On March 1st several lakes in the Columbia Basin open to fishing. In the Quincy Wildlife Area there are several that are popular with anglers. Quincy Lake offers very good shore access and fair to good trout fishing for 11- to 13-inch trout in most years. Quincy is shallow and is often mostly ice-covered on the opener. Next to Quincy is Burke Lake. This is the site of the Quincy Valley Tourism Association’s Derby on March 2nd, and provides excellent trout fishing. The catch of 11- to 13-inch rainbow is supplement with larger fish for the derby, including some that weigh up to 6 and 7 pounds. Dusty Lake is a popular with fly anglers and produces rainbow and brown trout to over 20 inches and tiger trout that can be even larger. To the east of the town of George is Martha Lake, and it is the most productive of all the March 1st opener lakes. Anglers take limits of 10- to 14- inch trout and a surprising number of carryover rainbow to 18 inches and larger. To the west are the Caliche lakes. I’ll bet that the largest of the three lakes will produce good catches of rainbow of 11- to 13 inches this year.