Fishin' Magician

Friday, Jan. 14

While fishing for perch at the Coulee City Marina a couple of

weeks back, a fellow ice angler said he would keep me posted on the

ice fishing conditions on Moses Lake. He was anxious for the ice to

form with enough thickness to allow fishing and he hoped that the

"jumbo" perch would show up as they did last year.

Friday, Jan. 14

While fishing for perch at the Coulee City Marina a couple of weeks back, a fellow ice angler said he would keep me posted on the ice fishing conditions on Moses Lake. He was anxious for the ice to form with enough thickness to allow fishing and he hoped that the "jumbo" perch would show up as they did last year. True to his word he called me, saying that the ice was safe and that there were some really big perch being caught. I made the trip to Moses Lake one afternoon and found him waiting for me. He had a bucketful of perch that he and his fishing partner had accumulated during the day, and just after I arrived, he pulled a 13 ?-inch perch through the ice. I didn't see anything under 9 inches in their bucket, and there were even some keep-sized walleye included in their catch. If you like big perch, Moses Lake is the place to find them right now. Later in the week I made a trip to Rocky Ford Creek. The fishing was pretty tough actually, but in the afternoon it picked up at bit. I lost a big one, and my fishing partner Brian landed a whopper, somewhere between 25 and 27 inches!

Monday, Jan. 17

Interest in fishing at Rufus Woods Reservoir is very high this time of year, and when Anton Jones, of Darrell and Dads Family Guide Service, called and asked if I would like to get on board for a run up to the net pens I jumped at the chance. He had a large group for the day, but I was welcome to come along to see what the fishing was like at Rufus. Andy Byrd was the skipper that day, and while Anton provided the group with instructions on what to expect, he drove us to the lower pens. The day was bright and clear and no wind really until later in the day, but very little current. Everyone had bites but when fishing in 85 feet of water with a slip sinker rig baited with dough bait, hooking fish was tough. Most of the bites were very light. The fish that did really take the bait were hooked and landed. There were a couple wearing the green spaghetti tags of the Colville Tribe and three of the fish were cookie-cutter 3-pounders. The biggest was a 9-pounder that took a while to land on 6-pound test. No a bad day, but Anton said it was the slowest he had at the pens this year. Rufus is definitely worth a trip.

Wednesday, Jan. 19

I'll be doing something different today. A video crew from ComCast SportsNet in Portland is coming up to do a feature, that I will be part of. The plan is to have the host of the show arrive at Fish Lake via dogsled. Then they will come out on the ice and meet up with Fred Harvey from the Cashmere Museum, and me. We will then introduce the program's host to the sport of ice fishing. I talked to some people that have been having very good success catching perch through the ice at Fish Lake. The perch are decent size, the typical 7- or 8-inchers that are always plentiful in the lake, and they are catching some rainbow trout, too. I plan to get there well ahead of the film crew so Fred and I can find a school of perch and promise good action when the cameras roll. I am hoping that I won't have to drill too many holes before I find the fish. I'll let everyone know how it went. I am still getting good reports on perch through the ice at Moses Lake and Patterson Lake, near Winthrop is good for large perch, too.