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Shane Magnuson, Upper Columbia Guide Service, showed anglers all his tricks for catching spring salmon on the Icicle River. His presentation was a the free seminar provided by Town Ford in East Wenatchee.
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The proud angler caught this beauty at the Pit Pond during the annual Rock Island Kids Fishing Day. He was assisted by Mark, a member of the Wenatchee Sportsmens Assocaition. Volunteers from Rock Island served hot dogs and Pepsi provided soft drinks.
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The Wenatchee Sportsmens Association turned out in force again to help young anglers catch fish at the Rock Island Kids Fishing Day. They provided "loaner" rods and reels, bait and assistance as they do every year at this event.
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Rollie Schmitten of Lake Wenatchee shows off one of several rainbow he landed while trolling flies with me at Fish Lake. Fishing is excellent as the ice just came off and anglers should expect to catch limits of rainbow like this and the occasional triploid.
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Fish Lake, near Lake Wenatchee, was like a mirror when I fished it just after the ice came off. I trolled flies with my fishing buddy Rollie Schmitten, and we caught some fat 10 to 11 inch rainbow at the bottom end of the lake.
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Here's Rollie Schmitten with one of eight walleye our group caught on the Columbia River near Northport. Guide Brian Day, Day Fishing, showed us some great water. Cold temperatures and high flows make fishing tough at this time of year, but Day knew where to find the walleye. We fished jigs as deep as 80 to get our fish.
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Guide Justin Hotchkiss, of Far North Charters, holds a nice wild rainbow just prior to release. We fished Stone Flies and streamers for big rainbow here. The early spring can be the best time to get the really big rainbow, which can be up to 10 pounds. There are also some big cutthroat caught in the Northport area at this time, too.
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This is the Lazy Daze Retreats (lazy-daze-retreats.com)main house. Art and Nina Grobben have other lodging options in Northport, both on the river and in town. The guides met us on the beach each monring, and when the river is at summer levels it isn't much of a walk to get to the dock on the Columbia River.
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This shows the narrowest point I have ever seen on the Columbia River. It is known as the Little Dalles and when the spring runoff hits the water really boils through. It not only prevents boaters from passing through, walleye that are moving up river can't pass either. Fishing below the Little Dalles at this time can be incredible.
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Here is Jerrod Gibbons driving his jet sled above the railroad tressel on the lower Okanogan River. We made out way all the way up to Rattlesnake before we found any steelhead that would touch our jigs. It snowed hard later and that probably put the fish off the bite.
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