When I was in the Columbia Basin recently I decided to check on the fishing at some of the lakes that opened on March 1st. I was a Burke Lake to start out with and found anglers busy catching rainbow from 10 to 18 inches and some even larger. One boy weighed in a 4.4-pound rainbow at the Tagged Trout Derby. Quincy Lake, which is next door to Burke Lake, was also productive, but didn’t produce trout more than 15 or 16 inches. Martha Lake, located just east of George, was a big disappointment this year. The water was low and catches even lower on the opening day. The story was different at Caliche Lake, which is about six miles west of George. Here I found anglers getting limit numbers of rainbow. They weren’t big. Most of them were just 10 inches but they were plentiful. I then traveled to Moses Lake to check on the perch fishing. I found several boats anchored near the I-90 Bridge and a fair number of anglers fishing from the rip rap and the bridge structure. They were getting some nice perch, but most people said the bite has slowed since a week ago and the size of the perch had dropped off as well.