Ice is making things difficult for anglers throughout the region. The Methow, Okanogan, Wenatchee and Entiat are either frozen solid or flowing ice. It is just impossible to fish for steelhead or whitefish in these conditions. Area lakes are rapidly developing a solid surface, but are not yet safe enough to support anglers. It won’t be long before anglers will be drilling holes and fishing for perch and trout on many of our area lakes. There is open water on the upper Columbia River, but few anglers are braving the sub-zero temperatures to try for steelhead. There are a lot of fish in this stretch of the Columbia this year, and when temperatures moderate the action will be excellent. Rufus Woods will still attract crowds, even when it’s this cold out. There is a race to the fireboxes each morning, and there are some boats rigged with full tops and heaters trolling on the reservoir, too. Fly anglers are restricted to Rocky Ford for now. It’s the only fishable water, but when its single digits fly casting is just about impossible. We’re right between things on winter fishing, with ice fishing about to break loose in another week, it the chilly weather holds.