Northeastern Washington lakes should satisfy fishing demands on opening day

Northeastern Washington lakes have been well tended to satisfy the demand for good fishing when the lowland lake season opens on Saturday.

Periodic problems with fish die-offs at lakes usually can be compensated to some degree by changes in stocking, such as a one-time increase of catchable-size hatchery fish, said the fisheries manager for Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties.

Starvation Lake (Stevens County) will have slightly fewer fish than usual because of a fish kill last summer, said Bill Baker, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist in Colville.

“But restocking of the lake occurred in fall of 2014 and spring of 2015 with jumbo-size fish and catchables, so there will be some big fish to catch. Overall, it should be pretty good fishing, especially early in the season.”

Following are Baker’s observations from this week on other popular northeast waters:

Rocky Lake (Stevens) – Good numbers of 11-inch fry plant rainbow and some carryovers up to 14 inches. Should be good fishing.

Cedar Lake (Stevens) – Good fishing for fry plant rainbow averaging around 11 inches and carryovers up to 15 inches.

Mudgett Lake (Stevens) – Good fishing for fry-plant rainbow up to 12 inches and some supplemental “catchables” averaging around 11 inches. Carryovers were relatively few and far between in preseason sampling, but that is not always indicative of the Opening Day fishery.

Waitts Lake (Stevens) – Anglers will see fewer brown trout in the creel this year because of disease issues at the hatchery a couple of years ago. “However, WDFW has tried to backfill the loss with rainbow trout to the extent possible,” Baker said. “Overall, trout fishing should still be very good.”

Diamond Lake (Pend Oreille County) – Trout fishing should be fair to good.

Sacheen Lake (Pend Oreille) – Received some larger jumbo rainbows last fall and again this spring. Fishing should be hot on the opener and should carry through the spring.

Little Pend Oreille chain lakes (Pend Oreille and Stevens) – Planted with fingerling rainbow last fall and “catchables” this spring. By the opener, the ice will have been off far longer this year than in typical years. Should be good fishing for stocked rainbows with occasional tiger trout up to 15 inches.