FISHING – The April 1 fishing season opener at many lakes in the Columbia Basin indicates that anglers are still paying a price for the long, cold, wet spring of 2011.

That’s not to say this year has been much better, so far.

The number of anglers out for the opener was down throughout the Basin, with NO anglers observed at the Pillar-Wideon chain of lakes near Potholes Reservoir.

March 1 was the opener for most selective fishery waters in Eastern Washington. Most Spokane area lowland trout production lakes open for fishing on April 28.

At Dry Falls Lake, a spring favorite for fly fishermen, rain followed by high winds kept all by the most dedicated opening day anglers off the water.

Those who persisisted for three-five hours caught and released an average of five fish, said Chad Jackson, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife District biologist.  Trout size ranged from 10-20 inches.

Yearling trout, however, showed signs of last year’s shorter growing season, Jackson said.

”Yearlings should easily; be 12-14 inches by the opener instead of 10-12 inches,” he said.  ” Smaller yearling trout size has been observed in other lakes in the Basin this year.  Over the next couple months these trout should grow to a nicer size.”

FISHING — Fishing season opened today in a select group of lakes, mostly in Central Washington. While success rates weren't good everywhere, some lakes — notably Upper Caliche, Martha, Burke and Quincy Lakes — were the best in recently years, said Chad Jackson, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fish biologist for the Columbia Basin.

The quality waters — Lenice, Nunnally, Lenore and Dusty Lakes saw very low effort and poor catch rates early in the day, he said. 

Although air temperatures were 28-32 degrees, skies were mostly sunny with mild winds and good to excellent harvest rates in many waters.

The cold weather appeared to be the factor in reducing angler effort 50-70 percent from recent years.

Read on for Jackson's detailed report by water.

WATERFOWL HUNTING — Mikal Moore, state waterfowl biologist, compiled data Wednesday from the season’s first aerial waterfowl surveys over the Columbia River Basin on Monday and Tuesday.

Bottomline: Northerns are here.

“There a lot of new birds in the area, probably recently arrived, that seem to be staging in large groups at well-established reserves and private hunting clubs”, she said. The ducks were not yet well distributed and widely available to hunters, but many opportunities exist, she said.

Waterfowlers will want to read on for details from her observations.

FISHING — Much is written about the excellent trout fishing in the Columbia Basin. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife publishes pages of fishing prospects and stocking schedules to help anglers stay on top of these destinations for rainbows.

However, the majority if the waters are filled with warmwater species, such as bass and perch, and the Columbia Basin's warmwater fisheries biologists aren't being left in the dust.

Some of these waters provide excellent spiny ray fishing. Size them up for yourself with this handy guide the warmwater biologists