Surprises Hook Into Opening-Day Anglers

Fisheries biologists, knowing their field isn’t an exact science, almost never get themselves out on a limb by making specific predictions. For good reason, they tend to use generalities.

They, as well as anglers, get surprised every opening day.

Some surprises last Saturday were pleasant ones. Others shocked fishermen.

Kokanee in Loon Lake provided one of the most pleasant surprises. The landlocked sockeye salmon delighted anglers by hitting baited lures trolled near the surface. Many anglers took home 10 kokanee that went from 10 to 13 inches long.

As most fishermen know, few kokanee are caught in any of Eastern Washington’s lakes on an opening day. The water’s usually too cold for the kokanee to be active. However, Joe Haley, manager of the Granite Point Resort, said the 2000 opener was the best for kokanee in many years.

On the other side of the ledger were some unpleasant surprises. Fly fishers turned out en masse at Bayley, a fly fishing-only lake, and caught some 10-inch trout, but very few of the big rainbows and brook trout.

The trout in Amber, a selective fishery lake, were smaller than anglers hoped they’d be. The average was only 13 inches, with many in the 10- to 11-inch range. There’s apparently too little food in the lake for the trout to grow fast.

The big surprise at West Medical was the size of the carryover rainbows and browns. Although anglers averaged only 1.7 trout each, a high percentage was 16 to 17 inches long. Incidentally, West Medical is scheduled for rehabilitation next fall.

Biologists suspected fishing would be good at Aeneas, a fly fishing-only lake in Okanogan County, but they didn’t think it would be as good as it turned out to be. Fly fishers hooked and released numerous rainbows that averaged 19 inches long. The limit at Aeneas is one a day; it’s been five a day the last several years and fly fishers quickly depleted the small lake’s trout population.

Most anglers who fished Blue in the Sinlahekin last fall figured fishing would be outstanding this spring. However, fishing was slow opening day, with anglers averaging 1.7 rainbows and brown trout each. At least, the trout were big, averaging 17 inches long.

Little Ell, a selective fishery lake, didn’t provide any surprises. Biologists expected fishing to be good and it was, with anglers, many of them fly fishers, hooking and releasing rainbows that averaged 18 inches long. That’s what happened last opening day, then the fishing slowed dramatically.

The Fish and Wildlife Department released big triploid rainbows in Newman and Liberty lakes. Apparently, few were caught and fishing was unusually slow, with anglers averaging 0.9 fish each at Liberty and 0.5 each at Newman.

Yearling trout in many lakes were an inch or so longer than biologists had thought they would be. They averaged nearly 12 inches in Fishtrap, Cedar, Starvation, Jameson, Blue (Grant County), Perch and Long (Okanogan County). Averages at Park and Fish were 12 to 13 inches.

Biologists said the average sizes were bigger than they’ve been because of mild conditions last winter and this spring, enabling the fish to grow faster than usual. They didn’t say so before the opener.

Jameson, Blue and Park lakes surprised Fish and Wildlife officials. Not only did the yearlings average 11-1/2 to 12-1/2 inches long, the average catch was more than four fish for each angler. That meant most fishermen took home limits.

Leader in Okanogan County proved to be one of the most outstanding lakes. Nearly all anglers caught limits and the average size of the yearlings was nearly 13 inches.

Dry Falls, a selective fishery lake southwest of Coulee City, didn’t have any surprises. Everyone expected fairly good fishing and anglers weren’t disappointed. Although the lake was jammed, anglers averaged nearly four trout each and the yearlings averaged 14 inches. The fishers caught carryover rainbows and browns to 20 inches.

As expected, Badger churned out limits of rainbows and cutthroat for boaters in an hour or so. The yearling trout ranged from 9 to 12 inches. One of every four trout was a cutthroat measuring 10 to 12 inches. Fishing at Williams wasn’t as good as it was at Badger, with anglers averaging 2.2 fish each. And the trout at Williams were slightly shorter than those in Badger.

Nearly all anglers were expected to ignore Silver Lake, which is carpeted with tench, and they did. A few fly fishers fished North Silver, a newly designated fly fishing-only lake.

Near-by Clear Lake, however, attracted hundreds of anglers and the fishing was fairly good, with fishermen averaging 2.6 fish each. The rainbows and browns averaged 14 inches long.

Several lakes in Pend Oreille, Stevens and Ferry counties didn’t provide any surprises. Anglers caught rainbows and brook trout averaging 9 inches at Sacheen, rainbows averaging 9 inches at Diamond, numerous limits of 10-inch cutthroat at the lakes in the Little Pend Oreille chain, 8- to 11-inch trout at Waitts and 10-inch trout at Ledbetter.