I wasn’t having much luck finding lakes in Okanogan County that were free of ice. My idea was that with the mild winter weather we’ve had anglers could be fishing some of the quality lakes in this area. Well, not only were the quality lakes frozen over, but every lake I visited had ice on it, and enough ice that it will be a while before they will be fishable. So, I decided to check on one of the most popular ice fishing lakes in the Methow Valley. That is Patterson Lake, not far outside of the town of Winthrop. Here I found anglers enjoying the day ice fishing. They were scattered from one end of the lake to the other. One angler told me that the ice was nine and a half inches thick, and I saw people taking a snowmobile out on the ice and down to shack at the far end. I have fished Patterson for many years, and although perch used to be my target species years ago, more people are now focusing on the trout and kokanee. Perch are still plentiful but running smaller than when I was fishing it.