December is flying by, and soon it will be Christmas. This is a great time for families and friends to get together, and it would often mean some kind of outdoor adventure. My brother Rick and I would go waterfowl or upland bird hunting or go fishing for steelhead. We would stick closer to home these days. We used to get in trouble for showing up late for the family dinner. I don’t think they missed us that much, but we often had my Dad in tow. Of course, we were forgiven, and we made some great memories.

One of the most popular activities in the winter in our region is fishing for perch, usually through the ice. A lake that attracts a lot of attention when it freezes over is Moses Lake. For many years the lake had been known to produce catches of “jumbo” perch and that’s why you will see big crowds of anglers hunched over their holes in the ice above the I-90 Bridge. There are years when the perch move into this area before the lake freezes. Boaters will launch at the State Park and run the short distance down to this spot and anchor and cast for perch. Some will even tie their boats to the pilings under the bridge and fish here. I just got a report that there must be perch in this area right now as there are a number of boats being spotted in this location. It has been a few years since the perch fishing has been good. When it turns on fishing from the rip rap shoreline near the bridge can be productive. Anglers walk from Blue Heron Park to reach the fishing grounds. I have fished here in the past, and since I am completely out of perch fillets, I ran down there and gave it a try.

It was my friend James Lebow who had mentioned that he saw some boats on the lake just above the I-90 Bridge, and there were people fishing off the bridge, too. That’s all I needed to hear. I drove down there last Thursday and picked James up at his place at 9, then we drove to Blue Heron Park. It’s a short walk from the parking area to where we would fish from the rip rap. I want to mention that walking on the broken concrete and large rocks can be a challenge, so be careful and take your time.

We were fishing with a weight on the end of our line and a hook about three feet above that, baited with a chunk of nightcrawler. I like to pinch on one or two large split shot for casting. If they hang up, they will slip off the line and you will get your hooks back. To add hooks to my line, I just make a loop and then take a pre-snelled hook loop and it through that. I often use two hooks.
When we cast out we were getting bites constantly. Although I was using a size 6 hook to keep the small perch off I managed to hook some 3-inchers. Most of our perch were 8 to 10 inchers, and we had three that were over 11 inches. We fished until just before noon and had 23 perch in the bucket. I had completely run out of crawlers. It was really fun! This week’s photo is of me with one of the perch we caught last Thursday.

When we got back to the parking area to load up, Aulin Smith was there. I’ve known Aulin for years, and he works for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He had been keeping tabs on the perch fishing on Moses Lake, and he said that people had been getting fish for the past month. It is so great to see this fishery back. I hope it holds up and when the lake freeze (fingers crossed) the fishing through the ice could be great. Then in the spring it might be good again in this area. Years ago, we used to go down here with the whole family, have a ball catching fish and then return to Wenatchee for a big perch feast with everyone.

I love this weather. It may be cloudy, but it’s not that cold and it’s not snowing. I got a couple of photos that were taken on Lake Roosevelt, just a few days ago, showing some big kokanee. They were caught while trolling at Crescent Bay, which is just above Grand Coulee Dam. I was kind of surprised to see kokanee being caught so low in the lake this early. They haven’t even started drawing the lake level down yet. Maybe there’s already good numbers of them in the Spring Canyon area. If you still haven’t stored your boat away for the winter, this would be worth a trip. Not only would you have a shot at some big kokanee, but the fishing rainbow in this area is also excellent this time of year.
If your boat is stored, the fishing from the beach at Spring Canyon can be great. Spring Canyon Park is just two miles from the town of Coulee Dam. The rainbow, which are triploids by the way, are usually 16 to 20 inches. I park near the volleyball court and walk to the beach toward the dam. I cast a half-ounce egg sinker with three feet of leader baited with a shrimp and marshmallow combo or Power Bait. There’s plenty of sandy beach, and I look for an area where I figure my casts are reaching 10 to 12 feet of water. This is so easy to do, and it’s fun!

All my best wishes to everyone for the Holidays. If you are traveling, be safe.

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