One of the fisheries that many people just don’t think about this time of year is the winter trout fishing on Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt. Both of these big waters offer excellent trout fishing in the winter and Banks particularly produces some big ones. Anglers trolling near Steamboat and further up on Banks are showing off rainbow in the 4-pound class. While typically not as large overall, but definitely more numerous are the rainbow on Lake Roosevelt. The fish are caught in the top 10 to 15 feet of water and are caught on crank baits, like Rapalas and other plugs. A hot new item is good old Bingo Bug, which has caught on as a lure for both rainbow and kokanee on Lake Roosevelt. I used these for kokanee on Lake Chelan years ago, but they are now available in larger sizes. Lake Roosevelt produces the biggest kokanee in the state and they will be moving into the upper water columns soon. Shore fishing on Lake Roosevelt hasn’t taken off yet, but will be very good in the next month. I have had great luck fishing bait from the shore near the swimming area at Spring Canyon in the winter.