Hundreds of lakes open Saturday for lowland trout season

Fishtrap and West Medical lakes will provide some of the best Spokane-area fishing among the lakes opening Saturday for the lowland trout fishing season, state biologists say. They are traditional favorites that lure generations of angling friends and families year after year, and this year should be no exception.

Some Washington lakes are open to fishing all year. Dozens opened in March primarily in the Columbia Basin, and even more lakes opened to fishing in April.

But hundreds of lakes will open to the casts of thousands of anglers on the fourth Saturday in April.

“The lowland lakes season opener is the biggest fishing day of the year,” said Jim Unsworth, department director, noting that lakes in every county are being stocked.

Hatchery crews have stocked nearly 17.5 million trout and kokanee in lakes statewide, including 2.3 million catchable trout, nearly 160,000 jumbo trout weighing up to 11 pounds apiece, and millions of smaller trout that were stocked last year that have grown to catchable size.

In the Spokane region, other than Fishtrap and West Medical, Osborne recommends Williams Lake, noting that it should provide “decent” fishing.

Net sampling indicated that pumpkinseed sunfish and tench are increasing in the traditional trout hot sport, he said. “That’s not surprising given that the seed population of undesirable species is just upstream at Badger,” he said.

Badger Lake, another traditional trout hot spot, continues to be plagued with bass and other spiny ray fish. Some opposition has stalled the state’s attempts to kill the spiny ray fish with rotenone and restore the popular trout fishery.

“Badger is going to fish subpar again,” Osborne said. “I did stock around 1,000 catchables and 100 large brood rainbows.”

Clear Lake looked good and should please anglers, especially those persistent enough to fish for the lakes’ big but fussy brown trout.

Fish Lake off the Cheney-Spokane Road holds plenty of brook trout in the 10- to 11-inch range and some nice 15-16 carryover rainbows, he said.

Lake Spokane (Long Lake), best known for bass, panfish and the occasional lunker northern pike, received an unusual boost of trout last year that continues to provide good fishing.

Although the survival of the fishery behind Long Lake Dam is unknown, catch rates have been high for bank and boat anglers, Osborne said.

“The fish that were stocked last year are running about 15 inches right now,” he said last week.

For the second year, 155,000 triploid rainbow trout will be stocked in May or early June. Funding for the fish comes from Avista.

“I have been getting numerous reports from happy anglers out there and it appears that this stocking has created a great fishery,” Osborne said.

Anglers parking at one of the 700 Fish and Wildlife Department water-access sites are required to display on their vehicle the WDFW Vehicle Access Pass that is provided free with every annual fishing license.

Anglers who use Washington State Parks or Department of Natural Resource areas will require a Discover Pass.