The Fishin' Magician: Columbia Wildlife Refuge and Dry Falls Lake

This weekend will be a busy one in the Columbia Wildlife Refuge, south of Potholes Reservoir. This will be the first opportunity for thousands of anglers to fish the trout and spiny ray lakes that open to fishing on April 1st. I will be visiting these lakes and will be providing reports on how the fishing is on many of them in the early season

Another lake that opens on April 1st that is a distance from the Columbia Wildlife Refuge is Dry Falls Lake. This is a quality lake, with selective gear rules and a daily one fish limit, and is primarily fished by fly anglers. The lake is accessed through the small State Park above Park Lake. It is a very scenic lake, surrounded by high basalt cliffs.

There is an observation and interpretive center on the rim of the cliffs on the highway from Soap Lake to Coulee City that offers a spectacular view of the lake. Anglers fishing Dry Falls in their float tubes and pontoon boats are tiny dots on the water from this vista. Fishing on Dry Falls has dramatically improved in recent years and anglers are now catching rainbow and brown trout to 16 inches with good consistency and there are tiger trout in the lake that can be even larger.