Rock Lake fishing benefits from lawsuit filed two years ago

One piece of fried chicken was my limit while trolling for trout at Rock Lake south of Cheney last week.

I was interrupted numerous times by impatient fish, and the guffaws of my three partners, as I attempted to eat a single breast piece from the Col. Sanders bucket.

Each time I’d reel out the monofilament line and pick up my lunch, a fish would hit the lure before I could finish chewing a bite. Nearly any fly, spinner or plug we tried caught fish. Sometimes the 13- to 15-inch fish would hit before I could get 60 feet of line off the reel.

“A guy could starve while fishing out here,” I complained.

Luckily, the daily limit is five trout. I was done fishing in less than half an hour of trolling from the launch area even though I lost a few trout at the boat and released several smaller fish.

I could finally finish my lunch, relax on my friend’s boat and watch the action that may be a once-in-a-lifetime fishing bonanza at the Whitman County lake.

The off-the-charts success stems from the 255,000 steelhead that were around 6 inches long when stocked in Rock Lake in June because of unusual circumstances.

A lawsuit filed two years ago by wild steelhead advocates prevented Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife managers from releasing the young hatchery-raised steelhead the past two springs in most Western Washington streams where they’ve been released for decades.

Rather than waste the hatchery production, about 700,000 young steelhead were kept at the hatcheries and raised to larger sizes to be released into trout fishing lakes, mostly in Western Washington, for anglers to catch.

Sprague Lake was singled out in Eastern Washington in 2014 to get a whopping plant of about 370,000 of the young steelhead. While many of them likely fattened the lake’s bass, a good portion prospered in the nutrient-rich lake. They were running a fat 16 inches by April 2015 and survivors were running up to 23 inches going into this winter.

Most of Western Washington’s hatchery steelhead production from 2015 again was barred from release in streams and transported to lakes. Sprague did not share in the steelhead bounty in the second year of salvage stocking.

“We want to highlight Sprague for its excellent bass fishing,” said Chris Donley, state regional fisheries manager in Spokane.

Instead, Rock Lake was singled out in Eastern Washington to get a big jolt of 255,000 steelhead from West Side hatcheries.

Released at a about 6 inches long in June, the steelhead have more than doubled their size, and they’re getting bigger.

The steelhead, with clipped adipose fins, look a bit like silver torpedoes compared with the more rotund rainbows found in the lake. But they’re still plentiful and at times are hitting just about anything anglers cast.

Rock Lake, the largest natural lake in Eastern Washington, has 2,147 surface acres. It’s normally stocked in October with about 29,000 triploid (sterile) rainbow trout and about 10,000 rainbow fry plus less frequent plants of prized brown trout that grow to larger sizes.

The steelhead that have reached pleasing sizes this winter boosted the fishery at least seven-fold for the 2016 season.

“We’ve never stocked Rock Lake at full capacity mainly because we don’t have the funding or the hatchery capacity,” Donley said. “It’s a very productive lake. We’ve never tapped out its carrying capacity for trout.”

Rock Lake has been known for its nice-size brown trout. Browns eat crayfish and other fish and are not largely affected by turbid water.

The state has stepped up its normal stocking of rainbows in Rock Lake in recent years as farming practices changed, resulting in less runoff erosion to foul the lake’s waters, Donley said.

The aquatic food important to rainbow trout flourished as the water quality improved.

Anglers prepared to deal with Rock Lake’s potential for dangerous windy conditions have been reaping the benefits of good catches of rainbows in addition to the brown trout and bass fisheries.

When the rare opportunity came along to stuff Rock Lake with steelhead – rainbow trout genetically programmed for running to the ocean – state fish mangers took it.

“Rock Lake can handle those fish,” Donley said. “We knew they would do great, and they have. Anytime we get extra rainbows we put them in there.”

He said the excellent fishing success anglers are enjoying at Rock Lake this month is a testament to the skills of the hatchery staff.

“They hauled those fish across the state in nearly lethal temperatures and released fish that weren’t stressed,” he said. “The survival rates are obviously very high.”

Despite the success of stocking steelhead in Rock Lake, it probably won’t happen again, Donley said.

“I hope we never have to do it this way – salvaging steelhead meant for rivers,” he said. “The result of the lawsuit has been a damaging blow to Puget Sound steelhead fisheries. But if we ever get the money to put more fish in Rock Lake, we will.”

Other East Side waters that could handle more fish include reservoirs such as Lake Roosevelt, Chelan and Banks, he said.

“On the other hand, anglers like having the option of fishing lakes that aren’t stocked to capacity,” he said. “Those lakes that have lower catch rates offer chances to catch bigger fish. We strive to offer diversity.”

Meanwhile, anglers are relishing the “diversity” of having fast action at Rock Lake, even with its rough undeveloped boat launch.

The lake, which is surrounded by private land, has only a short stretch of public access shore fishing off Rock Lake Road north of Ewan. Shore anglers were catching steelhead in the bay last week by casting bait under bobbers and other techniques.

Tyler Barrong, who headed out paddling a kayak from the public boat access as we launched our boat, had caught and released six steelhead in the bay before we trolled out and got our lines in the water.

The steelheader’s loss has become the trout angler’s gain.

“Even before this windfall of steelhead, Rock Lake was still a doggone good fishery,” Donley said.

“I’ll hope fishermen remember that next year when we’ll be back to reality – back to normal.”