There is good news and bad news on the fishing front here in Central Washington. I’ll give you the bad news first. The steelhead fishing, which is typically at its peak on the main stem Columbia River in January, is way off the pace. Anglers I have spoken with have reported terrible luck, and are blaming it on unusually high currents on the Columbia. The “sure thing” hot spots from Bridgeport down to Wells Dam have yielded little to nothing recently. The good news is that fishing for triploid rainbow at Rufus Woods is very good. Lack of current is blamed for poor fishing on the weekends at Rufus, so anglers who visited the reservoir in the past week have been celebrating their success. Bob Whitehall, of Entiat, called with a glowing report. His fishing party caught-and-released about 30 fish on their recent trip. Coming home with trout weighing from 6 to 9 pounds. Also good news is the that the ice cap on most area lakes is very solid and perch and trout are being taken from as far north as Palmer Lake near Oroville to Fish Lake near Lake Wenatchee. Palmer is producing good catches of fresh water ling averaging 5 pounds.