Fishing | Getting a jump on trout season

While many anglers are gearing up for the opening weekend of trout fishing on April 28-29, some are getting a head start by hitting some year-round lakes.

"Lake Meridian has been pretty consistent, and Lake Sawyer got planted with 1,500-plus triploid trout," said Tom Pollack at Auburn Sports and Marine.

Triploid trout are sterile and spend their whole life feeding rather than thinking about reproducing offspring, and are known to grow large if not caught in the first year.

"Angle Lake near the [Sea-Tac] Airport is another popular one, but the trick here is to cast quite a ways out from the dock to where the fish are huddled up and away from the shallow areas," Pollack said.

Lakes planted last week were Angle, 868 triploid trout averaging 1.4 pounds; Beaver, 467 triploid trout; Blackman's, 351 triploid trout; Gissburg Ponds, 2,016 catchable-sized trout; Panther, 4,074 catchable-sized trout and 352 triploid trout; Spanaway, 5,500 catchable-sized trout and 405 triploid trout; and Roesiger, 9,062 catchable-sized trout.

Other year-round lakes worth going to are Green in North Seattle, Pass, Lone, Stevens, Martha Warm Beach and Flowing.

The warmer weather should have more bass willing to bite in Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish.

In southwest Washington, South Lewis County Pond near Toledo was planted with 1,262 triploid trout and 3,010 catchable-sized trout; Swofford Pond near Mossyrock got 4,040 catchable-sized trout; Klineline Pond was planted with 11,000 trout averaging three-fourths of a pound and 2,000 brown trout averaging half a pound; and Lacamas Lake in Camas got 11,000 browns averaging two-thirds of a pound.

East of the Cascades, Widgeon Lake, Dry Falls Lake just west of Coulee City and Spectacle Lake near Loomis have been fair to good for trout.

In Grant County, Lenice Lake was planted last week with 1,002 triploid trout, and Nunnally Lake got 1,193 triploid trout.

Top spots of the week

1. Razor clams on coastal beaches: Twin Harbors is open today, and Twin Harbors and Long Beach will be open Friday. Those beaches, plus Copalis, Mocrocks and Kalaloch, will be open Saturday. All beaches except Kalaloch will be open Sunday. Digging is allowed until noon each day.

Low tides: Today, minus-1.9 feet at 8:39 a.m.; Friday, -1.7 at 9:27 a.m.; Saturday, -1.2 at 10:17 a.m.; Sunday, -0.5 at 11:10 a.m.

2. Lingcod off Westport, Ilwaco and La Push: "The weather has been bad pretty much all week, but we are going fishing [today] and maybe Friday," said Larry Giese, owner of Deep Sea Charters in Westport. "When we do get out we've been catching a lot of lingcod and rockfish."

3. Halibut in open marine areas: "Fishing success for halibut kind of depends on who you talk to, and we had a couple guys who hooked up 10 times and they lost a 60-pounder at the boat," said Justin John at Holiday Market Sports Center in Burlington. "The biggest we've heard of was a 55-pounder caught off Hein Bank."

Places to go are Mutiny Bay, the old Navy bombing range off Fort Casey, Green Point, Freshwater Bay, and Salmon, Partridge, Dallas, Eastern and Middle banks.

Westport and Ilwaco open for halibut May 1; Neah Bay and La Push open May 15; and Sekiu opens May 24.

Daily catch limit is one halibut, with a two-halibut possession limit. There is no minimum size limit.

4. Chinook in open marines areas: "We fished on the south side of Hat Island [Wednesday], and it is by far not hot; just an occasional fish here and there," said Gary Krein, owner of All-Star Charters in Everett. "Our biggest is 12 pounds, but there have been some teenagers caught."

Other chinook spots include the Shipwreck, Gedney Island, and the racetrack between Hat Island and Camano Head.

Southern Puget Sound (Area 13) and Saratoga Passage (8-1 and 8-2) are open until April 30.

5. Spring chinook and steelhead in Columbia River tributaries, and sturgeon, bass and walleye in the Columbia River: "We are checking spring chinook in the Kalama, Lewis, Wind and Drano [Lake]," said Joe Hymer, a state Fish and Wildlife biologist. "We're also seeing some late winter-run steelhead in the Cowlitz, and early summer-run steelhead in the Kalama and Lewis."

Fish counts at Bonneville Dam are picking up, and more than 1,400 spring chinook were counted Tuesday, bringing the season total to 4,300.

"There was a pretty good bite for sturgeon from Vancouver downstream," Hymer said.

The John Day Pool was also turning out some sturgeon for boat anglers. Bonneville Pool and the John Day Pool were good for a mix of bass and walleye.

6. Steelhead in coastal and Puget Sound rivers: Still a fair shot for steelhead on the northern coast in the Bogachiel and Calawah, and off and on for spring chinook and steelhead in the Soleduck.

The Sauk and the Skagit River from the Dalles Bridge to Cascade River are open for steelhead catch-and-release fishing with selective gear rules through April 30.

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