Top five springtime fishing spots | Outdoors

Spring is here, so it must be time to go fishing.

I've come up with five top spots to consider. I plan to hit all five in a 14-day span soon, and I'll let you know how it goes.

The Columbia River and many of its tributaries should be good for spring chinook fishing all the way to the Washington-Idaho border. More than 559,000 chinook are predicted to flood the river, which would be the largest spring chinook return in the Columbia since 1938.

An excellent winter coastal razor clam season is sure to carry into the spring.

Some of the best bass fishing around happens in Lake Washington right under the nose of billionaire Bill Gates, and the thousands of commuters who travel daily across each floating bridge.

The marine waters are great for bottomfishing. Places like inner-Puget Sound provide a small-boat angler the perfect setting to hook the monster halibut. Off the coast, Westport delivers a one-two punch of easy catch limits for tasty lingcod and black rockfish.

Lake Washington bass

Dates: Open year-round. April to September are most productive, but they can be caught all year.

Where: The shoreline and docks around Mercer Island, just outside of Union Bay, Meydenbauer Bay, the inlets of Newport Shores, under I-90 East Channel overpass, Seward Park, Kennydale Beach Park, Arboretum and Kirkland to Juanita area. Key: Bass are generally schooling fish, and use certain locations at certain times of the day.

Tips: Covering lots of water is essential. Use plastic worms, grubs, spinner baits, topwater and diving plugs, Power Bait worms and chigger craws and live baits like night crawlers.

Facts: Nick Barr, a pro tournament bass angler and bass fishing guide from Lacey, said the fishing is so good because of the lake's diversity: "The water, from algae to clear, from rock bottom to sand bottom, points and flats," he said. "Plus, the sheer amount of forage like perch, sculpins, sticklebacks, trout, salmon and crawfish."

Black rockfish and Westport lingcod

Dates: Open daily through Oct. 16.

Where: Usually a charter boat travels 6 to 15 miles offshore to catch fish.

Tips: A stout fishing rod laced with a shrimp fly and anchovy for rockfish, and a whole herring for lingcod.

Facts: Daily limit is 10 rockfish and two lingcod. Cost is around $115.

"The black rockfish population remains healthy," said Mark Cedergreen, the Westport Charterboat Association president. "Lingcod are also very abundant.

Lingcod fishing is very good in the spring and the bigger ones tend to be closer into shore."

Coastal razor clam

Dates/Where: Digs are open Friday at Long Beach and Twin Harbors; and Saturday and Sunday at Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Kalaloch. Other tentative digs are scheduled for April 27-29 at Long Beach and Twin Harbors; April 30 at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis and Mocrocks; and May 1-2 at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks and Kalaloch.

Tips: Shovel or razor clam gun. Look for a "show," where a clam has withdrawn its neck or started to dig, leaving a keyhole, doughnut or dimple in the sand.

Facts: Locally, razor clams grow to six inches, and average about 4 ½ inches. They're found mainly on the intertidal coastal beaches from a plus-three foot tide level to a minus-two foot.

From Oct. 16, 2009 through March 1, a total of 142,298 digger trips were made with 1.8-million clams dug for an average of 12.92 clams per person (the first 15 clams dug regardless of size or condition is a daily limit).

Columbia River spring chinook

Dates/Where: Open daily through Sunday from Buoy 10 to the I-5 Bridge. The area from I-5 to Bonneville Dam is closed. State Fish and Wildlife will meet in early May, or when about half the fish have passed Bonneville Dam, to determine if more lower-river areas will open.

Open daily through May 31 from Bonneville Dam to McNary Dam, but only bank fishing is allowed from Bonneville to the Tower Island power lines, located 6 miles downstream from The Dalles Dam. The Wind River and Drano Lake are open through June for spring chinook.

Tips: Most effective bait is a herring tied to a two-hook leader with a Fish Flash flasher and a drop ball weight sinker of 4 to 8 ounces. Others troll prawns with a spinning blade or lures like Mag Warts or a Kwikfish K13X or K14X.

For shore anglers, a large Spin-N-Glo with a small hootchie skirt or a cluster of salmon eggs is effective. Whatever you choose, always add scented oils like herring, anise, anchovy or krill.

Facts: This fishery is a popular draw each spring, and will lure more than 2,000 boats daily just in the open areas of the lower river. It targets only hatchery spring chinook, those with a missing adipose fin.

North Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca halibut

Dates/Where: Sekiu is open May 28-June 19. Fishing is open Thursdays through Saturdays (the first weekend, May 28-30, is Friday through Sunday). Port Angeles, San Juan Islands and North Sound are open May 1-30. Again, it's Thursdays through Saturdays, except for the Friday-Sunday fishing May 28-30.

Daily catch limit is one halibut with no minimum size limit.

Tips: Jigging is the easiest way to fish, with soft plastics or metal jigs like the Luhr Jensen Crippled Herring and Deep Stingers or 8- to 10-inch plastic twin tail scampi-type jig. Fresh or frozen horse-sized herring or squid and octopus work well. Depending on tidal currents, weights or jigs should be 4 to 20 ounces. A stout rod and reel are necessary to get down as deep as 200 to 300 feet.

Facts: While catch quotas were reduced this season in the North Sound fishery, anglers can expect decent action. Anglers last year experienced some of the best fishing seen in quite some time. In 2008, an estimated 235 halibut were caught in North Sound, and last year it was 310. Typically, they average 15 to 50 pounds, but every year a few 100-plus pounders are caught.

Mark Yuasa: 206-464-8780 or myuasa@seattletimes.com