Perhaps the best family fishing destination in the state for lo these many years has been, and still is, Grant County’s Potholes Reservoir. There’s always something willing to take a bait or lure, somewhere on the big lake, even if it’s presented badly by a novice angler. Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, trout, perch, crappie, bluegill — you name it, Potholes has it.
You can catch fish from a boat (your own or a rental). You can catch fish from the bank. You can catch fish from a pier. Camp or rent a motel room. Barbecue or eat at the MarDon Resort restaurant. Work it right and spend an enjoyable, very moderately priced, week or two in the sun and sand of the Columbia Basin.
June, before the heat of summer sets in, is one of the very best months to be there. MarDon owner Mike Meseberg (1-800-416-2736) said the reservoir is at full pool, and that while weather conditions have not been ideal this year, fishing is starting to break loose.
Bass fishing is in the spotlight right now, Meseberg said. Largemouth are cruising the edges of the sand dunes on the lake’s north end, and some big ones are being caught. “For years here a 5-pound largemouth was considered the trophy fish,” Meseberg said. “But there have been several tournaments already this spring which have been routinely won by 6-pounders, and one tournament weighed four fish over 7 pounds. Those are nice bass.”
Always dependable and family-friendly smallmouth are slamming lures along the face of the dam in the evenings, available by boat or bank. Meseberg said to try a leadhead jig, eighth-ounce or so, with a tube skirt or grub body. A popular grub is the No. 176 Yamamoto in 4- or 5-inch, cinnamon with black flake.
Most of the smallies are feisty little fish in the 1- to 2-pound range, a lot of fun on light tackle, but Meseberg said better than usual numbers of fish in the 3-pound category — quality smallmouth — are being caught, and one recent fish, caught off the resort’s fishing pier, weighed 4 pounds, 6 ounces.
While the reservoir is a little colder this spring than normal, and “warm water” species haven’t yet gone on the prowl, Meseberg said good bluegill, perch and crappie fishing is available just below the reservoir, on the National Wildlife Refuge, in Hutchinson and Shiner lakes.
No clams: Reader Don Sanders asked via e-mail, during the recent series of low tides, whether or not Camano Island State Park beaches were going to open to clam digging this summer, and if not why not, considering the fact there doesn’t appear to be any pollution or red tide problem in the area. Good question.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife shellfish biologist Jenny Whitney at the agency’s Mill Creek office said the reason is a lack of clams, probably due to a severe winter kill in 2001. The combination of a low tide and unusually low temperatures decimated the population of native little necks and Manillas there and in several other parts of Saratoga Passage,
“We would have expected them to have repopulated by now, but they haven’t,” Whitney said, “and we’re concerned. No one seems to have a definitive answer on this one.”
Complicating the issue is a management agreement with the tribes, she said, which tends to make it a longer process to address the issue.
“Butter clams weren’t as badly affected,” she said, “and if we can get all parties to agree, we may try to open a season on those at Camano State park sometime in the future. We also hope to augment the Manilla population through hatchery production.”
Rivers: There’s at least one bright side to the unusually cold spring we’ve had here — it’s kept snow melt from coming down area rivers in torrents for the past week or so, allowing salmon and steelhead fishermen to operate in at least marginal conditions.
Guide and Arlington resident Sam Ingram (360-435-9311) drifted the Skykomish with a party Tuesday, from High Bridge down to the Sultan, and boated two hatchery summer steelhead in the 5- or 6-pound range. He said the upper portion of the Sky is in better shape than the bottom end, and that the river is, in his opinion, too high yet for good chinook fishing.
“In this kind of water, bait works better than lures,” he said. “We hit both those fish on a bait diver and shrimp — lots of scent — fished very slowly, in the softer pockets close to the bank.”
John Thomas of Rotten Chum Guide Service (lamiglas@hotmail.com) fished a three-client party on the Sky Sunday and hit max fishability, hooking 7 steelhead and boating 5, from 7 to 9 pounds. All were taken below the Two-Bit Bar, Thomas said, two on a bait diver/shrimp combo, and three on side-drifted Corkies and shrimp.
“The water was very fishy, but at 7,500 cubic feet per second still on the high side,” he said. “We started with 21/2 feet of visibility in the morning and it improved to 3-plus feet by the afternoon.”
He said when they took out about 3 p.m., the state fish checker had seen five chinook, one pushing 20 pounds. And if the weather warms and the river comes up, the stretch above the Gold Bar clay banks will have better visibility by far.
Up north, “decent reports” have been the rule from the Cascade and upper Skagit, according to Bob Ferber at Holiday Sports in Burlington (360-757-4361), where chinook are falling to those float fishing or drift fishing eggs or shrimp in the Cascade, and boat fishermen pulling plugs or freedrifting bait in the Skagit.
“There’s a pretty good return expected back,” Ferber said, “so fishing should get even better over the next couple of weeks.”
Over on the Columbia, anglers are preparing for the July 1 summer chinook opening on the upper river. Guide and Brewster resident Rod Hammons (randr@swift-stream.com; 509-689-2849) said good numbers are now being counted across Priest Rapids Dam, and that tribal fishermen are already taking kings 15 to 20 pounds below Chief Joseph Dam.
Most of the recreational salmon fishing in his area is done between Brewster and Bridgeport, a lot of it off and just below the mouth of the Okanogan. The fishery below Wells Dam is also very popular, he said, and will be a circus on the opener as 50 boats jockey for spots in the slot at the boundary marker below the dam. Lures such as Magnum Wiggle Warts and Super Baits, behind flashers or dodgers in red, green or chrome, are the usual setups, he said.
Shad: The Columbia River shad run was late getting started, but checks over the weekend showed anglers now hitting pretty good numbers of fish in the Bonneville Dam/Hamilton Island area. Bank fishermen on the Oregon side of the river, just below Bonneville, were scoring at a rate of between 4 and 5 fish per rod, while three boats off Hamilton Island were checked with 116 shad kept and 76 released.
State biologist Joe Hymer at Vancouver said the river is running high, and because of that the best spot to fish on the Washington side might be right at the yellow deadline, just below the dam, where the current isn’t usually as heavy as at other spots in the area. Because of security concerns, access to the deadline area from the dam side is now closed, and anglers must approach from the west, leaving the highway near the downstream powerlines.
Hamilton Island is popular, particular from the Corps of Engineers boat launch down to the end of the island, but high water makes it iffy right now. Another alternative, with easier fishing, is the Steamboat Landing dock at Washougal, particularly early in the run.
Use heavy trout tackle, and rig with any small, glittery spoon or spinner, shad dart, mini-jig, or simply a gold hook with about three large, gold or yellow beads. Take plenty of small slip sinkers or large split shot, because the bottom in good shad water tends to be a tackle grabber.
Crab transgessors: Because only 32 percent of sport crabbers returned their Puget Sound summer catch record cards last season, and only 10 percent their winter catch cards, The state is planning to drag you all to the principal’s office and impose a $10 non-compliance penalty, starting in 2009. The state Fish and Wildlife commission heard the argument for the penalty at a meeting June 6-7 in Ocean Shores. Neither the department nor the commission, however, has addressed the issue of Dungeness quota adjustments, as they promised to do, many months ago, and non-Indian recreationists continue to get the really, really short end of the stick.
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