Grant County lakes deemed very productive

Lakes filled with fish for opening day

COLUMBIA BASIN — The Columbia Basin fishing season opening day, April 28, should be "very productive," according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Jeff Korth, the department's district fish biologist in Moses Lake, said Grant County's Blue and Park lakes should be the best.

Both lakes were rehabilitated last fall and stocked with 10- to 12-inch rainbow trout. They were also stocked with triploid rainbows, voracious feeders having the potential to grow to trophy size.

Blue Lake received 5,901 triploids, some weighing up to a pound and a half, along with 105,000 catchable-sized trout. The department released 70,000 catchable-sized trout into Park Lake, with 3,752 triploids.

The catchable-sized fish at Blue and Park Lake should provide an average catch-rate of three fish per angler on opening day, Korth said.

Fingerlings, for the 2008 fishery, are to be stocked later this spring, returning Blue and Park lakes to their former glory days, Korth said.

Vic Meyers Lake, which connects to Park Lake, was rehabilitated last fall, and is being stocked with 3,000 catchable-sized rainbows and 280 triploids for opening day.

The rainbow catch at Deep Lake is usually very good on the opener, yielding four to five fish per angler, Korth said.

Besides the usual 5,000 rainbow trout and 40,000 kokanee fingerlings, Deep Lake this year received 5,000 rainbows of catchable-size, from 10 to 12 inches.

"The late-spring, early-summer kokanee fishery at Deep Lake has been good to those who know how to target them," Korth said. "But better kokanee fishing comes later in the summer, in July and August."

Perch Lake, among the most consistent waters in the Basin, receives 10,000 fingerlings annually, Korth said. The lake is usually fished out in a few weeks, but an occasional 15-inch carryover is sometimes caught, he said.

Perch Lake is mostly a shore fishery, Korth said, although hand-carried boats or float tubes can be used.

Warden Lake, once a favorite for the late-April trout opener, is now plagued by spiny-rayed fishes like sunfish and bullheads, reducing survival rates for fingerling trout, Korth said. Warden Lake's most recent rehabilitation was nine years ago.

Warden Lake was stocked with 57,000 rainbow fingerlings last spring, but the department's sampling indicates only about 10 percent survived.

Another 20,000 rainbow fingerlings were stocked last fall and survival of these fish appears good.

Yearling rainbow from the spring stocking are 12 to 14 inches, while those from the fall stocking are eight to 10 inches.

A few carryover rainbows at 15 inches and longer should make up about 5 percent of opening-day catches, he said, along with some large brown trout.

Many of the Basin's March 1 and April 1 opening lakes are still fishing very well, Korth said, especially Burke Lake and Upper Hampton Lake. The selective-gear fisheries at Dusty, Lenore, and Dry Falls lakes are also doing well, he said.