Lots Of Awesome Fishing This Memorial Weekend

From sturgeon to springers to trout, there are a bunch of great fishing opportunities this Memorial Day weekend.

For boaters that have never gone sturgeon fishing, this is the weekend you should consider it. Lake Roosevelt just opened for what should be an EPIC fishery.

Now thru mid September, fish from Grand Coulee Dam to China Bend Boat Ramp (including the Spokane River from Highway 25 Bridge upstream to 400? below Little Falls Dam, Colville River upstream to Meyers Falls and the Kettle River upstream to Barstow Bridge).

You get a daily limit of one sturgeon and an annual limit two if they are between 38 inches and 63 inches fork length. Check your regs for specifics. Make sure you use heavy gear with at least 50 lb test mainline and leader with 14/0 barbless hooks or smaller. Be darn sure not to pull over or undersized fish from the water prior to release. The catch itself stresses them so much they will likely lost their eggs, but pulling them from the water for a picture will likely lead to death.

Don't be that person.

Fishery managers in Washington state and British Columbia are talking about us having a shot at 10,250 sturgeon over the next 10 years.

For those that like a little bank fishing with the kids with some light, easy gear, dozens of trout lakes have been freshly stocked.

Around the immediate area, Rotary and Myron lake each got thousands of trout this week. Over 9,000 were planted at Clear Lake, which is a great place for kayakers. Everything works there at Clear Lake, spinners and trolling little kwikfish or even water bobbers and flies.

For camping and kayaking, Clear Lake is a great choice.

For something new, I recommend heading east past the Tri-Cities, past Dayton and onto the Tucannon area near Camp Wooten. All seven lakes are open for catch-every-cast fishing with spinners, flies, whatever. I do not recommend using powerbait or single eggs, the big fish like the flies and money clips.

Remember to grab your propane-powered camping grill or stoves, you never know what fire dangers are in the Blues. There is also now a Best Western you can check out online there in Dayton, but there are one or two cool local hotels there as well that may have an opening. The Mexican restaurant and theater make for a nice evening after fishing all day with the kids. It's a spectacular area for taking out the Harley or your ragtop.

All of that is great, but if you haven't noticed, the springers have FINALLY arrived and have been pouring over Bonneville this week so it should be FISH ON at Lyle or Drano.

I even noticed a few Yakima guides had openings, so BOOK THEM NOW. It is money well spent.