Weekly Fishin' Magician Report with Dave Graybill

Wednesday, December 11

The official word is out now, about the closure of some of the steelhead waters in our area.

Somewhat different than expected, it leaves quite a bit of water open through the winter, and saves some other areas for potential reopening in the spring.

The areas that are now closed include the main stem Columbia River from Rock Island Dam all the way up to Wells Dam.

Also closing are the Wenatchee River and the Icicle River.

The return of steelhead to these areas was much lower than anticipated, and by closing them now there is the possibility of being able to fish them perhaps in February or March of next year.

These closures also mean no whitefish season on the Wenatchee River.

The closures will not affect the steelhead and whitefish seasons on the Okanogan, Similkameen, Methow and main stem Columbia River from Wells Dam upstream to Chief Joseph Dam.

I don't expect to see much traffic on the rivers that remain open for a while, though.

I am sure that the Okanogan will freeze and ice is a problem on the smaller rivers.

Fishing on the Columbia will be difficult until temperatures rise a bit.

Friday, December 13

It doesn't happen every year and when it does it is something you don't want to miss.

That is when there is enough ice on Moses Lake to fish for jumbo perch, and it's happening right now.

When I checked on Moses Lake a couple of days ago there were seven inches of clear solid ice and anglers were having a ball fishing for perch.

Limits of 25 were being taken regularly and there were some of the big jumbo, 13 inches or more in length, sprinkled in the catches.

There are some keeper-sized walleye being pulled through the ice as well.

People are parking at Blue Heron Park and walking to an area a couple of hundred yards above the I-90 Bridge, and you can expect lots of company where you get there.

I wouldn't wait too long to take advantage of this great fishery.

There is warmer weather in the forecast for next week, and there is no guarantee that the safe ice will hold up.

I also checked on the ice at Coulee City Marina, and although covered with ice, I saw no evidence of people fishing for perch there as yet.

I am sure they are waiting for a thicker layer of ice.

Monday, December 16

I made another trip up to Lake Roosevelt to see if could get some more of those nice triploid rainbow, and I had mixed results.

The first day I fished the afternoon from an area known affectionately as "Geezer's Beach", which is on the north side of Roosevelt just above the dam.

This is a very popular area for shore fishing, as you can drive right down to the water.

A Colville Tribal license is required to fish here, but people are willing to pay the fee for the convenience of this particular spot.

There was one angler there when I arrived and another one set up while we were fishing.

Still another stopped by to see how we were doing.

However, the fishing here was very slow last week.

One veteran angler said the fish hadn't shown up here yet, implying that it will get better later in the winter.

The next day I went back to Spring Canyon Park and was joined by another angler who had read my report.

Fishing was very slow that day, and he got one rainbow and I got two.

One of my fish was 22 inches, though, so I called it a success.