A lot of anglers are watching the developing trout fishing action on the lakes that recently opened in the Columbia Basin, but I want to remind folks there is some pretty good fishing available on some of the bigger waters in the region. The steelhead season on the upper Columbia River, Methow and Okanogan rivers remains open, and the fish just haven’t been bothered much lately. There is a bunch of fish in these systems and the warm weather should put them into a serious bite mode. I plan to give the upper Columbia a shot here very soon, and I’ll fill you in on what I learn. I am also getting some good reports from Lake Chelan. Not only are the big mackinaw coming out of the lake in impressive numbers, but the number of Chinook being taken is impressive, too. Anton Jones at Darrell and Dad’s Family Guide Service has been telling me that they have been taking kings with fair regularity the past year or so, and now I am hearing about them being taken by other anglers, too. The odds of catching a king on Lake Chelan are much higher than I have previously thought and the size of the fish is getting bigger, too. Fish over 8 pounds are now showing up in the net of trollers on Chelan.