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Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee, was like a mirror when I fished it just after the ice came off. I trolled flies with my fishing buddy Rollie Schmitten, and we caught some fat 10 to 11 inch rainbow at the bottom end of the lake.
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Here's Rollie Schmitten with one of eight walleye our group caught on the Columbia River near Northport. Guide Brian Day, Day Fishing, showed us some great water. Cold temperatures and high flows make fishing tough at this time of year, but Day knew where to find the walleye. We fished jigs as deep as 80 to get our fish.
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Guide Justin Hotchkiss, of Far North Charters, holds a nice wild rainbow just prior to release. We fished Stone Flies and streamers for big rainbow here. The early spring can be the best time to get the really big rainbow, which can be up to 10 pounds. There are also some big cutthroat caught in the Northport area at this time, too.
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This is the Lazy Daze Retreats (lazy-daze-retreats.com)main house. Art and Nina Grobben have other lodging options in Northport, both on the river and in town. The guides met us on the beach each monring, and when the river is at summer levels it isn't much of a walk to get to the dock on the Columbia River.
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This shows the narrowest point I have ever seen on the Columbia River. It is known as the Little Dalles and when the spring runoff hits the water really boils through. It not only prevents boaters from passing through, walleye that are moving up river can't pass either. Fishing below the Little Dalles at this time can be incredible.
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Here is Jerrod Gibbons driving his jet sled above the railroad tressel on the lower Okanogan River. We made out way all the way up to Rattlesnake before we found any steelhead that would touch our jigs. It snowed hard later and that probably put the fish off the bite.
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It was a crazy day to be out steelhead fishing on the Okanogan, but I managed to hook and land is hatchery fish at Rattlesnake. I was fishing with Jerrod Gibbons, Okanogan Valley Guide Service, in his jet sled and the run down to the launch above the mouth was brutal!
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This nice cutthroat was the first fish landed on a float on the Yakima River with the boys from the Troutwater Fly Shop in Ellensburg. This was one of many trout taken by Jason Boitano. His brother and head guide Johnny was running the boat. Skwala nymphs with a San Juan Worm patter below really worked this day.
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Jason Boitano, a guide with the Troutwater Fly Shop in Ellensburg, holds up the big trout of the day he hooked on a recent trip on the Yakima River. Johnny Boitano was driving the boat and knew every spot that the trout would be hiding in and what they would eat.
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Jason Boitano (left) did the net work for his brother Johnny who stepped out of the boat to make a cast below a log jam on the Yakima River. He hooked this nice fish on his first cast. He put us onto double digit numbers of trout on the float, and I even hooked and landed a steelhead.
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