REG1ON OF TROUT

The last Saturday in April is a special day in Washington. Generations of families will dangle worms off of docks, plunk PowerBait from many thousands of miles of trout-patrolled shorelines, and troll and cast all manner of lures and other baits in pursuit of five-fish limits (at most lakes) of rainbow, cutthroat, brown, brook and tiger trout

– even some lake trout. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

Far Eastern Washington offers so many great lakes for anglers to get out on in late spring.

By Jeff Holmes

Washington’s official state fish is a steelhead, and with all the noise us steelheaders make at times you might think we’re the majority angling group. Nope. Not close.

Washington is a trout-powered state when it comes to recreational angling, and most of that fishing is done in lakes by people buying licenses to catch trout. Steelhead – which is obviously also a trout, just the seagoing kind – as well as salmon, bass and walleye tend to get the headlines, but they don’t sell the licenses or power the state’s economy the way trout and particularly the opening day of trout season does. Trout fishing is excellent year-round in the Evergreen State, but without a doubt late April’s opener is prime time for a huge percentage of the anglers who buy licenses in the state. Opening Day continues to be the state’s biggest all-ages playday. While there aren’t as many lakes opening on the traditional opener this year due to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife offering more opportunities over the years by way of year-round angling and staggered openers and fish stockings, some of the very best trout lakes will open again to fishing at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, April 23. That’s especially true in far Eastern Washington’s Region 1, home to famous opening-

day trout lakes like Fishtrap, Badger, West Medical, Williams and several more.

Not just in the hallowed trout waters of Region 1 but across the entire state there are hundreds of lakes stocked with rainbows, cutthroat, brown, brook and tiger trout, along with kokanee. There are vast opportunities to see new places, fish new waters and hone skills and techniques while being successful. When it comes to assuring children’s enjoyment in an age of two-minute attention spans, it’s important to stack the deck and make sure the angling is going to be successful. WDFW’s online resources to track trout stocking are reliable, easy and lucrative. You can use this tool (wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/ reports/stocking) to your advantage to recognize new lakes, lakes that might harbor lots of hefty holdovers, and lakes that receive the largest stockings and most broodstock fish. WDFW’S CHRIS DONLEY is the state’s trout guru and the Region 1 Fish Program manager out of Spokane. He is one of the best anglers and fiercest angling advocates in Washington. Donley hails from Cheney, perhaps the epicenter of opening-day opportunities in Region 1, and has been part of the management of trout for decades. The man fishes trout and kokanee yearround, eats a hearty supply of them (plus obviously lots of other stuff) and is a walking encyclopedia of trout and other fisheries knowledge.

Despite his love for chasing anadromous fish – everywhere from Buoy 10 to Boggan’s – he has never lost his passion for catching trout. There’s probably not a single human in the state who has caught, shocked, netted, researched or stocked more trout than Chris. Somehow, even though trout is his business, he gleefully fishes trout and kokanee with his kids and with his friends and their kids throughout the year. From complicated planer board trolling for big Lake Roosevelt kokanee to plunking with worms and marshmallows along its shores, Donley does not discriminate between tactics except to improve his lethality as needed. In a video filmed several years ago, Donley details two of the most simple but versatile and effective rigs for catching trout in Washington’s lakes. This video (youtube.com/ watch?v=f9A5UiJJMks&t=29s) is gold for anyone who needs a refresher or a great set of starting points for trout tactics. Two other excellent videos by WDFW detail kokanee (youtube .com/watch?v=7aAs4pjXJk0) and bass tactics (youtube.com/channel/ UClSSTqBvspTcDr9kJw8Tk) that will work this April and into summer.

As always, weather will dictate angler success, but Donley is hopeful.

“We expect fishing to be very good on the opener again this year. … Yes our catch rates can sometimes be affected by bad weather, but almost regardless of weather, all of the opening-day lakes should fish very well, and so should a lot of other

This April 23, thousands of smiling kids will put down devices and pick up fishing rods to interface with the natural world. Bryce Heldebrant of Richland landed this stocker rainbow on a slow day in Southeast Washington in early 2021. It was his first fish, and he took it home and ate it with his dad, renowned scientist and aspiring local karaoke artist Dave

lakes that are already open.”

Donley and I talked about the many opportunities that exist in late April for anglers looking to join or beat the crowds on opening weekend and beyond. The text that follows focuses on finding spring success on Region 1 lakes and features the most popular opening-day fisheries, along with a variety of other cool options for new and experienced anglers alike.

LAKES THAT OPEN APRIL 23

Many lakes that once fell under general regulations are now open year-round or open earlier, but there are still several fantastic opening-day lakes to the north, west and south of Spokane that receive heavy stockings of fish that remain unpressured until the clock strikes midnight, signaling April 23 and legal fishing.

Close to Spokane, Donley expects Badger Lake to shine this year for westslope cutthroat trout, a lesser number of rainbows, and a robust and unpressured population of kokanee not enough anglers are pursuing. Badger has a nice public launch but limited shore fishing access. A boat or some other type of floating craft is advisable here unless you want combat fishing at the launch. Badger has the best water quality in the Cheney area, and the fish are fryplanted, tasty and devoid of a muddy flavor. My family has spent many memorable and glorious opening days at Badger Lake. It’s a gem.

Just a couple miles from Badger is its more populated cousin, Williams Lake, another classic opening-day choice that will offer good fishing for rainbows and a small number of cutthroat. The lake has a perch problem that has Donley doubtful it will shine like Badger, but he expects really good fishing for the opener nonetheless. Williams has a WDFW public launch and two resorts – Bunker’s (bunkersresort.com) and Klink’s (509-235-2391). I recommend Bunker’s, which rents barges and motor boats. No one has ever been rude to me at Bunker’s, nor given me for sure food poisoning. Word to the wise: If you ever see a vulture sitting on the head of a road-killed coyote on the way to breakfast, do not get the smoked salmon omelet.

Just several miles from Williams and

Opening Day brings together entire families of people who otherwise would likely never wet a line. This nontraditional opening-day trip started with a long walk on BLM property at Fishtrap Lake for most of this family, followed by getting picked up downlake to land lots of fat rainbows and have a barbecue amidst early wildflowers and a green spring landscape. (JEFF HOLMES)

Badger sits Fishtrap Lake, a gem for rainbow trout that fished really well for my crew on the 2021 opener. The lake is almost all public land, and the BLM (blm.gov/visit/fishtrap-recreationarea) offers great resources for using the property via trail. Fishtrap has a WDFW public launch and abundant hike-in access from the BLM trails. Gone is the once-popular Fishtrap Lake Resort, which has cut down on the number of people using the lake. The resort exists but is not open to the public, just its long-term residents. I cannot say enough about what a fun lake this is, and it is unique in that it is surrounded by 9,000 acres of partially treed Channeled Scabland landscape. If you go here, please pack out your trash and keep it as beautiful and unique as you found it. There are definitely ticks and rattlesnakes here, and there are no leaves suitable for emergency bathroom trips, a fact I found alarming when someone from my party reported they had just used leaves last year.

Closer to Spokane, West Medical is about a mile from the town of Medical Lake and is home to the most fertile trout-growing waters around Spokane; the rainbows here can be quite large. Donley isn’t sure how fast the fishing will be this year, but he says to expect some of the nicer fish caught on opening day.

The West Medical Lake Resort is now permanently closed, so anglers are limited to fishing only from floating crafts or accessing shore fishing from the WDFW public launch.

Two or three miles away is Clear Lake, which has a WDFW launch and Sun Cove Resort (509-216-6776), which has dock fishing and boats for rent. Clear has rainbow, tiger and brown trout, a decent population of crappie and a strong population of largemouth. Clear is not managed exclusively for trout fishing, but it tends to produce very well and kicks out very nice fish early in the season.

To the north of Spokane near the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge near Chewelah and Colville sits productive Starvation Lake. The fertile, ironically named lake boasts rainbows up to 20 inches and a WDFW launch with some limited shore fishing. Not far to the west is Rocky Lake, another good openingday choice for rainbows. Several other Northeast Washington lakes that open on the fourth Saturday of April and are great bets include Cedar Lake and its rainbows south of Northport and Yocum and Marshall Lakes and their cutthroats in Pend Oreille County.

These last five lakes are also located in the heart of Northeast Washington’s most prime turkey grounds, and there is vast public land and opportunity for a legitimately successful cast-andblast vacation. This is an overlooked opportunity, one worthy of further exploration by readers and probably further writing by me. For those less enthusiastic about gunning down warm-blooded critters, a combination trout-morel trip is also a great option in this corner of the state.

Opening Day Of … Bass?!

Of course there are many more trout fishing options than I could reasonably discuss and less time available in the world than a regular human would need in order to fish in all of those lakes. Washington is rich with trout opportunity, and so it goes with largemouth bass, which eat the heck out of stocked hatchery trout. Early-season bass fishing is by far the best time to catch big fish, but aside from hardcore bassers, there is little pressure on Region 1’s largemouth.

Most anglers who catch bass do so during a narrow window of the year – late spring through summer – and on specific types of lures, or they catch bass by chance. Fishing early season for bass means slowing down your techniques, finding the warmest water in the lake closest to likely spawning areas, and slowly covering water with early-spring baits like weedless jigs and plastics and spinnerbaits. Big, pregnant female largemouth heavy with eggs look to get warm, enjoy easy meals and move onto beds that they will protect along with their smaller male counterparts, which show up to the nests after the females.

Two lakes I call out in the main article for trout also have excellent bass fishing, Waitts and Clear, but there are many more options and better ones for Region 1 anglers seeking a largemouth bite. First, Sprague Lake has really begin to shine for largemouth over the last few years and should be incredible again this year. With multiple access points and tons of water, Sprague is a great place to beat late April’s crowds.

Other great largemouth bets close to Spokane are in my former home stomping grounds: Liberty and Newman Lakes. Both have excellent largemouth, smallmouth, panfish and trout fishing. Newman also has tiger muskies, as does Silver Lake near Medical Lake. Silver has excellent largemouth fishing.

Other great bets for bass include Lincoln County’s Deer Springs Lake – also home to big rainbows – and nearby Coffeepot Lake, which is a selective fishery loaded with largies and fat rainbows. –JH

Trout schrmout – spring is also a great time to work waters across Eastern Washington for largemouth bass, like this one Maralee Moore caught in the Columbia Basin. Smallmouth, crappie, perch and other spinyrays are also available. (FISHING PHOTO CONTEST)

LAKES ALREADY OPEN

There are more lakes open in Region 1 on April 23 than one could reasonably

Is there anything better than taking sweet little kids fishing, kids who cry about killing insects, but whose eyes come alive with every swing of the fish bonker? Here Adela Sumner holds her first nice rainbow as her fish-blood-splattered cousin readies her crazy eyes and club for more action. (JEFF HOLMES)

fish in decades of angling, but there are a handful open year-round that will be very good on the opener.

Waitts Lake near Chewelah is a fantastic lake that will start fishing really well for browns and rainbows right around the opener. Winona Beach Resort (winonabeachresort.com) and a WDFW launch offer access to this pretty lake in the Colville River Valley. Perch fishing can also be excellent at Waitts, as can largemouth fishing.

Further east closer to Newport sits heavily populated Diamond Lake. The fishing here can be very good for rainbows and brown trout, and the lake is home to good-sized largemouth bass. The WDFW launch provides access, and lodging is easy to find nearby in Newport or at the KOA north of Diamond Lake on “Little Diamond Lake.”

Either of these lakes – among many others that are already open on opening day – are great bets. Again, check those WDFW trout stocking

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Looking for bait to catch the big broodstock trout WDFW dumps into some opening-day lakes? Imagine a fish that has gotten very old by fish standards that has only ever been fed by man and whose entire food supply has been plucked off the water’s surface. Fish on the surface, in the first foot of water, if you see brooders cruising. We landed a 23-inch brooder last opening day at Fishtrap Lake that ate a size 4 brown Woolly Bugger as a dry fly off the surface before it could sink! Here is that fish’s stomach contents: a salamander, PowerBait, a crayfish and the fin of a fish. (JEFF HOLMES)

reports to open up a huge number of lakes as possibilities.

I keep repeating it in print and to friends, but Lake Roosevelt trout fishing is ridiculous this year, even by Roosevelt standards. A 17-inch obese trout is on the small side of what boat and shore anglers can easily catch this spring in the lake’s lower half. The average fish right now is easily 18-plus inches, and all it takes to nab fish are the same standard trout baits and lures that work at the opening-day lakes: worms and marshmallows, PowerBait, and standard trout trolling tactics. From Porcupine Bay to Fort Spokane to Seven Bays to Lincoln to Keller to Spring Canyon, there is unlimited opportunity and access available. A great “opening day” trip could be to year-round Lake Roosevelt instead.

Another fantastic spring option exists at Rock Lake, Whitman County’s only natural lake and a thing of beauty to behold. The lake is long, deep and ringed by picturesque cliffs and timber. Rock is loaded with nice rainbows and brown trout sometimes extending into double-digit poundage. The lake is home to an unimproved WDFW launch at its western end. Be mindful of safety and only run at full speed in the middle of the lake to avoid underwater rocks in a few places that extend up from deep water to present dangers. Stay in the middle and you will be fine.

Fish at Rock are very geared toward eating other fish. Troll small plugs, spinners and big flies like size 2-8 Woolly Buggers and rabbit fur leeches, or cast to structure along the rocky shorelines with large lures in pursuit of big browns. There is shore fishing access here at the launch, but it is limited. Fish with slip bobbers here to avoid losing lots of tackle fruitlessly targeting the bottom. Rock’s trout are in the top 5 to 15 feet of water in spring. NS