Eastern Washington Fishing Report 05.22.2018
Rat Lake
It was nice to see that Rat Lake was clearing up from what it had been for over a month. One thing about Rat Lake—the fish there like most anything in olive. A size 10 Semi Seal Leech was the ticket for most of the day. I did switch over to a Chan's Las Vegas Booby in hot orange for a while and picked up a few very aggressive larger rainbows. A #10 yellow Crystal Bugger did produce a couple of 14-inch brown trout close to shore. Once the sun got high overhead the activity slowed way down and that was my cue to call it a day. The two rods I used that day were both 6 weights. I had my Echo3 10', rigged up for indicator fishing Balanced Leeches. My Echo Glass 9' was loaded with Type 3 full sinking line. When I was fishing booby flies, I had the Scientific Anglers Booby Tip on my full sinking line. The 5-feet of floating line on the sink-tip helped get my fly into the zone where the rainbows were holding. Water temperatures are climbing up into the upper 50s to low 60s by mid-day.
Aeneas Lake
I wish I could say which fly is what's working. But it seems there is no one specific pattern that is getting more action than another. So, I would suggest starting out with a pattern that you have had success with in the past. Once you can get a fish to hand, break out the throat pump and get a sampling from the fish. This will give you some idea as to what the fish is keying in on. I do know from some of the reports that certain leech and bugger patterns have been working. A #10 brown/olive or black/red Swimming Leech, a #8 beadhead Rickards Seal Bugger 3, a #10 Rickards Seal Bugger, and a #8 Thin Mint should work. A 5 or 6 weight loaded with Type 3 or 5 full-sinking line is my recommendation. Work down to 8' to 15'. Water temperatures are holding right around the 58-60-degree mark. Early morning till noon, then again from about 4 p.m. to dark are the best times.
Twin Lakes Winthrop
The good news here is the state fish and wildlife restocked the lake to replace fish numbers from this year's winter kill. This occurred about a week ago, so I don’t have any real reports yet. I do know a couple of people who hit it this past weekend and they said they did ok. They didn’t catch many, but they did land a few of the jumbos that were recently stocked. Damselfly nymphs did the trick for them. A 5 weight with intermediate or a Type 3 sinking line will get you down to where you want to be. Work the shoreline in a bout 4 feet of water and keep moving out to deeper water till you find where the fish are holding. Water temperature is about 58 degrees. Pressure is lite right now until more people find out the lake has been restocked.
Area road conditions
Due to area flooding and a wet spring runoff several roads in the area that lead into some of our local water have been closed. The road to Chopaka Lake remains closed with an ETA of repair and opening still out to about three weeks. The Sinlahekin Road at the north end of Blue Lake is closed with no ETA of reopening. Green Lake can only be accessed from the Salmon Creek Road. Feel free to call the shop for more road condition reports
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