by Dave Graybill, February 15, 2014

Winter snow has finally fallen in Leavenworth. We’ll see how much is left by the end of the week. There are some warm temperatures and even rain in the forecast. It may delay some of my plans to get up to Rufus Woods and Lake Roosevelt, where fishing for triploid rainbow is very good right now. There will be other fishing opportunities in the area, though.

I got word from the Department of Fish and Wildlife that they plan to open the Wenatchee River for steelhead fishing. The timing should be good. The river was choked with ice last week, but the warmer weather that is forecast should clear it out. Hopefully it will just clear the ice off and not blow the river out! Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement soon. I have had great fishing for steelhead in the Leavenworth area in the late season in the past. Many of our area rivers offer terrific steelheading in the late season, as fish move into the tributaries as their spawning time nears.

Another season that has generated a tremendous amount of interest in our region the past couple of years is the kokanee fishery on Lake Chelan. Very good numbers of really big kokanee have been taken the past two years, and according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, it looks like we’re going to see another crop of big fish.
When they did their survey of the spawning grounds in Stehekin, this is what they learned. They estimate that as high as 85 percent of the kokanee anglers can expect to see are four year olds that should range in size from 16 to 17 inches. Many kokanee of this size and even larger were taken on Chelan last year and we should see the same kind of fish this year. There was some consideration of lowering the bag limit on Chelan from the present allowed take of ten fish. However, creel census taken last year indicate that less than ten percent of anglers took their ten fish limits, so it will remain in place. I know that there are anglers out there looking for kokanee on Chelan already. I have heard a few rumors of fish being taken, and big ones, too. I am very eager to get up there and see for myself if this year’s migration of kokanee to the lower basin is showing up. I had good fishing on Chelan in March last year, but I know others were getting some kokanee even earlier.

There is a great event coming up this weekend. It’s the 10th annual NW Ice Fishing Festival in Molson, which is near Oroville. I have participated in the festival and although fishing in the past couple of years has been poor, everyone that attended had a blast! The Molson community really turns out for the festival and puts on a great pancake breakfast and they have added a Pinewood Derby on Saturday. There has been a special plant of 5,000 catchable size trout for the derby, and word is that the ice is thick and the trout are biting. The top cash prize in the trout derby is $500.00 and there is a very long list of other prizes for both adults and youth. There is $250.00 up for grabs in the Pinewood Derby, too. The awards dinner on Saturday night is terrific and a lot of fun. There are all kinds of things planned this year on Friday and Saturday, and I would encourage you to visit the web site to get all the details. You can do so by going to my web site, fishingmagician.com, and clicking on the Pepsi Calendar. Then click on the listing for the NW Ice Fishing Festival, and then look for the listing on the site that opens.

Also coming up this weekend is the 25th Annual Central Washington Sports Show in Yakima. I love this show. You can really get around and see everything and talk to the exhibitors and shows with ease. A new addition this year is the Great Cat World Park Show, with live exotic cats from all over. There is the Horn and Antler competition and the display of trophy mounts, too. They have the trout pond for the kids again, and a full slate of seminars as well. One thing I noticed that I have got to take in this year is a trailer backing contest. I always thought that this would be something I’d like to see. It’s got to be fun to watch.

I got some of the run forecast information that I have been looking for, and we are in for some great fishing this season. We should have a much better season for spring salmon. If the forecasts turn out to be accurate the fishing on the Icicle River will be much better than last year, and the Wenatchee River will be open for fishing for spring salmon, too. The sockeye return to our area should be much better than what it was last year. We got a total of 186, 000 sockeye through our area in 2013 and the estimate for this year is 347,000. I hope they show up as bigger fish than last year’s. There will be plenty of them! Included in the return is an estimated 63,000 for Lake Wenatchee. We’ll see how it turns out, but it looks like we are in for another great season of fun fishing on the lake. They were sure whoppers last year. The fall run of up river brights is also forecast to be close to what we saw in 2013, and that run was amazing.

There is a pretty full slate of things to do this week. I hope you can get out and take some of it in—whether it’s indoors or out!

FishingMagician.com