Opening Day for Trout in Eastern Wa.

[HammerinHonkers]

Hey,
Anyone going out for the opener in the end of april in eastern washington? I finally get to participate in the tradition again after missing the last 6 years due to school and the job. It is a time I used to look forward to every year. Me and a few buddies are heading up Wapato lake around Chelan, last year i went was 2000, and we had a great trip. Hopefully the stocking cycle has not changed and the lake will be loaded. Anyone else trying any of the good lakes on the east side? Good luck all.
HH

[fishncliff]

Any advice on fishing spots in Spokane?We will be there the last weekend of april.
Our bowling team is going there for state and we like to fish where we bowl.
We have lots of fun. It is our fishing, bowling, golf,poker weekend for the guys.

[HammerinHonkers]

Fishncliff,
Spokane has some great lakes around it for the opener. I would suggest heading to either Badger or Williams lake. They are about 12 miles south of cheney and close to each other. These lakes get stocked real well and also get a decent number of triploids planted in them. Dont know if you guys takes boats or not, but best fishing is from a boat, pontoons work well on the lakes if you have them. We usually troll flatfish, small spoons or spinners in the top 15 feet of water. Give it a try and best of luck to you in the bowling tourey also.
HH

[fishncliff]

We will be bank fishing. We will probably fish Fri. afternoon. Lookin for somethin close in.
Thanx for the info.

[brshooter]

That brings back memories of my youth in the 60's/70's. I grew up in Ephrata and looked forward to the opener every year. Blue Lake and Park Lake were my usual hang outs. Fished Deep Lake quite a bit also.

[HammerinHonkers]

brshooter,
Its funny that you mention blue and park lake. We used to hit up blue lake when i was like 6 years old till i was 10. Then we started going to park lake till i was 15, then we moved to wapato till i was 18. I am now 24 and have not been back to wapato since my senior year in high school, and am really looking forward to getting back.
Probably my first memory of fishing took place at blue lake. We were fishing from shore and my dad had just caught a nice fish, probably 16-17 inches. We decided to keep it for the one fish for dinner. He put it on the stringer, then put a rock on the end of the stringer to hold it in place, because the fish was still lively and swimming around. He told me not to mess with it, and being a kid of course i had to mess with it. So i tried to position the rock so the fish would be more secure. When i was done i started walking away to start fishing again. The next thing I hear is splashing, i look over and my dad is up to his chest in the water with one hand on the stringer and the other trying to grab the fish. He finally got a hold of the fish and looked over at me, giving me the well known angry dad, you almost lost my fish look. We still talk about those years and have some great laughs. Dont know much about park and blue now, but they used to be some good fishing lakes.
HH

[Jedcraft]

Do I know that look! You don't develop "the look" till after you have kids.
My dad could make my nephews bawl at the thought of "the look".
Grew up in Omak and used to really look forward to the opener up there as a kid. We always despised the loud music-rowdy drunks from Seattle(sorry guys) that came over back then. Have fun - hope the weather is good.