Ice Fishing in Washington
Ice fishing in the state of Washington is nonexistent in western Washington but is plentiful in eastern and central Washington. The ice-fishing season usually starts in late December and lasts until March. The good ice-fishing lakes are going to be east of the Cascade Mountains on what is called the Colombian Plateau or the "Basin." In this part of the state the temperatures drop down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and the lakes can have more than a foot of ice depending on the winter and the lake. Rainbow trout and yellow perch are the main species of fish caught during the winter.
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Safety and Tools
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Four inches is the recommended thickness for walking out on ice. Ice fishing requires at least 4 inches of ice to walk on the ice and more than 9 inches to drive. Safety requires you never go fishing alone on the ice. You need a hand auger and a snow shovel. The snow shovel allows you to shovel aside the slush from the ice. The hand auger is for drilling a hole through the ice to fish. A 6-inch hand auger usually will suffice. Always ice fish on lakes and not rivers because rivers have flowing water underneath that weakens the ice. When in groups, walk spread out and not clustered together. Remember that ice does not form uniformly and might be of different thicknesses in different areas
Fish Lake
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You can get a lot of thinking done while sitting on ice. Fish Lake is located in the Wenatchee National Forest and is also near the small Bavarian town of Leavenworth, Washington, near State Route 2. There is a small fishing resort on the Lake called the Cove. At the Cove, you can buy all your fishing tackle and even call them to ensure that the lake is frozen. The Cove has a camping ground, and it also rents cabins. Fish Lake usually freezes around late December, and early January is the best ice fishing in the area. The Lake is a 600 acres and is known for stocked rainbow trout, German browns, perch and bass and is around 1,970 feet above sea level.
The Cove Resort
22494 Chiwawa Loop Road
Leavenworth, WA 98826
509-763-3130
Coveresortatfishlake.com -
Patterson Lake
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Patterson Lake, a reservoir in Okanogan County in north-central Washington, is 8 miles south of the town of Winthrop. The lake has 257 acres and is 2,700 feet above sea level. Patterson Lake is known for its largemouth bass, rock bass, yellow perch, black crappie and rainbow trout. The rainbows and the yellow perch are the ones you will be catching in the winter, for they are more active in the cooler water. There are plenty of cabins and resorts to choose from if you wish to stay. Yellow perch can be caught with jigs that are 1/8th to 1/32 ounces. The jigs are then tipped with bait. A good bait is wax worms or grubs, but always check the local bait shops to see what the fish are biting. The perch are usually around 6 to 12 inches long. They tend to school in larger lakes and like mid-level depths, which are about 25 feet. The bigger and older ones like the deeper depths. Perch are caught in the daylight hours for they need to see the bait.
Sidley Lake
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Sidley Lake is at 3,700 feet above sea level and is east of Oroville, Washington, just south of the Canadian border. Each year in February, the lake has an ice festival that features ice fishing. The festival attracts around 200 ice fishermen who brave the ice to catch a winner. In 2010, the ice was 18 to 22 inches thick, more then adequate for ice fishing. During the winter, Sidley has a limit of two rainbow trout per fisherman. Fish average around 4 pounds and are about 12 inches long.
Roses Lake
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Roses Lake, in the northern Cascade Mountain range near Lake Chelan, is in a group of three lakes. Dry Lake and Wapato Lake are the other two. Roses Lake is 1,168 feet above sea level This area is called the "Devils Backbone." The average temperature during the winter is 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Anglers target rainbow trout when ice fishing. In 2010, fisherman caught rainbow trout with bait just a foot off the bottom. The average rainbow trout caught was 10 to 12 inches long. The rainbows will tend to be in the shallow water, which is opposite of where they like to be in the summer. In the summer they like the deeper and colder water. Catch the rainbow off light tackle, using 4- to 6-pound test with a small spinning reel.
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References
- Photo Credit ice fishing image by Inger Anne Hulbækdal from Fotolia.com ice fishing image by Bruce MacQueen from Fotolia.com fishing image by harmonie57 from Fotolia.com
