I got a couple of days of excellent fishing in this past week and have plans to get out more often now that there are even more opportunities. I also attended some really fun events, like Saturday’s Touch A Truck at Wenatchee Valley College, and last Sunday, the Pike Minnow Derby at Crescent Bar.

In spite of the inclement weather anglers had to deal with over the weekend, the Quincy Chamber of Commerce Pike Minnow Derby was a great success. The move from a fall derby back to the spring was welcomed enthusiastically. There were a lot of smiling faces at the weigh in station, and it was a happy crowd at Tower Pizza at the awards ceremony. Once again, there were big cash payouts for the winners and the prizes were amazing. The Adult winner for the Longest Fish was Pat McCurdy and the Shortest Fish trophy was handed to Terry Leibert. Jace Kayner won both the Youth division’s prizes for Longest and Shortest Fish. The goal of the derby is to remove as many pike minnows as possible from the Columbia River, and Kevin Holbart did his best, by turning in over 140 pounds of them. The Grand Prize winner of the Chet’s Honda Polaris 570 Side by Side was won by Brian Main—for the second year in a row! Major funding for the Pike Minnow Derby is provided by Grant County PUD, and the derby provides a fun and effective way to do this. This week’s photo is of Jace Kayner with his trophies.

I wanted to do a video on fishing for smallmouth bass on Moses Lake, so, I recruited my fishing buddies James Lebow and Ryan Harris to help me out. We launched early on Wednesday morning at Blue Heron Park and ran up the lake to show where anglers could find fish in the area near Cascade Park and Crest Island. We then ran up above to an island where we often fish for walleye, and then carefully located the shallow reef that is located above there. This is where we got our first fish of the day and landed several largemouth and smallmouth bass casting Baby Brush Hog plastics. I wanted to fish the bottom end of the lake, where there are several good areas to find bass. We worked our way up the east side of Goat Island and caught fish after fish, both smallmouth and largemouth bass. We were very impressed with the number of largemouth that are in the lake now. I am editing our experience and will include some information about where nearby boat launches to the sites that we fished. I will be posting it on my YouTube channel.

I have mentioned that Tom Verschueren and I like to fish for bass at Crescent Bar this time of year, and we got a chance to do it last Tuesday. We launched the Smokercraft Phantom across from the marina and headed up the channel below the cliffs. I always tilt my Mercury 250 out of the water and let the Minn Kota Ulterra do the work. I kept a close eye on the Garmin fish finder as you cross some shallow bars on the way out. I also like to hug the shoreline to present the crank baits that are trolled behind the boat. I hoped that we weren’t too late, and the smallmouth had spawned and dispersed. Turns out our timing wasn’t too bad. We were trolling everything from Rapalas in the perch pattern to Bandit deep divers and some other brightly colored plugs, and the bass hit them all. We fished for about two hours or so and landed nine and lost a few more. So, the fishing is pretty good, but I would get on it soon.

Here’s some great news for fans of spring salmon fishing on the Icicle River, near Leavenworth. The season is open to fishing through Monday, June 30th. Here are the particulars: the river is open from the closure signs located 800 feet upstream of the mouth of the river to 500 feet downstream from the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery barrier dam, and from the shoreline markers where Cyo Road intersects the Icicle River at the Sleeping Lady Resort to the Icicle Peshastin Irrigation Footbridge (approximately 750 feet upstream from the Snow Lakes trailhead parking area). Daily limit is two hatchery Chinook (adult or jack) with a minimum size of 12 inches. Retention of hatchery Chinook is mandatory this year. Anglers must release all salmon other than hatchery Chinook. A night closure is in effect and motorized vessels are not allowed on the Icicle River (per Chelan County ordinance). Two-pole fishing is not allowed in this fishery. The spring Chinook run forecasted to return to the Icicle River this year is expected to exceed hatchery broodstock requirements, and fish that exceed broodstock needs at Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery are available for sport angler harvest.

I sent out my Quarterly E-Letter in late April, which talked about the opportunities to catch a variety of species here in the region. I covered fisheries that included trout, walleye, bass and kokanee. I will soon be sending out my monthly update to subscribers and share what I have learned about the progress of the fisheries that I covered in the E-Letter. I have had a chance to personally fish for many of the species that I talked about and will also share credible reports that I have heard about for the ones have I haven’t gotten to yet. I also plan to shoot some “how to” videos on some of the successful techniques and tackle that I have used to catch some of the species that will be shared exclusively with those who have subscribed to the monthly updates. To learn about how to get on the list to receive the monthly updates, just go to my website at FishingMagician.com and click the E-Letter button the left hand side of the home page. Fill out the form and I will be sure to add you to the list so you can get the best current information on fishing here in our region.