Few Lines At Lakes Bad Weather Discourages Many Anglers From Enjoying Good Fishing

Saturday at dawn, a dozen rental boats were vacant at the docks of Fishtrap Lake Resort.

Windshields were smeared with frost instead of bugs.

The usual campground frenzy was tamed by a week of wind, rain and cold.

Even the red-winged blackbirds were subdued.

A few veteran opening-day anglers were dumbfounded at the sight through an eerie mixture of fog and outboard exhaust that settled on glassy water.

“Opening day, and no crowd,” one said. “Can you believe this?”

Saturday’s turnout may have been the lightest ever for the opening of the lowland trout fishing season, said Washington Fish and Wildlife Department officials.

Resort owners were unpleasantly surprised.

“Maybe people have too many things to do on Saturdays to go fishing anymore,” said Brad McHenry of Bunker’s Resort on Williams Lake.

Fishtrap owner Jim Scroggie pegged the blame on the weather. “I think a lot of people decided on Wednesday that the weather was to bad to go fishing on Saturday,” he said.

“The strange thing is that fishing was pretty good at most lakes,” said Ray Duff, Washington’s regional fisheries manager in Spokane.

Most anglers were able to catch their daily limit of five trout at lakes such as Fishtrap, West Medical and Ellen.

As in North Idaho, many Washington trout lakes are open yearround, while others opened March 1.

“I think people don’t get as hyped up about the traditional opening day because there’s so much yearround fishing anymore,” said Madonna Luers, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department spokeswoman in Spokane.

Eighty lakes opened Saturday in Washington’s 10 far-eastern counties.

With some exceptions, such as West Medical Lake, where the fish averaged a pleasing 12-inches long, the trout generally were smaller than last year, Duff said.

“Water temperatures were only about 45 degrees,” he said, noting that unusually cold, wet weather has had a chilling effect on insect hatches. “In normal weather, these fish would be another inch longer.”

“What that means, though, is that there’s going to be a lot of hungry trout available when the weather warms up a little more.”

But frost on the docks Saturday didn’t stop Brent Witter, who’d been waiting to go fishing since Christmas, when he got his first fishing rod.

At 3 years old, Brent hooked his first trout out of Fishtrap at 5:30 a.m. and had his limit by 6:15.

“He got up at 3:30 and he’s going strong,” said his father, P.J., while digging with numb fingers into the worm container. “Now’s the hard part. He has to wait for dad to catch his limit.”

Karen Hunt was among several hundred anglers who waited until later in the morning to arrive. Standing at the Fishtrap boat launch at 11:30 a.m., she said, “My experience is that you always get your limit on opening day anyway, so why get out of bed early?”

Although crowds were down significantly, resort owners still had plenty to do.

Dewey Simpson, who’s worked opening day at Fishtrap for years, put in a 12-hour shift getting campers situated on Friday, and was planning to work from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday.

“But you know, I love it,” he said. “I’ve only met one jerk in all the years I’ve worked here. Most fishermen are great.”

No one was fussing with cold, stubborn outboards at Amber Lake, where gas motors are prohibited and the daily limit is only two trout. John Redinger said the fly-fishing was fabulous at first light, “Then it just shut down.”

Another angler came to the boat ramp a few minutes later and said, “Man, the fishing just got hot. They’re really hooking them down there.”

Mike Hansen, a seventh-grader at Chase Middle School, had peeled on his waders and was buckled into his float tube in minutes, leaving his mom behind at the Amber boat launch, “I’ve been waiting for this all winter,” he said. “I can’t wait any longer.”

Mike had already hooked his first trout by the time his mom, Jackie Scholz, waded into the lake with her float tube to join him.

“He can do all his own knots and everything now,” she said. “This is what a parent looks forward to.”

“Did you see that?” one angler whispered to his buddy on shore.

“A mother taking her son fly-fishing. Times are changing.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BEST FISHING Eastern Washington lakes that produced best fishing Saturday. Chart shows average size of fish (in inches) and average number of fish per angler:

Lake Length Ratio

Fishtrap 10-13 4.7 West Medical 10-13 4.3 Ellen 12-14 4.3 Starvation 9-11 4.3 Deep 10-14 4.0 Williams 9-12 3.8 Liberty 9-12 3.6 Rocky 10 3.4 Chapman 8-15 3.4 Badger 9-12 3.0