Lakes Roosevelt and Chelan are the places to go fishing for kokanee

LAKES

American: The trout fishing has been slow. A Wedding Ring tipped with a worm has been producing a few strikes.

Chelan: The fishing for kokanee has been very good. Look for schools of fish at the upper end of the lake’s lower basin. Trolling orange artificial squid, on a short leader behind a dodger, has been effective. Lake trout fishing has been best in the Barrens and Trench areas.

Harts: The pressure has been very light, but a few crappie are being caught. The action should improve with warmer temperatures in the forecast.

Offut: The staff at Offut Lake Resort has broken up the ice along the dock, allowing anglers access to the water.

Roosevelt: The kokanee action has been very good to excellent, with some fish topping 22 inches in length. Online reports indicate the lake between the dam and Spring Canyon was a good spot, with kokanee holding high in the water column. Some rainbow trout are being caught.

Washington: Poor weather has slowed the action, although a few rainbow trout are being caught.

Wynoochee: The river should be in good condition this weekend, as flows have dropped back to levels typical for this time of year. Eggs or sand shrimp fished off the bottom would be a good method, while others might opt to fish with jigs and bobbers.

RIVERS

Olympic Coast: The steelhead fishing remains slow, based on state creel checks on rivers in the area. Most fish were caught on the Bogachiel, where 33 anglers released five wild steelhead, kept one and released one hatchery fish. Those anglers also caught nine hatchery steelhead jacks. River conditions have improved greatly since a week ago, so the fishing should be better as well.

Skykomish/Wallace: The Skykomish around Reiter Ponds was reopened to fishing Thursday. The open stretch runs from 1,500 feet upstream to 1,000 feet downstream of the Reiter Ponds outlet. The state has reopened the Wallace from the railroad trestle downstream of the U.S. Highway 2 bridge to 200 feet upstream of the water intake at the Wallace fish hatchery.

Yakima: The river is mostly ice free, but the issue is all the snow and ice piled up on the banks that makes access difficult.

SALTWATER

Clams: A razor clam dig is under way. Copalis beaches are open through Tuesday, and Mocrock beaches will be open Sunday-Tuesday. The low tide times will be: Friday, 6:26 p.m., -0.5 feet; Saturday, 7:01 p.m., -0.6 feet; Sunday, 7:37 p.m., -0.5 feet; Monday, 8:13 p.m., -0.3 feet, and Tuesday, 8:50 p.m., 0.2 feet. No digging is allowed before noon, and the best digging is an hour or two before low tide.

South Sound: While the action has been slow, anglers will be able to fish the waters off Tacoma and Vashon Island beginning Wednesday. A few legal-size fish are being caught around Fox Island. A few people are catching squid off local docks.

This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Lakes Roosevelt and Chelan are the places to go fishing for kokanee."