Stay-at-home fishing

Spokane area anglers won’t have to travel far on opening day to find some of the top trout fishing waters in Washington.

The April 29 general lowland lake trout season opener should put fat trout in the bag and smiles on the faces of thousands of anglers who won’t even have to leave Spokane County.

Badger, Fishtrap, West Medical and Williams lakes are likely to be the area’s top fisheries for producing limits of nice rainbows, said Chris Donley, Department of Fish and Wildlife district fish biologist. Donley has been using nets to survey the fisheries in recent weeks.

“These lakes in particular were good last year and they should be every bit as good this year,” he said, adding two caveats:

“ Williams was “re-discovered” last year and “fished hard,” which means there could be a slight decrease in the number of carryover fish.

“ Cormorants appear to have reduced the fish numbers at West Medical. “It will still be fantastic in the early season, but it may wane a bit earlier in the summer,” Donley said.

“Clear Lake also is going to be great, but in a different way. Most people won’t catch a full limit in Clear Lake, but the ones they catch are bigger on the average and the quality is excellent. The rainbows are nice and the browns can be gigantic.

“Fish Lake (near Marshall) got worked over pretty good last year, but the tiger trout are doing well and there are still some brook trout there.”

Other quieter Spokane county lakes opening April 29 include Liberty Lake plus Chapman and Downs south of Cheney.

Many of the year-round fishery start to heat up this time of year, too.

Lake Roosevelt’s year-round fishing for net pen rainbows gets better as the year progresses. Some anglers say the fishing is best for the biggest fish in December.