Trout Lakes Show Effects Of Changes

REPLAY: 4-18-97 Rich Landers’ Thursday column incorrectly described the fishing season on Waitts and Jumpoff Joe Lakes in Stevens County. The season opens April 26 and closes Oct. 31.

Picking the best trout fishing lakes in Washington used to be as easy as thumbing through the regulations for the waters that opened in March or April.

These put-and-take lakes had been treated with chemicals every decade or so to kill competing species such as sunfish so stocked trout could flourish.

Anglers didn’t go to these lakes during the opening week of the trout season and expect to hook a few fish.

They left home virtually assured of catching a limit.

Those old expectations are still fulfilled at a handful of seasonal trout lakes scattered through the state, including West Medical Lake in Spokane County.

But two years ago, Washington made a perplexing change. Most trout lakes went to year-round seasons.

Indeed, any lake that isn’t specifically mentioned in the regulations pamphlet is open year-round.

Some people say the fishing has gone to pot in the lakes that never close. But the change was forced by numerous factors:

Access to most lowland lakes in the state is privately controlled by people who don’t want the state telling them when they can fish their own waters.

Funding for raising trout was declining and little money was available to upgrade decaying hatcheries.

The public became more reluctant to allow lakes to be treated with the organic chemical rotenone to kill carp and other species that compete with trout.

Predatory birds, especially cormorants, were learning en masse that hatchery-raised trout fry released into lakes made easy meals.

The latter two factors forced the state Fish and Wildlife Department to raise fish in hatcheries to a larger “catchable” size and release the trout just before the opening of fishing seasons.

This is more expensive and the larger fish take up more hatchery space.

That spells far fewer fish to release.

But a few lakes still follow the tradition of opening in April for special reasons such as spawning protection, pressure for surrounding landowners or simply to preserve the fishery from intense pressure.

The result has been a mixed bag for anglers.

Without rotenone treatments, some lakes that formerly were the exclusive domain of rainbow or cutthroat trout are now also home to bass, perch, crappies, bluegills, catfish and other species.

Most of the lakes that have gone to endless seasons are nowhere near the trout producers they were a decade ago. But each region of the state has a few year-round waters one can count on for sensational fishing “You can’t go out and have dynamite fishing any day of the year,” said Ray Duff, regional fisheries manager in Spokane. “They don’t produce that big boom of fish on opening day. But at times it can be very good.”

Waitts and Jumpoff Joe, two year-round lakes in Stevens County, are good bets for rainbows and the occasional large brown.

Rock Lake in Whitman County consistently kicks out bragging-size rainbows and browns, especially in spring and fall. The access is small and fairly primitive. There’s no resort. Summer fishing is fouled by muddy irrigation runoff into the seven-mile-long lake.

All of this contributes to good sustainable trout fishing, even though the lake’s open year-round.

Pinpointing the best year-round trout lakes in the Columbia Basin is difficult because of various factors, not the least of which is the heavy losses of fish to cormorants, pelicans and other area predators.

“The maddening thing is that it varies so much from year to year,” said Jeff Korth, biologist in Ephrata. “One year a lake can be great, the next year it’s a bust.”

It’s no coincidence that Korth’s picks for the most consistent year-round trout lakes require a short hike from the nearest road:

Beda Lake in the Desert Wildlife Recreation Area southwest of Moses Lake off Dodson Road.

Buckwheat, March, Sanddock, all in a row off Dobson Road east of Beda.

Katy and Janet lakes in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge.

The Vantage seep lakes, including Horseshoe and Spence.

Even a short hike dramatically thins out fishing pressure. Nature then sets the seasons at these lakes without help from bureaucrats.

Floating devices are useful to fish these waters, which tend to be rimmed with cattails.

Fishing is best in the early spring, before aquatic weeds get thick and water temperatures get high.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review