I hope you all had a great Memorial Weekend. I was glad to see good weather for all the families that came over to visit the many great places here in Eastern Washington. The highlight of my last week was a trip to the Snake and Palouse rivers.
Late last winter Leon Stattford, of Riverlife guide service, invited me to come down to the Snake River to fish for walleye, and I finally made it last week. My friends James Lebow and Ryan Harris and I met Leon at the Texas Rapids Recreation Area and then ran up to a spot below Little Goose Dam. Here we trolled a variety of crank baits for walleye. We didn’t have to wait long to put the first walleye in the boat. Snake River walleye are of exceptional quality, and we landed fish that ranged in size from 15 to over 20 inches. The Snake is loaded with smallmouth bass, and we got a bunch of them while trolling crank baits. One of the options we talked about on this trip was exploring the Palouse River, and Leon was eager to show us this scenic area. He told us that the larger walleye had moved out of the Palouse to the Snake, but he assured us that we would catch a few, and we did. We also caught a lot of smallmouth bass, perch and even bluegill. The Palouse River gorge is one of the most scenic places I have fished in the state. If you Follow me on Facebook and subscribe to my YouTube channel you will see that I have posted the video of the trip. It is also on my Instagram site. This week’s photo is of Leon and me with a few of the walleye we landed on the Snake River.
Free Fishing Weekend returns to Washington June 6–7, offering an opportunity for people across the state to fish for many species without buying a license. Licenses are still required to fish for or harvest salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, halibut, and all shellfish. All other fishing rules and regulations still apply. “Free Fishing Weekend gives people an easy entry point into fishing,” said Kirt Hughes, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fish management division manager. “You don’t need to be an expert or own a boat to get started. There are lakes, shorelines, and fishing piers across the state where people can get out and give it a try.” Some of the best statewide opportunities for Free Fishing Weekend include rainbow trout, largemouth and smallmouth bass, yellow perch, and other game fish in lakes. In 2026, WDFW staff are stocking 15.5 million trout and kokanee in more than 500 lowland lakes statewide. Anglers can find trout stocking information on WDFW’s website. Lake-fishing anglers can also participate in the Trout Derby, with tagged derby trout stocked in more than 100 lakes and hundreds of prizes available. To see if a lake near you has been stocked with tagged trout, visit the WDFW website and the Trout Derby page. Also, keep an eye out for special events that some communities and local fishing organizations sponsor on the Free Fishing Weekend every year.
Once again the Quincy Valley Chamber of Commerce conducted a very successful Pike Minnow derby last weekend. Cat and her crew of volunteers ran the event like the veterans that they are, and the participants all had a great time. As everyone gathered on the deck and dined on the Tower Pizza that was provided as being part of the event, the results were being tallied. Nate Derrik, from Grant County PUD addressed the group and thanked them for their efforts to remove as many pike minnows as possible from the Columbia River. He reminded everyone that these predators feed on the salmon and steelhead smolts, and how important it is to the future of our fisheries in our region. There was a good representation of experienced pike minnow anglers and those new to the pursuit. There was a round of applause as each winner of the youth and adult categories went to claim their prizes. Awards were handed out for the Longest Fish, Shortest Fish and Heaviest Weight turned in. The list of the winners, including the grand prize of a Polaris side by side, from Chet’s Honda-Polaris, can be viewed on Quincy Chamber’s Facebook page.
Recently, my friends and I wanted to stock up on triploid rainbow trout for the smoker, so we traveled to the middle net pens on Rufus Woods. James Lebow launched his boat here and drove it up to his favorite spot at the upper pens. The plan was to get our fish and get back home early, so we started fishing with Power Bait. I got a fish pretty quickly, but the bite was so slow we decided to troll down below the pens with bottom bouncers and spinners with worms. This has produced both walleye and trout in the past, and Tyler Bergquist landed a 20-inch walleye below the middle pens. We checked out the last set of pens, and didn’t mark anything, so we headed back to where we started. It wasn’t a spectacular day of fishing, but we all measured our fish for the Rufus Woods Roundup fishing contest. We will also be able to enter our Method in the latest Mission, telling what we used to catch our fish. You can learn more about the Rufus Woods Roundup on the Anglers Atlas website, and you will want to get the MyCatch fish app on your phone and sign up. You could win a fifty dollar gift certificate in a variety of ways during the Rufus Woods Roundup.
The first question that people ask me when I see them when I am out and about is where have I been fishing lately. The second question is when do I get my new boat from Marks’s Marine, in Hayden, Idaho. Well, I will know more about that later this week. I am traveling to Clarkston, Washington to visit the Thunder Jet plant, and I will get to see the Thunder Jet Luxor in construction. It will be a great opportunity to meet the folks that build these boats and actually see how they are put together. I want to again thank Mark’s Marine and Thunder Jet for partnering with me to keep me on the water so I can continue to provide current information on the wonderful fishing opportunities throughout Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.
