Who here likes to catch big trout? I've come across two spots that are putting out big fish. One's in Washington, the other is more than a few miles north in BC.

The BC one has a sockeye run and the bigger trout are targeting the sockeye fry in the lake. Heard people do well up there fishing real close to shore with woolly buggers and such.

The Washington one appears to be a spoon and plug show in eastern WA.

Yeah... I'll kiss and tell on these lakes as there's no reason to be quiet mouthed.

Lakes are NOT... Rufus Woods, Lake WA, nor Adams Lake in BC.

Both appear to require boats. May be rental spots on both lakes also.

I do! I do!

Carl,

You must not be carrying your cell phone with you today.

Also, I'm thinking the same guy "outed" both lakes in 2002.

The "fishingmagician" has an article in the latest edition of Northwest Sport Fishing on fishing Buffalo lake on the Colville rez. Said he was catching fish to close to 10 pounds. I'm guessing his trip was in 2002.

Not sure but I think he had a story on the other lake earlier last year. That's the one that got me interested as those are trout that were hatched in the same lake.

The Buffalo Lake fish may be stocked trout. I read where some were, but it wasn't clear if all of the trout were.

I "gleaned" this doing some couch fishing last evening. It really got my interest.

My buddies go over to Colville and fish on the rez every spring. They have fished Buffalo lake a few times and have always done real well there. More than a few of the trout they've caught were over 5lbs.

If you want big trout, there are a number of lakes that I know have some real biggies, and they are not going to be hurt by pressure from what I can see. Roosevelt has some pigs plus huge (my standards) kokanee. Banks has big fish, and so does the Potholes and Moses. These last get fished pretty hard, so you're not going to have a high chance of a really big fish, but there will likely be a number of trout over two or three pounds you'll catch with the chance of something big.

There are some smaller bodies of water which have big fish and some which have big fish on occasion. Then there are lakes I've heard/dreamed about that I really want to fish, but it takes time, money, and an understanding boss, etc.

The main thing about fishing for trout in the big reservoirs in eastern Washington is timing. February through March is ideal, April is kind of the end of things if you want to fish with light gear and no downriggers. Although, I spent one opening (Banks is open all year, but the irony of the situation was not lost on me) weekend fishing on Banks while the westsiders were fishing Blue, Park and so on. We caught trout up to seven pounds with plenty of three to five pound fish.

Hmmmm... just thinking about some of those lakes makes my piscatorial mouth water.

Keith,

Thanks for your info on the big lakes over in eastern WA. You've probably got more secret "info" than any 5 of us put together.

The other lake I was alluding to is Quesnel Lake up in BC. It is the staging ground for sockeye. They spawn in the surrounding streams/rivers and the juvies come down to the lake to live. When they do... there's big rainbows there that feed on them. Supposedly it's a "close to shore" fishery and one where flies do good.

Some of the seep lakes that are known to be big fish producers have switched to April 1st openers for this year. Used to be I hit them on either March 1st or when the ice went off... which ever was later.

Hey, Zen--

If I know more secret lakes on the east side it's because I'm older than dirt (or at least it feels that way today), and I spent more time fishing than working when I lived on the east side.

If you feel deprived by those April 1 openings, take a good look at some of the larger lakes in the area. Moses has a bunch of big rainbows, but I doubt you'll find many over 10. Banks, like I said, does have big fish also. I would look at Rock really hard, and then there are some others in the area. One I know of is a March opener, and the trout in it can get pretty big.

I've heard of Quesnel as a source of big trout and also Osoyoos. There are some lakes in the Okanogan I want to fish, Whitestone being one of them, that have some real potential. I hope to get over that way this spring and summer, but I was also hoping to head up to Alaska for an extended trip as well. And then I wanted to do a bunch of flyfishing in the salt this year and work on salmon as well as the SRC.

There are days when I wish I was twins, so I could tie the junior to the desk and go fishing myself. Today, for example, looks really good, and only yesterday a buddy of mine lost what he says was either the largest searun he'd ever hooked or a steelhead on a little topwater fly. But no, someone has to work, right? I'm thinking later this week I might hit that area to see if I can help ID the fish. I REALLY need to get out on the water.

KJ

Keith,

The thing I find interesting about the Quesnel trout is they are not Gerrards like some other lakes with biggies. These trout got big just based on food and not spawning grounds.

One thought I can't get off is that big cutt caught in Lake WA last summer. I'm not sure if it was just a porker and an anomaly... or there are others in the lake of similar size. I'll have to do a "lake survey" throughout 2003. Wonder if I could get Lund or Texaco gas to sponsor me, or Luhr Jensen to keep me supplied with lures.....

Zen: Those Quesnel Lake trout are NOT Girards technically, but might as
well be classified as Girards as they evolved under nearly exactly the same
circumstances and show a lot of the same delayed spawning characteristics.

I did one trip there and stopped at the resort couple years back.
Mostlythe lake is very windy and NOT floattube fly friendly water......but take a hint
the river is NOT class II and has very good fishing downstream till it hits the glacial
Cariboo.
Actually there are a couple bays on Horsefly Lake nearby with nearly similar sized trout and
Much more sheltered.

I thought what made the Gerrards unique was the spawning habitat available. Very large rocks and lots high water speed. Thought that made the fish need to be big in order to successfully spawn.

Thought the Quesnel area wasn't the same as it was normal spawning habitat.

Nope: Two things make Girards unique. Their propensity to eat Fry of
other species......most rainbows don't care for em much, AND mainly
their propensity to go 4 or 5 years before sexual maturity. Has nothing
to do with the lake or stream spawning characteristics other than a good
availability of fry for the feeding frenzy needed to grow 10 to 20 pound
Rainbows.
The combined characteristics above and any lake with a sockeye run will
produce Girards including Quesnel and Horsefly and others.

Ever heard of Rainbow Alley?? There's a excellent quality fishery for them on
the upper Babine out of Smithers just below Babine Lake. Very Secret August
fishery that Canadians will seldom mention to US Yanks.

I also heard Rainbow Alley in June is a good stonefly fishery. I've been thinking of a "do it yourself" trip for two years now. Just haven't worked out all the logistics.

What about the Shuswap/Adams river system. Rainbows there eat sockeye fry too.

I think the Quesnel and Shuswap/Adams fisheries get trout in the 10-12 pound range... but Gerrards run to over 20 because of spawning requirements.

Shuswap/Adams requires an extra validation on the BC fishing license.... The Quesnel fishery doesn't. Quesnel lake also has lake trout in it.