I was thinking about going to the middle net pens on Rufus Woods last week. That didn’t happen, but I did fish Rufus Woods above Chief Joseph Dam. Also, there was a good turnout for my seminar at the Boat Show. I did this one via Zoom again this year. It’s too hard to predict if the passes with be open. I am still trying to find the right weather conditions to get down to Rocky Ford with my fly rod.

Okay, I’ll admit that some of my ideas about where to go fishing don’t always pan out. I talked my buddy James Lebow into getting his boat out of mothballs and try trolling for rainbow above Priest Rapids Dam. He, Ryan Harris and I pulled plugs along the can line above the dam all the way up past the State Park, and only got a couple of hits. We changed the plugs and depths without any results. I suggested we try a spot further up the reservoir, and that was almost disastrous.

While we were cruising along at full speed we hit something but didn’t know what. There weren’t any logs in our path, and it just didn’t sound like we hit some wood. We turned around and drove back and found a 2-inch thick flow of ice that was almost invisible, as water flowed over it. If you go to the Fishing Magician.com Facebook Page, you can see a photo and understand how difficult it was to see. We cut the 20-foot long flow in half. James noticed a vibration in the motor that wasn’t there before, but we were able to run up and troll off Brandts Landing and make it back to the dock. None of us could remember the last time that we had been skunked. So much for my bright ideas. James and Ryan agreed that they would choose the destination for the next trip.

We saw a few boats running up the reservoir. I am sure that some of them were headed to the net pens. As we trolled just off the shore of Brandts Landing, we talked to several anglers. They all said they had at least one fish, but just small ones.

A friend sent me a text message that I found interesting. It was about a fishing tournament that was held last Sunday. There was a phone number to call for information, so I did. I talked to Abrahan Barajas, and he explained that he and his classmate Francisco Villanueva Aswell were doing an ice fishing tournament for their senior project at Warden High School. The tournament is “just for fun”, with the top prize of a trophy they bought for the event. The tournament was at Corral Lake, which is just across the road and down the hill from Mar Don Resort. The lake is usually planted with rainbow trout and the angler that catches the most fish will win the prize. The daily limit for trout is five fish, so they may have to be creative to determine the winner. I thought it was great that a couple of students, who obviously love fishing, would stage such an event.

I followed up with Abrahan to see how the event turned out. There were a total of 20 anglers that registered to participated in the ice fishing tournament. The top prize, which was the trophy that they bought, was won by an angler that turned in two perch and a rainbow trout. Everyone had a great time, and I wanted to thank these two guys for dedicating their time to create a fishing event for their senior project.

The previous Sunday I was away watching football and having dinner with friends, and when I checked my e-mail when I got home, I found this note from my friend Rollie Schmitten: “Dave, I have a small crisis.  I washed, scored, and brined for 6 hours; then dried for 12 hours to get the patina and glaze, 4 racks of the rainbow that we caught and the balance with sockeye from this season.  I went to preheat the smoker and it was out of service. Take that to mean totally shot.  So here is my offer, if you could smoke them, I would give you half.  I have smoke alder in sawdust or plugs. Are you around?”

I fired off a note saying I would be at his home the following morning at 8 to pick up the fish and get it done for him. Rollie and I had discussed how we like our fish smoked when we were at Rufus Woods last Tuesday, and we had the same tastes. I fired up my smoker and got the fish done and he picked up the finished product on Tuesday morning. I think I got it done the way he likes it. Whew. Crisis avoided! This week’s photo is of Rollie at Tumwater Dam, checking on the sockeye return earlier this summer.

If you are an angler that enjoys catching those feisty northern pike in Lake Roosevelt, you can participate in the Northern Pike Reward Program and turn in your pike heads at a designated location and get paid! “We want to remind anglers to kill all northern pike captured and to turn in their heads for a reward,” said Holly McLellan, fish biologist for Colville Tribes Fish and Wildlife (CTFW). “It doesn’t matter what size they are even the small pike count towards the reward.” In 2022, anglers turned in 125 heads and were paid $1,250 but co-managers still need your help to reduce the number of pike in Lake Roosevelt. 

To make it even easier, CTFW offers a map that shows the pike hot spots and freezer locations. Anglers can drop off their pike heads at Noisy Waters Gas Station, Kettle Falls boat launch, Hunters boat launch, Fort Spokane boat launch, or at the Inchelium Fish and Wildlife office.

Northern pike can exceed 50 inches and weigh as much as 45 pounds. A female adult can produce up to 250,000 eggs. And with their duck-bill mouth and large teeth, they can easily eat frogs, birds, trout, salmon and steelhead. Lake Roosevelt co-managers (Colville Tribes, Spokane Tribe of Indians and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) have been working diligently to remove northern pike from the reservoir and have removed 19,110 since 2015.