because they have so many eggs. Even with popular talk of “lettin’ the big girls swim” and “settin’ her loose to do her thing,” females are some of the least productive spawners and experience majorly decreasing fertility as they age. But there’s some logic to letting big females go to be bigger females to potentially achieve record or lifetime trophy size. Whether you release or bonk, it won’t affect the population, but you will eat lesser walleye fillets with more pollutants when you eat females.

Looking for big loads of males this February? Daytime fishing was lights-out during mid-January. Reach out to Miller, Bryce Doherty (odohertyoutfitters.com) out of Boardman, Oregon, or Jerry Reyes (flatoutfishing.net) of Pasco for a great daytime trip and likely lots of catching of tastier eater-sized fish.

If you are considering a night fishing trip to the Tri-Cities/Burbank area, I have two main pieces of advice:

1) Go with a guide or expert first and ask to launch no later than the late afternoon so you can see the landscape before it gets dark. Learning the water in daylight conditions improves your situational awareness at night.

2) If you’re not hiring a guide and are new to this water, at least know that it is as dangerous as it gets in Eastern Washington. There are barges, moored barges, bridges, channel markers and buoys, other anglers and extremely shallow water all over the place. You can run aground in many places. I highly recommend you fish here in the daytime for at least a full day before attempting these waters at night. NS