Weekly Fishin' Magician Report with Dave Graybill
Dave Graybill
If you ever see my lists of places that I would like to fish, you will often see Coffee Pot Lake included. It has been my goal for year to visit this lake.
Monday, May 12th
If you ever see my lists of places that I would like to fish, you will often see Coffee Pot Lake included. It has been my goal for year to visit this lake.
It is known for very large rainbow trout, and also great perch and crappie fishing. It can also be very good for largemouth bass I have learned.
Well, thanks to Dennis Beich, retired Director of Region 2 of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, I finally made it.
I met Beich at this place near Marlin, Washington, which is past Wilson Creek on Highway 28, and we drove on through Odessa to Coffee Pot. I was surprised to see a parking lot full of rigs and lots of pontoon and small fishing boats.
There were at least two trucks that had Idaho plates. I now know why.
Beich and I trolled from the launch bay up the shore to the top end, catching small rainbow along the way. When we got to the top end of the lake we got what we were looking for; big rainbow.
We got three from 16 to 20 inches pretty quickly and lost another big one. Now I want to go back!
Wednesday, May 14th
I had a great trip to the lower Columbia River, fishing for spring salmon. I got out with Herb Good of Hood River.
He's is a legend in salmon fishing, and his long-time friend Dub Burnam, whom I have known for several years, joined us.
We tried the mouth of the Klickitat, which is scenically spectacular, and then move our operation further up river. Herb missed a good hit and I had an unclipped fish to the boat. I was really special spending time with these to people on the Columbia and hope to fish with them this fall.
The next day I jumped on board with Shane Magnuson with my video camera. I picked a good day, as although fishing was tough off the mouth of Wind River, he put six fish in the boat for his clients and me.
The 3.5 Mag Lip Flatfish was hot. We got our first four fish on this plug. We finished off with prawn spinners.
Spring salmon continue to pass over Bonneville Dam and the fishing on the lower Columbia will be good for a while yet. I know Magnuson plans to come back to our area to fish the spring salmon season on the Icicle and Wenatchee rivers, which should be good by early June.