Northwest Fishing Reports

wow, what a great trip Aaron and I had with guide Anton Jones - caught fish all day with the potential to catch a trophy. Check it out:

Omak Lake

Nice video. Anton trying to drum up some business now that Rufus has stopped putting out the big numbers of triploids?

I've fished Omak for years. The cutts are always hungry and willing to play. Too bad they taste like crap out of the alkaline water. We've always combined an Omak trip with a Rufus trip. Both good lakes.

He is actually more busy than ever. Omak is a side thing for him. We had talked for a couple years about me getting over there to see what the fishery is all about so it was fun to finally get over there. As to the fish taste, that was Anton's opinion as well. We released everything. I'll say this - they are the toughest trout I've ever seen.

Years back, a guy gave me the recipe for cooking Lahontons.

Fill a large kettle full of water. Put in lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste and an old boot. When water boils, put in the fish and boil for 1 hour. Remove from heat, throw the fish in the trash and eat the boot.

Marc Martyn wrote:Years back, a guy gave me the recipe for cooking Lahontons.

Fill a large kettle full of water. Put in lemon juice, salt & pepper to taste and an old boot. When water boils, put in the fish and boil for 1 hour. Remove from heat, throw the fish in the trash and eat the boot.

LOL, I never did try a Lahontan (to eat) but boy they were fun to flyfish for. Especially when they congregated for spawning in the semi-shallow flats in spring in some of the seep lakes around Soap Lake. Some were pretty colored up but some were still very bright. Fun fish to hook in a float tube getting dragged around on the lake

PS- back in 'my' day (oops there I go sounding old beyond my fishing years again), Lenore was easily the best Lahontan lake in the state IMO.

Wow! Just watching the vid and reading the caption- 52 fish between how many lines/people Mike? Nice!!!

Looks like you guys experienced some of the variation in fighting too. I oculd recall some smaller fish battling more than a big sometimes.

If you think those fish are big, the Lenore fish were quite a bit bigger as I recall... But then I was younger then too and it was all on a flyrod in a float tube (or wading from shore) so maybe everything seemed bigger


Thanx for the vid!

Geez, just looked over some Lenore reports and boy those fish sure don't look as big as I recall. Maybe it is just me then#-o Coulda sworn my buddy and I had days in the early spring of hooking a couple dozen fish each most maybe 4 pounds and up with a big one being over 10. Guess the fish grow bigger with time in memory LOL. Or else the fish are shrinking. Has been too long to know either way but thanx for that vid Mike to get the reminiscing going back to the late 80s early 90s Lahontan trips!

Knot, I know EXACTLY what you mean about fishing them on the fly when they move into the shallows to spawn!! My grandfather and I have done that in the past at Omak in the spring and caught fish over 10 lbs and seen some even bigger than that! We usually would sight the fish then crawl up to the waters edge on our hands and knees and roll cast streamer flys to the fish. Always catch and release, never kept anything, but what a blast!!

I remember lake Lenore fly fishing in 88, wow, that north end by the cow fence using chroinimids, 40+ fish days and chunky guys too.

It looks like Omak has taken over as the top spot but I never even knew of it as a Lahontan fishery until that vid! I've been way out of it for a long time.
Any idea how long Lahontans have been in there? Definitely remember the chironomid show. But the streamers and attractors like leeches and woolly worms (with a little red butt) worked too.

"Strike indicator down!"

LOL, doesn't roll off the tongue as well as bobber down. And fishing chironomids got painfully slow sometimes.
Was nice to switch over to attractors just to sling the line around a bit and warm up!

I can remember fishing the extreme north end every spring (late March I thought or so) but boy it was cooold some of those trips. Sometimes cold enough to just wade instead of float tube so could jump out of the water fast and run back to the truck to get warm before going back out again .


Hmmm, wonder if I could dig up an old photo of a Lahontan. Unfortunately I think the Mrs may have 'cleaned' most of my disorganized old photos

Matt wrote:Knot, I know EXACTLY what you mean about fishing them on the fly when they move into the shallows to spawn!! My grandfather and I have done that in the past at Omak in the spring and caught fish over 10 lbs and seen some even bigger than that! We usually would sight the fish then crawl up to the waters edge on our hands and knees and roll cast streamer flys to the fish. Always catch and release, never kept anything, but what a blast!!

Matt, I'm probably the last guy to make it over to Omak to flyfish with how life is these days but I'd be curious what areas of the lake were best. Ya they really got thick in the shallow water when late March rolled around at Lenore. Maybe Omak would be slightly later being lsightly north, no idea. Anyhow, memories LOL.

Definitely a great thing with a forum like this and internet fishing boards is not only living vicariously thru guys that can get out after it but also to reminisce!:cheers:

The one drawback is you can't lose the pics once they're posted on here. So the fish can't get much bigger with time when telling a story Will make it tougher for the younger guys as they get older to tell the tale... "Back when I was young the fish were THIS BIG!"
Followed by the younguns rebuttal "No they weren't that big dude, I found this pic on the net here's you 20 years ago holding that fish" LOL.

What's the tribal licensing cost and how/where do you get one? Link is ok.

bionic_one wrote:What's the tribal licensing cost and how/where do you get one? Link is ok.

Here's a link to the tribes website: http://www.colvilletribes.com/fishing.htm
And a link to the Colville Indian Reservation Non-Member Sport Fishing Regulations:
http://nrd.colvilletribes.com/pdfs/2010 ... 0Final.pdf

A daily permit costs $10.00
Three day permit costs $20.00
Seven day permit costs $30.00
Season (Year) permit costs $40.00

FISH AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT 2009-2010 PERMIT OUTLETS
Airway Heights Exxon Box 2 Airway Heights, WA 99001 (509) 244-9906
Big Wally's 9944 Hwy 2E Coulee City, WA 99115 800-632-5504
Buffalo Lake Resort Buffalo Lake Road Nespelem, WA 99155 (509) 633-1092
Chief Jo Smoke Shop PO Box 506 Cassimer Bar Rd. Brewster, WA 98812 (509) 689-0750
Clark's All Sport 557 S. Main Colville, WA 99114 (509) 684-5069
Coulee Playland Resort PO Box 457 Electric City, WA 99123 (509) 633-2671
Dave's Gun & Pawn 112 N. Main, Box 219 Riverside, WA 98849
Highway Tires PO Box 5 Coulee Dam, WA 99116
Inchelium Store Bridge Creek Road Box 283 Inchelium, WA
Jackson's Service Station Hwy 155, Box 30 Nespelem, WA 99155 (509) 634-4222
J & J Smoke Shop 17 Crowder Road Okanogan, WA 98840 (509) 422-4482
Keller Ferry Marina Store HCR 11, Box 29 Wilbur, WA 99185 (509) 647-5755
Keller Community Store Hwy 21, Box 397 Keller, WA 99140 (509) 634-4632
Log Cabin Resort HCR 1, Box 156 Inchelium, WA 99138 (509) 722-3543
McGinnis Lake Roger Young Box 259 Elmer City, WA 99124 (509) 633-0981 (ext.) 3123
Rainbow Beach Resort 18 N. Twin Lakes Rd. Inchelium, WA 99138 (509) 722-5901
Triangle Texaco Box 2029 Brewster, WA 98812 (509) 689-3473
The Sport Shop 8 Creamery Rd. Box 732 Republic, WA 99166 (509) 775-3040
Walmart 900 Angh Rd., Box 3606 Omak, WA 98841 (509) 826-6002
Walmart 810 Hwy. 395 N. Colville, WA 99114 (509) 684-3209

That's perfect, thanks!

Does this lake freeze over? If so, has it thawed yet? I'm going to go after some fatties next weekend.

I have a friend that lives over there and fishes it regularly. I can message him and get a report on the conditions. I was making plans to go next month. He told this last week that only the "Small" lakes have ice issues right now. I'm pretty certain that it is open water. I'll let you know.

bionic_one wrote:Does this lake freeze over? If so, has it thawed yet? I'm going to go after some fatties next weekend.

I spoke with my Omak lake friend. The lake is defenitely free from ice. He said it has been in the mid 60's, and things are warming up in general. He did say though that he is pretty sure that Omak lake is closed this month due to the Lahontin cutts. spawning?? Or some kind of tribal release of fish or something. I would check that out with the tribe or the WDFW or whomever b4 making a trip.

Thanks Quad. I'll check with them. The trip is actually to Chelan, just going to make a side trip to Omak if it's open. Cutts fight a lot better than lakers.