Just like a lot of anglers, I am looking for the best prospects for fishing through the Holidays and into the New Year. As December closes out and January approaches, the best opportunities for catching fish will remain pretty much the same until we get a good stretch of cold weather. That will help add a new prospect to the list, which will be ice fishing on many of the region’s lake. Until then, steelhead fishing will continue to attract anglers to our area rivers. Rufus Woods will gain in popularity, and production of good catches through January and February, and Rocky Ford Creek will offer good to great fly fishing for hardy fly fishers. Steelhead fishing on the Wenatchee and Methow rivers will be iffy, and depend on how much open water there is to fish, but the main stem Columbia River will get better and better as fish become more aggressive. Rufus Woods will see its peak for pressure in January and February, and I believe that the number of triploids weighing into the teens could be the best we’ve seen in years. I have had some of my best days for really big rainbow in the winter at Rocky Ford. Some of the trout have been as big as the steelhead I catch on the Columbia!