Fishing Excellent For Winter Season Opener

Fishing was excellent at Hog Canyon and Fourth of July lakes when they were opened for the winter season Sunday.

Fisheries biologist Bob Peck said that anglers averaged 1 hour to catch five rainbows at Hog Canyon. At Fourth of July, anglers had to fish about 2 hours to catch a limit.

A high percentage of the rainbows caught at Fourth of July were 18 to 22 inches long. Many anglers left the lake with two large rainbows, figuring they’d have to hook numerous other fish to catch trout under 14 inches. The daily limit is five trout, only two of which can be 14 inches or longer.

The area around the launch site at Hog Canyon was covered with thin ice, Peck said, but fishermen managed to get boats into open water.

Most of the trout anglers caught at Hog Canyon were 11 to 13 inches long. Some 8- to 9-inchers, planted as fry last spring, and a few carryovers to 24 inches were caught. The Fish and Wildlife Department had released about 300 broodstock rainbows into the lake; some were 5-pounders.

The final quarter of a mile of the road into Hog Canyon was so rutty and slick that some anglers parked on the flats above the lake and hiked to spots along the shoreline.

Hatch Lake, east of Colville, also was opened Sunday, but it was covered by ice too thick to break with rocks or boats and too thin to stand on.

, DataTimes