I hope everyone enjoyed a Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends. My brother Rick and I often took our father out on a fishing adventure during this long weekend. We were famous for showing up late for dinner. We were just having too much fun!
The news release about Getting Outside on Black Friday with special plants of trout in many lakes in the state got anglers excited, particularly about Roses Lake in Chelan County. A friend of mine looked up the planting report and immediately contacted me. He had visions of bringing home some whopper rainbow. I am not certain, but I think he and others may have read the report and thought that the fish that were planted in Roses Lake in late October weighed 2.5 pound each. Actually, the fish were 2.5 per pound, which is a typical “catchable” that most lakes are planted with each season, and average 10 to 11 inches. I did see that 450 jumbos were to be included in the stocking. Anyway, I charged up the Minn Kota and hooked up the Bob Feil Boats and Motors Smoker Craft Phantom, and my friend Jim and brother in law Tom and I gave Roses Lake a try. We trolled Wooly Bugger type flies on our fly rods, and I put one rod out with a perch pattern Rapala, and our rods were bouncing constantly. We caught and released at least 20, 10- to 12-inch rainbow and a few tiger trout.
I wanted to see if there was any activity at the I-90 Bridge in Moses Lake last week, so I pulled into Blue Heron Park. The perch fishing in this area last year was excellent and I wanted to see if I wanted to plan a trip here and give it a try. I didn’t see anyone on the bridge but did see a kayaker paddling off the shore. While I was watching him, he was catching fish, and it looked like they were perch. There was just one angler fishing from the rip rap bank near the channel under the bridge, but he wasn’t having much luck while I was there. I also went by the boat launch at the park and found that the dock had been pulled but boaters are still using it. A friend of mine will take a small ladder with him when he launches his boat when the water is down. He uses it to step into his boat to keep from getting too much mud on the deck.
One of the lakes that I visited recently was Lake Lenore, which is a quality lake located just up the road from Soap Lake on Highway 17. This is another lake that will be closing at the end of November and offers good fishing for big Lahontan cutthroat. I say it is a quality lake because it is under selective gear rules, meaning no bait is allowed and anglers must use barbless hooks. The daily limit is one fish of at least 18 inches. Most often you will see fly fishers paddling a pontoon boat, kayak or float tube on the lake, and only electric motors are allowed. There is very good bank access on the eastern shore of the lake, and when I stopped by there was a group of anglers casting lures and spinners at the very north end. If you want more current advice about how to fish Lenore and what to use, I suggest you see Darc Knobel at the Desert Fly Angler in Ephrata. This week’s photo was taken from the overlook at Dry Falls Lake, which is just up the road from Lake Lenore. There isn’t any shore access to Dry Falls so fly fishers fish this one from a pontoon boat, float tube or kayak. I found fishing conditions very good at both of these lakes, so give them a try before they close! I visited some other popular fishing destinations. Follow me on the FishingMagician.com Facebook page to see them all.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced today that its new digital licensing app, MyWDFW, will be launching soon in alignment with the 2026 license year.
“We’re committed to ensuring everyone finds belonging in the outdoors,” said WDFW Director Kelly Susewind. “This app modernizes how hunters and anglers access licenses in Washington, improves customer experiences, and ultimately helps prioritize people’s time where it matters — enjoying Washington’s great outdoors.”
“We’re also excited about the advancements this app brings for real-time harvest data collection and support for long-term fish and wildlife conservation,” Susewind added.
When MyWDFW launches to the public soon, it will be free and available from Google Play and Apple’s app stores.
The MyWDFW app is a comprehensive mobile licensing tool for both hunters and anglers. It supports license purchases, displays active hunting and fishing license privileges, and enables electronic tagging for a wide range of game species, including deer, elk, turkey, and black bear.
App users can report migratory bird harvests and submit end-of-season harvest reports, with most features available offline. Other functionalities incorporated into MyWDFW and soon available to Fish Washington® include catch record cards for select fish species and an Enforcement View for WDFW officers, along with access to customer licensing (WILD) profiles.
App users who opt to become a mobile license customer will have valid mobile license products at the start of the new license year on April 1, 2026. Once the MyWDFW mobile app launches, people with existing 2025 licensing products will remain paper license holders through the 2025 license year and then will have the option to switch to mobile for the 2026 license year. For the rest of the current calendar year, 2025 licensing products will also be available exclusively in paper.
MyWDFW’s launch is the first step in the Department’s long-term plan to phase out durable-paper stock licenses in favor of mobile licensing. The Department will share more information about this transition as it becomes available.
I want to remind everyone that they can find more current information on fishing in the region, as well as instructional videos, by going to the FishingMagician.com Facebook Page. Be sure to Follow me so you don’t miss any new posts.
