I wanted to let anglers in on a couple of things that almost got by me. One is that anglers can now have gas engines on their boats when fishing Washburn Ponds, which is just outside of Brewster. These are popular with spiny ray anglers and are known to produce some big largemouth. This will allow anglers to fish the ponds in the boats they typically fish with on the Okanogan and on the Columbia River. I really like this as it will encourage me to fish them. I haven’t in the past due to the rule that didn’t allow gas engines on boats. I am really excited to give them a try now that it will be easy for me to do. The ponds opened to fishing on April 1st and I should let anglers know that some of the best smallmouth fishing on the Okanogan River is in the very early spring. Don’t plan on catching a lot of fish, but the ones you get will be BIG. Also, anglers on Banks Lake are getting the occasional Chinook salmon now. These were the result of excess stocks of summer-run salmon at the hatchery and are now over 20 inches and weigh up to 4 pounds.