I got a chance to fish Moses Lake again, and we got some walleye, but worked hard for them. I also learned that this would be a good time to try for smallmouth bass. Fishing on our big reservoirs will continue to improve as water temperatures warm.

My fishing buddies James Lebow and Michael Ericson invited me to join them for a walleye trip to Moses Lake last Wednesday. I was very eager to go as I had fished Moses less than a week ago and had a pretty good day with my friend and guide Brian Nielson. On Wednesday we started our day at the far north end. We only got one fish there, so we moved further down the lake. The usual good fishing in the shallow water just isn’t happening yet. The weeds aren’t a problem, and the lake hasn’t “turned over” in this area. It’s something to keep an eye on. Although we were at a spot that produced several fish on my last trip, we were disappointed. There is a spot across the lake from Connelly Park that has been a favorite of ours for years, and it did produce some walleye. We pounded this hole hard and put seven more walleye in the live well. It also produced some surprises. We caught three smallmouth bass, and I got one that was probably the largest I have ever landed. It measured 19 inches and was in the 6 to 7 pound class. I also hooked a carp that we figured weighed 15 pounds. It gave me quite a tussle, and my friends were surprised it didn’t break my line. James was using a new Minn Kota Ulterra, and he loved it. He also demonstrated the Down Scan feature on his Hummingbird Helix, that saved us from hanging up on the “fish boxes” or some kind of structure on the bottom. These were clearly shown on the screen, and we were able to avoid them. This week’s photo is of the whopper smallmouth I caught.

It’s just a couple weeks away and registrations are open for the Quincy Chamber of Commerce Pike Minnow Derby. The derby is scheduled for Friday, May 16th through Sunday, May 18th this year and the fishing should be great. Pike minnows should be abundant and hungry this time of year in the Columbia River. Attendance should be good with over thirty five thousand dollars in cash and prizes to be handed out this year. Anglers can use several locations to launch their boats to find the fish. These include Crescent Bar, Sunland Estates, Vantage and Frenchman Coulee. All the launches are free and there will be a free lunch provided to all the derby participants at Tower Pizza on Sunday at Cresent Bar. That’s when the winners are announced, and the cash and other prizes are handed out. The goal of this derby is to remove as many pike minnow as possible from the Columbia River to improve escapement of our salmon and steelhead smolt. To register online, just click on the Something Fishy in Quincy logo on the home page of my website. It will take you to the Pike Minnow Derby page.

I got a call from my fishing buddy Brian Anantatmula about his recent trip to Lake Chelan. He and his daughters Avery and Brinley, both very experienced kokanee anglers, had a terrific day catching fish. Brian said they must have hooked fifty kokanee. He said he had some electronic issues on the boat when he launched at Mill Bay but decided to tough it out. With only his Minn Kota bow mount to propel the boat, he trolled the area between Rocky Point and Wapato Point and the action was fast and furious. They did land a couple of 15 inch kokanee but most of them were in the 9 to 10 inch class. I was out on Chelan with Brian recently and we struggled. How quickly things change!

When I was at Sun Lakes I drove up to Deep Lake. This is a very scenic lake, with limited parking but good shore access at the lower end. Trolling up through the steep basalt cliffs to the upper end is a real treat. There is a dock here at the launch site. The trout fishing is typically very good in the spring and the fall, and anglers could be in for an especially good fishing for kokanee this season. When I was at Park Lake, I visited with a WDFW staffer who told me that there was shortfall in the kokanee plant last year. That could mean that there should be larger fish than usual available this season. Instead of the usual 10 inch kokanee, there may be fish of up to 14 inches in Deep Lake. I don’t usually fish Deep Lake, but I may put it on my list of places to try this year. I also want to try the kokanee fishing at Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee. Kokanee can be large, up to 16 inches at Wapato Lake, but the public ramp at the east end is in very poor condition, and I won’t launch my Smoker Craft Phantom 20 X 2X boat here.

Anglers will get a crack at catching spring chinook from the lower Snake River in Washington, but the opportunity will be limited to two days a week. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Thursday that fishing for spring chinook will be allowed near Little Goose Dam on Tuesdays and Fridays starting next week. The daily bag limit will be four hatchery spring chinook, of which only one can be an adult fish. The season will close after anglers have reached a quota now estimated at 407. Fishing will be allowed between the Texas Rapid Boat Ramp and the dam. Chris Donley, fish program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at Spokane, said the run forecast is too small to open fishing at other places like Ice Harbor Dam and the season may be quite short. “Looking at (fish) passage we will probably have two fisheries at Goose,” he said. Following an official run forecast update expected around the middle of the month, Donley said it’s possible the season could run longer, or fishing could be expanded to Ice Harbor if fish returns exceed expectations. But he said anglers eager to catch fish shouldn’t count on it.