Lake Roosevelt is full of big, beautiful triploid rainbows, planted from net pens by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and two Native American tribes, and winter is one of the best times to take a few home. You don’t even need a boat, as bank fishing is just about as productive and a lot easier.
The area around the Spring Canyon launch and campground is as good a starting place as any, and it’s just a couple miles above the town of Grand Coulee. Take spinning gear, a camp chair and firewood, and prepare to do battle with fat, chrome-bright rainbows going from a pound up to 4 or 5 pounds.
The rig is basic stuff: a slip sinker, 3 or 4 feet of leader and — to float above weed growth — Power Bait or a mini-marshmallow and a piece of nightcrawler. Toss it out there and wait.
Fishing regulations were changed recently on Lake Roosevelt, eliminating the limit on how many trout over 20 inches may be kept, but balancing that out is a new rule allowing retention of only adipose fin-clipped hatchery fish.
The state has put together an interesting little video on this wintertime fishing safari. Google it at “winter bank fishing for trout at Lake Roosevelt, Washington.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
