The Fishin' Magician: Trout near the Wenatchee Valley

Anglers looking to fill a stringer with fat rainbow don't have to travel far from the Wenatchee Valley. I shaved down the list of 17 lakes that Department of Fish and Wildlife sent me from the opening Saturday of the trout season to a top ten, and there were three lakes in Chelan County that made it. Two of them aren't too far out of the city limits of Wenatchee.

Beehive Reservoir, on the road to Mission Ridge, placed fourth on the list of top ten, with anglers posting excellent catches of rainbow with some as large as 15 inches. Next on the list was Clear Lake, in the Wenatchee Heights. Fishing here was just a couple of points shy of what anglers did at Beehive, and some of the trout here stretched the tape to 16 inches.

Also making the top ten list placing 9th was Wapato Lake, which is near Manson at Lake Chelan. Wapato fished like the good old days, with rainbow averaging between 14 and 18 inches. The last lake on the list was popular Jameson Lake, in Douglas County. Jameson hosted a huge crowd on Saturday, and anglers caught good numbers of rainbow measuring up to 17 inches.