As we enter the month of January and the new year, we find many anglers shifting their focus from steelhead fishing on the upper Columbia to triploid rainbow at Rufus Woods Reservoir. Steelhead fishing remains good and improving on the Columbia, but the lure of big, and I mean really big rainbow is drawing anglers to all the access points along Rufus Woods. I got a chance to give it a try over the Holidays. My daughter Whitney and I fished with Shane Magnuson, of Upper Columbia Guide Services. We started at Bridgeport and worked out way up to the lower pens. We caught fish along the barrier above the dam, below the pump on the east side, and at Pump 1. By the time we reached Pump 3 the current had dropped to nothing and the ground to a halt. When we reached the lower pen we noticed quite a few fish rolling, but not taking our trolled lures. Shane put out some slip bobber rigs with a bead-head Wooly Bugger hanging below it and it did attract a couple of strikes. We at least got to see a fish of about 10 pounds near the boat, before it slipped the hook and swam away. Oh well, we’ll get him next time.