BANKS LAKE WHITEFISH

By Mark Yuasa

Mention lake whitefish to any local angler and you’ll likely get a “deer caught in the headlights” stare, but that is evolving with many fisherman starting to take notice of this abundant species in Eastern Washington waterways.

“Lake whitefish go pretty much unnoticed in Eastern Washington by most anglers, but you’ll find a devoted group of folks who have really good success at places like Banks Lake,” says Marc Petersen, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist. “Their biomass and abundance are much higher than other species, and that’s one reason why we promote their harvest.”

DURING THE WINTER, Banks Lake – a

large, 27-mile-long reservoir that stretches along Highway 155 between Coulee City on the south end and Electric City on the north end – offers about 91 miles of accessible shoreline, mainly on the eastern side, and excellent fishing opportunities.

While winter is an ideal time to target lake whitefish, Petersen notes, you’ll still need to learn their seasonal habits and what to catch them on.

For starters, areas where the fish tend to hang out differ by season. Common winter locations are the northernmost points of the lake across from North Dam Park and by the dike at the Coulee City Marina.

From a boat try off the red buoys or anywhere along the riprap.

The Devils Punch Bowl, a bay between the big Steamboat Rock peninsula and Coulee Boulevard on the northeast side of the lake, is a known producer in the summer.

There are plenty of WDFW water access locations – Ankeny Road North and South; Barker Canyon; Million Dollar Mile North and South; and Osborn Bay Lake – as well as Steamboat Rock State Park. Keep a sharp eye out for underwater hazards like boulders and rocks in the south end of the lake and near islands.

From December to January, lake whitefish will move into shallower waters and reservoir inlets to spawn, usually around cobbled, sandy flat areas. The fish like to school in those areas, making them catchable for bank anglers.

If ice forms, anglers will head to deeper water. Although Banks doesn’t get iced over during most winters, when it does, the fishing can be productive.

Keep in mind lakes can be dangerous when freezing, thawing and refreezing occurs. While ice safety can never be assured, do not go out onto a frozen lake unless the ice is at least 4 inches thick. As much as 9 inches may be needed to safely support snowmobiles or other vehicles.

In other parts of the country, it’s not uncommon for people to book guided fishing trips to catch lake whitefish. They’re a prized fish and have a huge following in the Great Lakes region, as well as the midwestern area of the United States and Canada.

NOT MUCH IS known about how lake whitefish came to Washington waterways, but it is likely the nonnative fish were first brought to nearby states during the late 1800s.

One theory is they were first introduced into Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho and Flathead Lake in Montana, and from there they spread naturally through connected waterways or were moved around by early settlers.

To find out more about lake whitefish in Banks Lake, WDFW began conducting creel surveys last January, work that will be completed by the end of this month.

You might be surprised to learn lake whitefish are from the same family as salmon, trout, char and grayling. They are deep bodied and laterally compressed, and they have an adipose fin with a forked tail, which indicates they’re very fast swimmers. The average size of lake whitefish in Banks is 18 to 24 inches with some larger ones up to 31 inches. They are known to live 15 to 20 years.

ON LIGHT TACKLE lake whitefish put up a decent tussle when hooked and since they tend to congregate in large schools, the bite can remain productive all day long.

A lightweight 6-foot rod with a spinning reel – the same type of gear you’d use for trout or small gamefish – works the best. A sensitive-tipped rod will make it easier to detect their very light bite.

Lake whitefish have a very small head and mouth, so you should use a bait or lure resembling their diet, which includes snails, clams, small fish and fish eggs.

Popular lure choices include a Dick Nite spoon, Mepps spinner, Cicada Blade Bait, Mack’s Sonic Baitfish and a Reef Runner Cicada. Another bait to try is maggots. Be sure to tip your hook with a single red salmon egg.

From the bank, use an oval slip sinker on 4- to 8-pound-test main line tied to a barrel swivel with a footand-a-half fluorocarbon leader tied to a size 8 or 10 hook. Jigging spoons or a cocktail shrimp can be effective when suspended at the proper depth, or cast and slowly retrieve small jigs and spoons just off the bottom.

“During winter, I will vertically jig

a tiny spoon like a forage minnow or Swedish Pimple, and in the summertime I’ll stay mainly with bait shrimp,” Petersen says.

You can use the two-pole endorsement at Banks, which gives you the added opportunity to catch fish faster. The daily limit is 15 lake whitefish and there is no minimum size limit here. A freshwater fishing license is required for those aged 15 and older.

You can catch lake whitefish virtually year-round at Banks Lake, but there is a lull during fall and spring as fish transition to their winter and summer habitats.

In summer the action sees a second peak as fish congregate in huge schools located in the deepest sections of the reservoir.

Banks is also home to black crappie, bluegill, burbot, common carp, kokanee, largemouth and smallmouth bass, rainbow trout, walleye and yellow perch. You can find many outdoor activities at or near the lake, such as camping, hiking, mountain biking, boating, kayaking, canoeing, golfing, and plenty more. There are numerous hotels, stores, restaurants, tackle shops, campgrounds, RV sites and other necessary amenities too.

OTHER LAKE WHITEFISH fisheries include

Lake Roosevelt, a vast impoundment stretching more than 150 miles from Grand Coulee Dam into Canada.

“We recently did our annual gillnetting survey at Roosevelt Lake, and a good chunk of the catch was dominated by lake whitefish,” Garrett says. “While we haven’t done a specific study on lake whitefish, their biomass in Roosevelt is equal to Banks Lake, if not larger, given to how much we catch and given the size of Roosevelt versus Banks.”

Garrett says Roosevelt goes under the radar when it comes to lake whitefish and remains largely unnoticed by anglers targeting more popular species like walleye and rainbow trout.

“If I were someone who wanted to look for lake whitefish in Roosevelt, I’d try areas near a tributary mouth at spawning time,” Garrett says. “Places like at the mouth of the Colville River and Kettle River might be good starting points. I’d try the same techniques you use at Banks Lake to catch them. We’ve sampled a fish out of Lake Roosevelt that was 9½ pounds.”

The current state record for a lake whitefish stands at 7.50 pounds and was caught on February 19, 2021, by Jacob White at Cox Lake in Franklin County, but there’s no doubt larger ones are lurking in the additional Eastside waterways.

Lake whitefish can also be found in Roosevelt’s lower Spokane River Arm; Soda, Billy Clapp and Moses Lakes; and Potholes, Rufus Woods and Scooteney Reservoirs.

LAKE WHITEFISH TASTE great and have

moderately firm, flaky meat like salmon and are packed with omega-3 fatty acids.

For ways to cook and prepare lake whitefish, go to the Great Lakes fish recipes at pinterest.com/ fishmongerswife/whitefish-greatlakes-fish-recipes, Michigan Fish Producers Association recipes at mfp .us or search YouTube for “Andrew Zimmern’s Whitefish Shore Lunch.”

And speaking of YouTube, WDFW’s feed (youtube.com/c/ thewdfw) also has videos on chasing Banks Lake’s lake whitefish in winter and summer. NS

Editor’s note: Mark Yuasa is a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife communications manager and longtime local fishing and outdoor writer.

December has traditionally been the month of months for winter hatchery steelhead fishing. Snow or rain falling and filling the rivers with water the color of “steelhead green,” and drift fishing a small cluster of eggs and a Lil’ Corky was the staple of the Pacific Northwest. Now, we can only hope that there is a season for steelhead. Well, there will of course be a season, but maybe not on the river of your choice. You might have to travel or stay closer to home than you want to, depending on where you live, to catch a winter-run.

It used to be most Washington steelhead anglers would fish their “local waters” throughout the winter – places like Reiter Ponds on the Skykomish, as well as the Stillaguamish, Green, Puyallup and Nisqually Rivers – and venture to the coast

once or twice a year. These days, the latter rivers on the above list have long been abandoned by steelheaders and some have completely closed seasons; other places are now go-tos with coastal rivers on the brink of complete closures and low NW PURSUITS on wild fish. It is wild fish that determine By Jason Brooks whether a hatchery fishery can occur and to what extent. The past practice of widely using out-of-basin stocks such as Chambers Creek winter steelhead, which often return earlier than the wild fish that

are more of a springtime run, is long over. The science is right to use in-basin fish for hatchery production. Steelhead are known to wander and stay in the river to spawn, so when a hatchery-raised fish mingles with a wild fish, they are at least from the same bloodlines.

Yet even with true wild returns dwindling, it’s tough to justify not having a fishing season on rivers with overstuffed hatcheries. Take the Wynoochee and Skookumchuck, tributaries of the Chehalis, for example. They see robust hatchery returns yet wild numbers are exceptionally low, so neither river opened last winter. As of this writing, the Chehalis system is expected to again see below-escapement wild runs, so it’s unclear if the Skook and ’Nooch will open for hatchery fish, though state managers at least talking about what it would take to do so this season.

Coastal rivers need some sort of reform and serious talks about harvest by all user groups. That does not help the steelheader decide on where to go this winter, so let us look at some of the options where you can go catch a fish or two. THE PUGET SOUND region, where steelhead are almost unheard of these days, does actually have a few rivers that you can still head to and try to catch some fish. The Skykomish system comes to mind as one of the most popular and “fishable” rivers, with the famed Reiter Ponds section slated to be open through February 15. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife released 50,189 smolts into the Sky for this year’s return, less than half of what was let go for the 2021-22 season. Reiter’s boulder gardens eat up spoons and drift gear, so it is best to float fish this stretch. Either tip a jig with a sand shrimp tail or rig a pink worm wacky style under the float.

The Stillaguamish is also open through January 31, with fishing extended on the section of the North Fork from French Creek to Swede Heaven by Fortson Ponds through mid-February. What anglers might not realize is that the Stilly saw a smolt plant of 108,603 fish for return this winter, the most of any Puget Sound river.

The Nooksack is another river to put on your list to try this year, thanks to a smolt plant of 95,768 for this winter’s return, but it does not open until January 1 for a short winter season (the regs specifically close the system for hatchery steelhead from October through December). Parts of it are only open for one month, while other stretches are open through February 15. As always, before you go be sure to check WDFW’s pamphlet and the emergency regulations, as these can change daily.

AS MUCH AS I want to venture out to the coast, it might be more of a trip to the farthest reaches of Western Washington and the town of Forks. The Quillayute system, which consists of the Bogachiel, Calawah and Sol Duc, has a heavy planting of fish, and they are known to return early and stay late. WDFW’s 2020 catch card report shows these rivers really do put out steelhead in December. The Bogey reigns as top producer with 275 fish retained, while the Calawah was one shy of an even 100. This means fishing should be good – a relative term when it comes to Washington steelhead in December these days – this month. For most this means hiring a guide, as these rivers eat

up drift boats and can be flooded one day and low the next, thanks to storms rolling off the Pacific and flushing through the relatively short drainages. Those who like to toss spoons will like the crystal clear waters of the coast and its tailouts where steelhead wait to grab Little Cleos, Dardevles and Pixies.

State managers will have the final word early this month, but North Coast rivers should be open for both hatchery and wild steelhead into midwinter, thanks to runs expected well in excess of native broodstock goals.

FOR HATCHERY STEELHEAD, it is hard to

beat the lower tributaries of the mighty Columbia, specifically the Cowlitz, but do not overlook the Kalama, Lewis, Elochoman, Grays and Washougal Rivers. So much has been written, filmed and discussed on the Cowlitz that it seems redundant to add a little more ink, but in times like these, where some of the better rivers on the coast might not even see a season or have an extremely short-lived one, at least we can count on the Cowlitz. It is no secret, but one thing to keep in mind is to know your audience. This means that if you go to Blue Creek, don’t decide to throw a spoon, as you will get yelled at, or worse. Drift fishing is still the staple here, thanks to plentiful bank access that lots of shorebound anglers work. Those with boats will boondog, which is a way to drift fish while floating down the river. Bobberdoggin’ is also immensely popular now; use a dropper and a single bead while tipping the top hook with cured eggs.

Downstream stretches of the Cowlitz will allow you to try other techniques. For those with a boat it is hard to beat a plug bite. During winter it is nice to put your hands in your pockets, bundle up and stay warm while letting the rod and plug do the work. A bait diver rigged with a sand shrimp or gob of eggs heavily doused in Pro-Cure Anise Oil or Bloody Tuna gel is an easy and fantastic setup for steelhead.

Why should you join the crowds on the Cowlitz? Because of the number of smolts – 595,804 planted at Blue Creek and another 337,877 thrown into the mainstem, making for nearly two-thirds of all winter-runs planted in the Columbia watershed. Crowds might not be fun to fish in, but it is quickly turning into the only way to fish. Just know that with the run shifted to a later-returning in-basin stock, December is a bit early for the lion’s share of the return, but there will in fact be a few fish to chase this month. Looking again at WDFW’s latest catch card report, December 2020 saw 112 fish kept (nearly as many as the Skykomish-SnoqualmieSnohomish system combined that year). For comparison, March 2021 had 3,150; February, 905. So, if you get the itch to fish for steelhead this month, give the Cowlitz system a try or start tying gear and wait a few months until the run is at its height.

Also keep an eye on WDFW’s trout release stats. If hatchery rivers like the Skookumchuck and Wynoochee aren’t opened, steelhead may be planted in local lakes instead. It’s not like working the rivers, but it’s a chance to catch bigger fish.

WE ALL AGREE something has to be done about the state of steelheading in Western Washington, and I wish I knew the answer. But until we get wild returns to recover, our list of rivers to fish will continue to dwindle. This does not mean giving up; it just means we need to focus on where we can still go, as well as where we cannot. Northwest sportsmen need to realize this is not a “coast versus Puget Sound” issue, but one that we all need to work together on and help produce a solution. NS