This has to be one of the longest winters in memory. Here we are in the middle of March and people are still ice fishing on most area lakes! The cool night time temperatures have stalled many of the fisheries that are typically rolling right along by this time of year. Gordon Steinmetz reports that the walleye fishing on Lake Roosevelt is in a lull due to the water level being raised. It came up three feet recently, and that’s a lot of water for this impoundment, so it will take a while for the fish to acclimate. Darc Knobel at the Desert Fly Angler in Ephrata tells me that the ice is just slowly receding from the surface at Lake Lenore. There is open water at the top and bottom ends of the lake, but the water is so cold you won’t catch him out there. Rocky Ford is a good fall-back option for fly fishers, though, The Ford is always worth a shot. I did poorly here recently, but that’s fishing. One bright spot is the steelhead fishing on the Methow, upper Columbia and Okanogan rivers. Floating the Okanogan right now is very productive and something we rarely get a chance to do.