I took an extra day off on my way to the Federation of Fly Fishers fair in Ellensburg last Friday and Saturday so I can spend some fishing time at Lake Lenice just across the Columbia River from Vantage.
I’d been there earlier this year, but it was so windy, I really couldn’t fish effectively
.
Fishing wasn’t spectacular last week, but it wasn’t too windy. And fishing was OK.
Lenice lacks the truly big rainbows this year that it’s known for, but that’s mostly because it was poisoned a few years ago to try to knock back the sunfish and then restocked with trout. They need another year or so of growth before they get to the 24- or 25-inchers most anglers vie for in Lenice.
But there are a lot of 18- to 20-inch fish there right now. I got a couple nice rainbows that reached 20 inches.
I also got a lot of newly planted hatchery fish of eight inches or so. New hatchery plants can mess a lake up for a while, but they weren’t too bad.
I got more larger fish on east end of the lake near the outlet on a size 14 black chironomid with a rib of silver wire and a white bead. Most of the plants were on the west end of the lake near the inlet.
I have to admit that fishing in the warmth of the Eastern Washington sun was so welcome that I wasn’t complaining about catching so many small ones. And every once in a while, there’d be a nice one of the line.
In addition to the chironomid, I had success with a size 12 bloodworm.
I wasn’t happy to see all the eight inchers in the lake, but I couldn’t help thinking that they might become feed for some of the bigger trout in the lake, which will make them get even bigger faster.
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