While I passed by Pateros the other day, on my way up the Methow Valley to fish Patterson Lake, I noticed that were no anglers out fishing off the docks at Pateros. I can understand why, too. There was about ten feet of shelf ice along the shore and that would discourage anglers from casting their bobbers from the bank. Anglers who are fishing the river from boats shouldn’t have a problem, though, as there is plenty of open water and plenty of steelhead in the upper Columbia to be taken. With a few warmer days in the weather forecast, you can bet they will be back out there taking fish. Right now, though, two activities dominate the fishing scene. The first is ice fishing on a number of lakes in the region. From Palmer Lake, near Oroville, to Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee, hordes of anglers are trooping out on the ice and taking perch and rainbow by the bucketful. The other big attraction is the triploid fishing at Rufus Woods Reservoir. Anglers fishing from the shore near Bridgeport, or near the net pens below Grand Coulee Dam are catching trout that average about 4 to 6 pounds, with a few larger fish salted in.