by Dave Graybill, March 05, 2012

This is the time of year that anglers put winter behind them and spring fishing begins. On March 1st several lakes in the Quincy Wildlife Area and a couple near the town of George open to fishing. The official start of trout season has begun. Thousands visit these lakes every year to shrug off the late winter blues and get on with the business of trout fishing in earnest.

One of the most popular spots for this early opener is Martha Lake, which is just east of the town of George. This is a long and narrow and although it is fairly shallow, it is typically ice-free by the March 1st opener. I have visited it many times on this date and found the banks lined with anglers and heavy stringers tied to sticks along the water’s edge. Martha is famous for not only producing limit catches in the early season some of the fish are much larger than the catchable size trout found in other lakes. Many of the trout taken here are in the 15- to 18-inch class and there are usually a few over 20 inches.

The other opening day lake near George that draws a crowd is Caliche, which is a few miles west of town. This lake was rehabilitated last year and planted with larger-than-usual catchable rainbow. There should be limits of 11-inch and larger rainbow taken here.

Quincy and Burke lakes are the most visited lakes in the Quincy Wildlife Area on the March 1st opener, and this year you can expect a huge crowd at Burke Lake. It will be the site of the 2nd Annual Tagged Trout Derby, sponsored by the Quincy Valley Tourism Association. The QVTA will release 15 trout wearing tags into Burke Lake, and two of the tags are worth a total of $3,000.00! There are cash prizes for the biggest fish in adult and youth divisions and cumulative weight in adult and youth divisions, too. There are raffle ticket prizes for everything from fishing tackle to fishing trips.

The first ever tagged trout derby was held last year, and it was a huge success. There wasn’t a winning fish caught for the really big money, but the QVTA did a great job of handling the job of weighing hundreds of trout and handing out the prizes for the other categories.

There is still time to register for the event, and it can even be done on-line. Just go to my web site, FishingMagician.com, and click on the “Something is Fishy in Quincy” logo. This will open a page that will give you the derby rules, registration form and the list of prizes. Don’t miss out on this one. It is a lot of fun and the fishing should be very good at Burke Lake as well.

Some of the other lakes that will open in the Quincy Wildlife Area on March 1st include Quincy, Dusty and Stan Coffin. Quincy Lake is a more shallow lake than Burke, but should be ice-free this year, due to much milder winter weather. This is a good trout lake that usually gets a large supply of catchable size rainbow in the fall. Most anglers fish from the shore on Quincy and most are fishing with dough baits. Others try everything from marshmallow and worm or egg combos to casting spinners and spoons. Dusty Lake is a quality water with selective fishing rules, and a one fish limit. It has some very large rainbow and some whopper tiger trout waiting for anglers. Although Dusty is not restricted to fly fishing, the majority of anglers that fish the lake are fly anglers. Due to the chilly temperatures in the early spring, Dusty Lake anglers put their flies as deep as they can and fish Wooly Bugger patterns very slowly. Stan Coffin is a spiny ray lake, offering largemouth bass, perch, sunfish and even catfish. It is a very shallow lake and the bass fishing can be pretty good in the early season and there are some dandies in here. Remember, bass fishing at Stan Coffin is catch and release only.

To find the lakes in the Quincy Wildlife Area and are traveling from the west, take Whitetrail Road, just past the Rest Area on Highway 28 at the top of the Trinidad Grade and look for the Public Fishing signs at the end of the S curves. If you are traveling from the east, take a left on Road 5, at the Golf Course off of Highway 281.

Those who are looking for early season perch action may want to try Upper Goose Lake in the Columbia Basin Wildlife Refuge. I am getting reports of good fishing for filleting size perch here. It doesn’t look like the perch fishing in the vicinity of the I-90 Bridge on Moses Lake has kicked into gear yet this year. I am hoping that this develops as it can be an excellent area for very large perch. Another lake to keep an eye on is Roses Lake near Manson at Lake Chelan. The perch population has really taken off there in the past couple of years and may be very good when the ice clears off. The ice is very rotten on Roses, so it won’t be a long wait to give Roses a try for trout and perch.

I am really looking forward to the weekend. I will be at the tagged trout derby at Burke Lake to do what I can to help the QVTA. I really liked meeting so many folks there last year, and if you’re there and see me, be sure to say hello.

By Dave Graybill

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