First Annual Lake Stevens Kokanee Derby - May 22nd

The 1st Annual Lake Stevens Kokanee Derby is on line for Saturday 22nd of May. At the present time things are being firmed up for this event and I will update things as more information develops. Here's a bit of information as it is at present!

Tickets $20.00/person (15 or older)
Tickets Free (14 or younger)

Adult Prizes: Largest Kokanee
1st-$1,000.00
2nd-$500.00
3rd-$250.00
4th-100.00

Kids Prizes: Largest Fish of Any Species
1st-$100.00
2nd-$75.00
3rd-$50.00

Bonus Prize-$500.00 For The Largest Trout

Bonus Prize-$500.00 For The Heaviest Kokanee Bag (Up To 10 Fish Limit)

Bonus Prize-$250.00 For The Second Heaviest Kokanee Bag (Up to 10 Fish Limit)

Weigh In Will Be Between 2:00 - 4:00pm

Prizes to be awarded at 3:00pm

This is a preliminary run down on the derby and may be altered slightly.

There are many businesses and individuals backing this derby:
Dick Nite Spoons
Ted's Sports Center
Gregg's Custom Rods
John's Sporting Goods
Three Rivers Marine
Mc Daniels Do-It Center
Silver Horde/Gold Star
Lamiglas
Shasta Tackle
Yakima Bait Company
St Croix Rod Co.
Zak's Tackle Company
Gibb's / Delta Tackle Company
Gamakatsu
Plano
Cannon
P-Line
Okuma
Atlas/Mikes
Mustad
Trout Lodge
Fetha Styx Rods
Snohomish Sportsman's Club
Lake Stevens Lion's Club
City of Lake Stevens
NSIA (Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association)

All the proceeds of this derby will go back into fishery resources.

With the increasing popularity of kokanee fishing this should be a fun derby!

Lake Chelan - Lake Trout

Our "Good" friend and guide Jeff Witkowski of "Big Dog Fishing Guide Service" emailed me this photo of a nice lake trout catch from this past Friday on Lake Chelan caught with the Spencer Chriest group. T-4 Purple Glow flatfish were the key to the greatest number of Lakers. The lakers are in the 200 -220 foot depth range. Silver Horde Gold Star Ace Hi Flies and U-20 Flatfish in Luminous colors fished slowly at 1.4 mph and always within a couple feet of the bottom have proven to be the most successful.

If you are interested in Lake Chelan lakers or any of the other interesting fishing opportunities in this area contact Jeff below.

Jeff Witowski
Big Dog Fishing Guide Service
PO Box 1904
Chelan, WA 98816
(509) 860-7345
jeffwitlowski@yahoo.com

Columbia River - Spring Chinnok

We had some fairly good reports coming out of the I-5/205 section of the Columbia today. Some of the guides we spoke with were off the river by 9:00 am with limits for their clients. All week we have had good reports coming out of the Cathlamet section of the lower river. Looks as if the fishing is getting considerably better and starting to shape up.

Kokanee - Lake Stevens

Had the first legitimate Kokanee report today from Lake Stevens. One of our customers was up fishing this productive Kokanee lake and managed to catch a couple kokes today, one 11inches and another at 13 and loosing a third. Jim mentioned that there were another half dozen boats on the lake but saw no other nets out. The fish he caught were from the upper 10 feet of the water column. He did not mention what he happened to hit them on.

With the early spring we should see this fishery come on earlier this year than we have seen in the past. Normally it really gets going some where in the last week of April or the first week in May.

Silver Horde Gold Star Kingfisher 3.5 Light Salmon Spoons

The "New" 3.5 Silver Horde Gold Star Kinfisher 3.5 Light Salmon Spoons were delivered last night. Though we don't have all of the colors at the present time we do have a very good assortment of them. We have been awaiting them for the better part of the last three months as their production has taken longer than what was expected. I think the wait has been worthwhile. Here's the colors that we have on hand at the present time:

Chrome/Silver Spectra - Color 110
Cotton Candy - Color 112 (One Of Last Summers Most Popular Colors)
Pink/White - Color 217
Double Glow EX Mother of Pearl - Color 616
Double Glow EX Yellowtail - Color 618
Ultra Violet Chrome Silver Spectra - Color 650
Ultra Violet Chrome/Purple Stripe - Color 651
Ultra Violet Chrome/Green Stripe - Color 652
Ultra Violet Chrome/ Pink Stripe - Color 653
Ultra Violet Chrome/Green Splatter - Color 654
Ultra Violet Chrome/Blue Splatter - Color 655
Ultra Violet "White Lightning" - Color 663 (One Of The All Time Best Colors Locally)
Glow "Kitchen Sink" - Color 664
Glow - Ultra Violet "Cookies N' Cream" - Color 675 (This Past Fall and Winter #1 Color)
Glow - Ultra Violet "Irish Cream" - Color 676 (This Past Fall and Winter #2 Color)
Watermelon - Color 731
Chrome/Flame Splatter - Color 781
Glow Mother of Pearl - Color 816
Glow "Red Racer" - Color 818
Glow "Army Truck" - Color 821
Glow Green - Color 826
Glow "Cop Car" - Color 828
Cop Car - Color 911
Glow/Chartreuse Splatter - Color 940
Glow/Green Splatter - Color 942
Glow/Blue Splatter - Color 944

This is what we have received at the present time - we will be receiving more as they are produced.

Mike

Cookies N' Cream & Irish Cream - Coho Killers

We finally received our first shipment of Silver Horde Gold Star Coho Killer Spoons in the extremely popular Cookies N' Cream and Irish Cream finishes. They are really outstanding looking colors on this little spoon! I am sure this first batch will go quick as we are already shipping them out to some of you that had already ordered them. We will have the other three "New" colors in them shortly! Look for the Lemon Cream, Lemon Lime Cream and the Irish Flag finishes to show up shortly.

Trout Fishing - Goodwin & Blackmans

We have been seeing some fairly decent trout fishing coming out of Lake Goodwin for carryovers from this past year. Most of the fish have been in the 13 - 14 inch range with a few pushing the 18 inch range. Anglers have been fishing a variety of different methods with most everyone catching fish. Still fishermen have been fishing a variety of floating baits from Powerbait, Gulp, to marshmallows and eggs or worm combos. The trollers have been fishing 3 1/2 to 5 colors of lead core line with 30 feet of leader and a green carey special, black or olive wooley bugger flies. Some of the trollers are tipping the flies with bit of worm. The fly fishermen have been getting bit utilizing blood worm or chironimid imitations.

The boys at Blackmans have been fishing for the recent plant with fish going up to around 20 inches. Most all have been still fishing with floating baits.

Methow Steelhead - Last Week

The Methow will be closing the end of the month. Steelheading has still been quite good for those that have been fishing this Eastern Washington stream. The fish are showing quite a bit of color but have been quite responsive for anyone that has an idea as to what is going on.

Stop by and Stephen will be happy to fill you in on the patterns and techniques.

Here's a couple of photos that one of our customers e mailed to us from last weekend.

Thanks Drew for the report and the photos.

Columbia River Catch Update

From Feb. 1 - March 21 there has been an estimated 43,000 angler trips with 2,800 adult Chinook and 400 steelhead caught. An estimated 87% of the Chinook caught were kept. An estimated 55% of the Chinook retained were lower river stocks based upon Visual Stock Identification (VSI).

That's 15.36 angler trips for each Chinook landed. As I said in an earlier post, fishing isn't anything to write home about yet.

We did have a couple to reports out of the Cathlamet area the past few days that were not too bad! Hopefully it is the start of better things to come.

Many anglers have been doing well fishing anchovies rather than herring!

Lake Lenice - Fly Fishing

The Jackson group was over to Lake Lenice this past weekend. Stephen said that the fishing was a little on the tough side as the fish were feeding on very small Chironomids and even with his extensive selection of flies found himself tying some downsized bugs in order to be productive. The fish that he stomach pumped were all full of 18 -20 sized chrome with black rib and tanish headed Chironomids. Once he got this figured out and tied some appropriate flies the action improved. He said the fishing was as tough as he had had at this popular selective fishery lake. Besides the small bugs 6X tippet was needed in order to get the bite.

In the evening the fish switched from the pupae to emergers just under the surface film. Despite his best efforts he could just not figure out what the fish wanted.

The catch was an assortment of predominately rainbows with an odd brown and tiger trout thrown in for something different.

Razor Clam Dig - OK'd to Dig

With the results of the marine toxin tests in and the results confirming that the clams are safe to eat, the following beaches are open to razor clam digging as follows:

Friday, March 26, (4:29 p.m., +0.1) Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Kalaloch
Saturday, March 27, (5:19 p.m., -0.1) Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks, Kalaloch
Sunday, March28, (6:04 p.m., 0.0) Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks
Monday, March 29, (6:35 a.m., -0.1) Long Beach & Twin Harbors only
Tuesday, March 30, (7:22 a.m., -0.7) Long Beach & Twin Harbors only
Wednesday, March 31, (8:07 a.m., -1.0) Long Beach & Twin Harbors only
Thursday, April 1 (8:52 a.m. -1.0) Long Beach & Twin Harbors only

There is another dig tentatively scheduled in mid-April at Long Beach, pending finl marine toxin tests.

Good Digging!

We have "Lots" of razor clam gear on hand!

Homer Alaska - Winter King Tournament

Bruce Lozeker called and gave me the run down on the Homer, AK Winter King Tournament today.

1 st Place - 38.5 pounds - $18,165.00
2 nd Place - 34.5 pounds - $12,110.00
3 rd Place - 29.4 pounds - $ 9,515.00

Bruce's girlfriend Brenda Hayes took 3rd place in the derby. With the side bets her third place fish netted a total of $55,411.25 or $1,884.74 per pound.

Good Going Guys!

I think Bruce will be going on another Long Range Tuna Trip this fall!

Big Island Hawaii - Kayak Catch

Here's a really nice Ono (Wahoo) that Tim Bauer caught kayak fishing off the Big Island this AM. At 62 pounds this is a really outstanding catch no matter if it was caught out of a kayak or a boat. Really nice fish! And even better eating! It's my favorite tropical pelagic fish on the table.

The beach photo really shows the size of the fish!

Columbia River - Spring Chinook

Overall the spring chinook fishing on the Columbia has not been exactly a ball of fire! Most individuals that we have spoke with have been "Skunked" more often than not. There has been a little improvement over the prior week and there has been an odd boat that has gotten into them, but they have been the exception rather than the rule. Hopefully, we should be seeing some radical improvement in the next few weeks with the preseason forecasts that were given to us by the WDFW and ODFW.

Here's a photo of Buzz Ramsey and friend Mike Kelly with a nice respective spring chinook caught last Friday on the Lower Columbia between Kalama and Longview. The fish came from an anchored boat on a Yakima Bait Mag Lip in Fluorescent Red color.
60inches of leader and a 36 inch lead dropper.

Buzz mentioned that his fish was one of two that he saw landed amongst the dozen boats in the hog line.

Like I mentioned earlier, fishing wasn't exactly hot.

Pass Lake & Lone Lake

The fishing at both of these lakes has been quite good the past couple of weeks. The Chironimids have been hatching out in profusion with the nice weather that we have been having. The single largest factor as to how well you might do is dependent upon if you have figured out what bug the fish are actually taking! This in fact can be quite a chore. The best method is to examine the stomach contents of the first fish you happen to catch. By pumping the stomach and examining the contents you will get an idea of what the most predominate bug and its size and color so you can match it as closely as possible. This is an invaluable aid to your productiveness.

The fish at Pass have been a 13 - 14 inch average with some pushing the 20 inch mark. There are a few browns mixed in the the more prolific rainbows.

The fish at Lone are all rainbows and most have averaged in the 13 - 16 inch range with an odd one pushing into the 20 inch plus range.

New! Irish Flag Kingfisher 4L Spoons

The "New" Irish Flag color in Silver Horde Gold Star Kingfisher spoons has been all the talk this past week amongst the salmon fishing crowd. This new color entry was the brainstorm of TJ Nelson of Salmon University. So new is this entry that Silver Horde had actually not produced any of them except for a few samples as of this Monday. We have had countless requests for them last weekend and this week. Anyway, we have them on order both in the Kingfisher 4L's and in Coho Killers as well as the up and coming 3.5L size. Hopefully, we should see them sometime this next week. I will put up a post as soon as we see them.

April 1st - Renew Your Licenses!

Don't forget to renew your fishing licenses! Your old ones expire at the end of the month. Also remember to turn in your old punchcards for salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and halibut. Punch cards are due in by the end of April.

Lake Lenore - Soap Lake

Had a couple of the customers in that had fished Lake Lenore this past week and mentioned that the fishing had been quite good. The fish were averaging around 18 inches with the largest around the 27 inch mark. They said that black chironomids where the ticket for good results. They mentioned that the fishing pressure was minimal.

2010 Port Angeles Halibut Derby - May 29th & 30th - First Prize $5,000.00

We have tickets for the 10th Annual Port Angeles Salmon Club Halibut Derby that will be held May 29th & 30th. Tickets run $40.00 per individual and are good for both days of the Derby. This is a very popular derby and as we do not have the "Bridge" problems this year that we had last should make it even more popular.

We will take a little more time in the near future to give you more details on the derby or simply stop by and we will give you a hand out.

Steelheading - Methow River

Reports of "Good" steelheading still are coming out of this Eastern Washington river. The fish are fairly colored up and getting a little on the lean side, but it still gives one an opportunity to go chase a steelhead. The river is open through the end of the month. You might do a weekend double up trip and fish for lakers in Lake Chelan, trout in Roses Lake or fish for the triploids in Rufus Woods Lake. There are lots of possibilities for a good fishing weekend in this part of the state.

Pass Lake - Deception Pass

Still getting "Very Good" reports out of Pass Lake the past few days. The Chirnomids pupae are active and the fish are taking advantage of the situation and feeding heavily. The key to being successful is trying to figure out what size and color the fish are keying upon, the area of the lake it is taking place, the depth at which they are feeding and the presentation. Once this puzzle is figured out then your success can be quite rewarding if not then it can be another tough day. Pass Lake is notorious at not yielding its bounty easily!

The rainbows are averaging from 13 - 17 inches, the browns up to 19. There are larger specimens of both species.

With the weather we are to recieve the next couple of days I am sure there will not be too much pressure on Pass. With the rain and especially the high winds predicted in the Straits the fishing prospects are quite glim! Pass takes quite a hit from the winds from the Strait and makes it quite unpleasant.

Cowlitz River - Mission Bar

We have had some "Great" steelhead reports coming from the Mission Bar section of the Cowlitz today. There were some good numbers, "Limits plus some released" caught free drifting corkies/cheaters and egg combinations. The fish were a mixture of bright fresh fish and some colored fish that had been in the river for a period of time. None the less it was one of the better reports that we have had recently from the Cowlitz.

Roses Lake - Chelan County

Here's a nice fish that Steve Dean caught at Roses Lake with Jeff Witkowski of Big Dog Fishing. Jeff said that the fishing was very good and that they caught easy limits of keeper rainbow. A black rooster tail spinner accounted for this nice trout.

If you would like a nice day on the water contact Jeff!

Jeff Witkowski

Big Dog Fishing Guide Service

(509) 860-7345

KIDS FISH-IN / Silver Lake in South Everett / May 8 th

Here's a date to mark on your calender if you have some little ones that you would like to introduce to fishing. This is a "Great" yearly event!

KIDS FISH-IN
Saturday May 8, 2010
7:45 am - 3 pm
Silver Lake
11405 Silver Lake Rd., Everett

REEL IN THE EXCITEMENT! Kids who wish to fish can learn from expert fishing guides and take home a ZEBCO rod and reel. Children ages 5-14 are invited to participate.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: April 30, 2010. Pick up a form at Everett Parks and Recreation, 802E. Mukilteo Blvd., Everett, or download a form at www.everettwa.org/parks. Space is limited at this annual sell-out event, so register early.

FEE & ASSISTANCE: Fee is $5.00 per child. Financial assistance is available. For more information, call Everett Parks and Recreation at 425-257-8300 ext 2.

Columbia River - Spring Chinook

The reports that we have received from the Columbia so far this season have not been anything great. We have heard and seen a few fish this past weekend but we would like to be seeing a few more that what has shown up so far. Hopefully, things will pick up in the next few weeks. We really would like to see the run at least close to the preseason forecasts!

If you are needing tide tables for any section of the Columbia just stop by and I will be more than happy to print them out for you.

Blackmouth - Hat Island

Though the local blackmouth fishing has been less than stellar the past few weeks there has been in fact a few nicer fish landed over the weekend. One of the guys landed a nice 16 pound blackmouth from the Hat Island area over the weekend and saw another around 10 landed in another boat. The gentleman that had the 16, caught it on a Hot Spot Flasher and a Green Hornet (OG 142) hoochie right off the bottom.

Though we are not seeing good numbers of fish being caught locally there are at least a few nice sized fish. The odds are not in your favor of catching one of these nicer fish but at least a day on the water is better than a day at work!

Spring Chinook - Barrier Dam - Cowlitz River

One of the customers was fishing at the barrier damn section of the Cowlitz yesterday and said he saw 7 chinook landed during the time he was there. He mentioned that there were five caught on the launch side and two on the island. Most of the fish were in the low to mid teen sizes. Most of the fish were caught on corkies and eggs / shrimp combinations. This is the first "Good" catch of springers that we have heard of so far this season. Hopefully we will be seeing even better results in the near future.

Lower in the river in the Massey's Bar section of the river we also had reports of Chinook being caught along with a few steelhead. In fact we had one of our customers in this AM that had seven steelhead in his boat over the weekend fishing from the Launch area downstream to Blue Creek, Clay Banks and down to Massey's.

Port Angeles - Blackmouth

Spoke with Norm Metzler in Port Angeles this AM to see how the winter blackmouth has been fairing out in his neck of the woods. Norm said that the fishing has been good with good numbers of fish being brought in in the mid to high teens with the largest that he has heard of at 27 pounds (which was a springer). The fishing has been centered off the eastern side of the PA spit and Freshwater Bay, fishing the 90 - 150 depths and right on the bottom on the outgoing tide. Most everyone has been downrigger trolling with Hot Spot Flashers and combinations of squids and spoons. Norm mentioned that Silver Horde/Gold Star Coho Killers and Sonic Edge spoons have been the favorites.

It's very normal for PA to have the better fishing this time of year while we here in Puget Sound are scratch fishing! Most of our fish out migrated before we reopened in February.

Pass Lake - Deception Pass

Reports out of Pass Lake continue to be good for those fishing this popular North Puget Sound "Fly Fishing Only" quality lake. The chironomids are really starting to pop and many of the fish are full of these little critters with 15 to 20 coming out of a single throat sample. Most are smaller species in 16 - 18 size range with most being chromers with a black rib. Fish were taking the bugs fished strike indicator style 1 - 2 1/2 feet off the bottom in 13 - 15 feet of water.

Fish caught were up to 18 inches with an average in the 13 - 14 inch range. Hopefully the cooler weather coming in late tomorrow will not slow down the fishing.

Seep Lakes - Grant & Adams Counties

With the March 1st opener of the seep lakes in Grant and Adams counties have come good fishing results from all of the usual lakes. For fairly easy limits of average sized rainbows try Caliche Lakes. The folks that we have spoke with have had easy limits of 12 inch average of nice fat rainbows. The reports out of Lenice and Nunnely have been nothing short of "Very Good" with lots of action on nice rainbows averaging 18 inches. There has been an occasional brown and an odd tiger trout (brook/brown cross).

These early opening lakes will be a good choice for something to do this weekend. The weather looks alright until latter in the day on Sunday, then it looks like we will see a cooling trend and rain through the week.

Pass Lake - Deception Pass

The fly fishing at Pass Lake has turned on quite nicely in the past week. The report that I received from yesterday was very good . With the warmer weather and the good reports brought out good number of anglers to the point that the parking lot was full and those who came late had to park on the highway. The fishing was basically a chironomid and strike indicator show. The rainbows were averaging around 13 inches with an odd fish to 19 inches. There were a few browns taken, but it was predominately a rainbow show.

Water temperature is warming up with an average temp of 44 degrees.

Lake Lenice - Grant County

Got the first report this morning from Larry Roxby (Captain Larry) from this popular Eastern Washington quality water and the reports are in fact "Great". Larry said that the smallest fish he landed yesterday on the opener was 18 in. and many were pushing over the 20 in. mark. He mentioned that the fish were not very selective and in fact were being caught on virtually everything that you would cast out. All the normal Eastern Washington patterns were producing well. Leeches, blood worms and chironomids all produced well. Larry said that there were plenty of anglers fishing yesterday. (I suppose which is an indicator of the poor economy and everyone has time to go fishing).

Water temperature was at 46 - 47 degrees, 10 degrees warmer than it was this time last year.

When I spoke with Chad Jackson, one of the WDFW biologists for this region this past week he mentioned that the mild winter did wonders for this and many other lakes of this area. The weather not only accounted for better than average growth rates but virtually no winter kill!

The fishing should continue to be quite good for a while, and we should start to see some early bug hatches with the warmer than normal water and air temperatures.

March is Here - Weather is Great

March is here and the weather couldn't be any better. We in fact have had worse summers than the winter we have had. There is lots of things happening with the mild weather that we seen and we should expect to see much of our fishing starting early this season, providing the weather continues on the same path as it is at the present time.