Weekly Fishin' Magician Report

Friday, November 30

I had another great day of steelhead fishing at Pateros.

I jumped on board Shane Magnuson's boat last Tuesday.

He had two clients that I had fished with before at Drano Lake and at Pateros, and his buddy Wally, who I have also fished with on several occasions. They had really romped on them the day before, limiting and were back at the dock by noon.

Fishing wasn't quite as fast on this day.

The Rocks produced some fish but our first visit to the estuary produced zero. After a short break we headed by down to the Rocks and found a faster bite.

In fact at one point we had on a triple!

That just doesn't happen that often with steelhead and we landed them all. We made one more visit to the estuary and did get one fish this time.

At the end of the day we had tallied ten fish to the boat, three being keepers. We lost a few and missed some hits, too, of course, and it turned out to be a busy day.

We released a couple of fish that were in the 12- to 13-pound class.

Keep an eye out for a news release about the plan for steelhead season. Closures may not be as severe as I first was being told.

Monday, December 3

It's official. Steelhead fishing has ended on several rivers in our region on December 1st, but the closure isn't as broad as I was being told earlier this year.

The Wenatchee, Entiat and Methow rivers have closed, not only for steelhead fishing but for whitefish as well.

The areas that will remain open to fishing for hatchery steelhead include: the main stem Columbia River from Rock Island Dam to the boundary markers below Wells Dam, and from Highway 173 Bridge in Brewster to 400 feet below Chief Joseph Dam; the Okanogan River from the mouth upstream to the Highway 97 Bridge in Oroville; the Similkameen River from the mouth upstream to 400 feet below Enloe Dam.

Only adipose fin clipped steelhead may be retained, with a limit of two fish per day.

A night closure remains in effect and selective gear rules apply, expect bait is allowed in the main stem Columbia.

Anglers are reminded that these fisheries are made possible by the Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement Stamp. For full details see the news release available on the WDFW web site.

Wednesday, December 5

I finally made a visit to below Wells Dam for steelhead a few days ago.

This was after having terrible luck fishing further up river. My fishing buddy Rollie Schmitten and I started our day in Pateros.

We tried drifting our bobbers and jigs in two spots where I am used to having very good action; in the estuary and then down river at the Rocks. We didn't even get a sniff in the estuary and Schmitten got just one hit at the Rocks. After a bowl of chowder and a sandwich at the Rivers Restaurant, we decided to give Wells a try.

We have had some great times below Wells Dam and hadn't fished for steelhead, and this seemed like a good day to do it.

We made a few long drifts along the bar and below, hooking just one fish. We switched colors of our Maxi-Jigs and made the run across the river to the big eddy. Settling into the eddy, and actually drifting up river, we finally got some action. Schmitten released a nice wild fish and not five minutes later I got a nine-pounder keeper.

Whew.

It was a near thing, but we kept our success streak alive.

Friday, December 7

After catching a couple of nice steelhead below Wells Dam my fishing friend Rollie Schmitten and I returned to this spot to try again.

We actually started our day fishing just below the launch, along the bar.

Schmitten got a fish on his first cast, and I thought we were in for a big day of steelhead fishing.

Once again we were rigged up with bobbers and Maxi-Jigs.

We didn't get a bump on our next pass, but I hooked up on the third.

We then tried the opposite shore but didn't find any evidence of steelhead in the hole that had produced two for us on the last trip.

I had brought along some back trolling set ups so we gave this method a try off the bar.

On our first drift I got a dandy wild fish, and we continued on down stream, using these rigs until I lost them on deep boulders in heavy current.

We had more river to cover anyway, and were going to try some other spots and end up in Chelan Falls.

We fished a lot of likely looking water but had no success until we got all the way back down to our money hole below the Beebe Bridge.

Here we got one more fish before we called it day.

Monday, December 10

Anglers are continuing to catch steelhead on the main stem Columbia River.

I have had reports of steelhead being taken from the point above Rocky Reach all the way up the Okanogan.

Water temperatures in the Columbia remain higher than normal for this time of year, and if we get some cooler weather fishing could get even better.

I checked in with the folks down at MarDon Resort on Potholes Reservoir.

I had heard that there is a decent walleye bite there.

The folks at the store did say that there are some walleye being taken from the dock, including a 14-pounder taken earlier this winter, and some trout.

I wanted to let you know that the date to get comments on the proposed changes in the fishing regulations for next year has been extended.

The deadline is now January 29th, a month later than before.

There are some important changes, this year and I encourage you to visit the Department of Fish and Wildlife website and check them out.

Also, check out the new Fishing and Cooking TV Shows scheduled for this month.

There are some good ones to see just by going to the Fishing or Cooking TV pages and clicking on the show you want to watch.