Fishing Magician: February 27, 2026

The big news for this week is the opening of several lakes in the region to trout fishing. Every year anglers celebrate trout fishing by making their first trips of the year. It’s a good idea to check through the Washington Sportfishing pamphlet to see if any of the lakes near you will be opening on March 1st.

The opening of several lakes in Grant County on March first every year creates a good deal of excitement. This is the unofficial starting gun for trout fishing in Eastern Washington, and I expect to see a good crowd of anglers in the Quincy Wildlife Area, where there are some excellent prospects for fishing in the early season. Burke and Quincy lakes are high on the list of places anglers will plan to make their first casts of the year. Both of these lakes are getting special plants of rainbow prior to March 1st to assure that anglers have good success on the opener. Each lake will receive 1,500 rainbow that average a pound. Martha Lake, which is east of the town of George, will also get a plant of rainbow prior to the opening day. It got 750 catchables in October and will get another 500 catchables in March. Another lake that is popular with March anglers is Upper Caliche Lake, which is west of the town of George, and it got 500 catchables in the fall of last year and will get another 325 catchables in March. Two lakes that are very popular with fly fishers also got special plants. Both Lenice and Nunnally lakes were planted with 3,000 catchables last fall and another 2,250 this spring. This week’s photo was taken at Burke Lake on last year’s opening day.
There are several “quality” lakes in Okanogan County that are open year-round and offer particularly good fishing for trout that are larger than most in the other lakes in the region. By “quality”, I mean that these lakes have selective gear rules, which means no bait allowed, and barbless hooks. They also have a two fish limit per day with a minimum size of 14 inches. Many of them also don’t allow the use of internal combustion engines. Given the special rules and restrictions, these are very popular with fly fishers, but the use of traditional gear, like spoons and spinners with barbless hooks is allowed. Rat Lake is one of these lakes and is located just outside of the town of Brewster. It’s a short drive up the hill through the angus cattle feed lots to the parking area and boat launch. This launch is large enough to accommodate small boats. The early spring is a probably the best time of year to fish Rat Lake I was hoping to find the ice that had formed on the lake to be gone when I checked on it last Saturday, but it’s going to be a while before it goes away.

When I was checking on the ice conditions on several lakes in Okanogan County, one that was on my list to visit was Davis Lake. This is another one of the quality lakes in the area and is between Twisp and Winthrop. The reason I wanted to stop here was that I found it busy with fly fishers last fall. Blue Lake in the Sinlahekin Valley and Davis had more activity than any of the other lakes I stopped at while shooting video for Okanogan County Tourism. I found Davis solidly frozen and although the ice is questionable now, I could see where people had been drilling holes in the ice earlier this winter. Once again, anglers will have to wait to fish this popular quality lake. Another popular lake in northern Okanogan County is Palmer Lake, and when it has good ice many people fish it for perch, rainbow, kokanee and particularly burbot. The state record for burbot was held for a long time with a fish from Palmer. I checked with some folks in Loomis and found out that not enough ice formed this winter to fish Palmer. I did get a call back from Bonaparte Lake Resort, and they still have 15 inches of ice on the lake and good catches of tiger trout are being made.
I wasn’t having much luck finding lakes in Okanogan County that were free of ice. My idea was that with the mild winter weather we’ve had anglers could be fishing some of the quality lakes in this area. Well, not only were the quality lakes frozen over, but every lake I visited had ice on it, and enough ice that it will be a while before they will be fishable. So, I decided to check on one of the most popular ice fishing lakes in the Methow Valley. That is Patterson Lake, not far outside of the town of Winthrop. Here I found anglers enjoying the day ice fishing. They were scattered from one end of the lake to the other. One angler told me that the ice was nine and a half inches thick, and I saw people taking a snowmobile out on the ice and down to a shack at the far end. I have fished Patterson for many years, and although perch used to be my target species years ago, more people are now focusing on the trout and kokanee. Perch are still plentiful but running smaller than when I was fishing it.

I mentioned in an earlier report that Rat Lake near Brewster was still iced over. The ice isn’t thick enough to support ice fishermen, so it will probably be sometime in March before anglers can get at the trout in this quality lake. I thought of another lake that is popular in the spring that may have shed its layer of ice, so I got back on Highway 97 and drove up to Okanogan. Here I took Highway 20 to reach Leader Lake. Leader was changed to a year-round lake several years ago and increased in popularity. It is inhabited with a wide variety of species. There is a boat launch here and very good shore access. I found this lake also covered with ice, and no sign of people drilling holes through it.

I will be checking on some of the lakes that open on March 1st, and I look forward to visiting with a bunch of anglers on this early season trout fishing opening day.