Nice Job!!!! I am with you with the combat Fishing with Bait!!! Not my style either..I have not used bait at Rufus for quite sometime now..You don't need bait plus when you use bait, after 2 fish you are done fishing...Keep fishing the Spinners and spoons!!!

"You don't need bait plus when you use bait, after 2 fish you are done fishing...Keep fishing the Spinners and spoons!!! "

True, but the same also applies if your spinners, plugs, spoons, etc are not equipped with single, barbless hooks. From the current Sport Regs Pamphlet for Rufus Woods, "No min. size. Daily limit 2. KOKANEE are included as part of the daily TROUT limit. Only uninjured TROUT caught using artificial lures or flies with single-point barbless hooks may be released."

Thanks for the report. That's a great picture. Based on what I found out last year while fishing Rufus Woods, I would have to call that a Lake Roosevelt hatchery Rainbow that made it ether over or through Grand Coulee Dam and into Rufus Woods and not a triploid. Your fish looks long and slender and is missing its adapose fin. Triploids are short, fat, have an intact adapose fin and have tiny heads in relation to the size of their bodies. Besides that the Roosevelt fish are much prettier and are a whole lot better fighters. Good Job...

Thank you for the comments. We were trying jigs, tube bait, spinners, corkies, and rapala's all with single barbless hooks by the pens. Nothing seemed to work by them,

It only took us about 10-15minutes(wot) to get to the pens in my 14foot aluminum/ 15horse(low hours nissan), water was like glass with some flow in the morning. The flow changed drastically in the afternoon with swells, there were also some strong winds in the afternoon. It took over 1 hour to motor back at 3/4-Wot depending on wave size, and I was worried about fuel at first seeing how slow we were going at wot. There were white caps like surf waves we would ride down. My point is to be careful, and know your boats limitations launching at Smeatons as it could be a hard trip back, or you could find yourself waiting for the flow to calm down. This can be a mighty river when the release alot of water.

On the fish it did have an Adipose cut fin, but did not look like a net pen fish. All its fins were in great shape with no damage, and it stripped line very fast, and ran fast like a river fish or small steelhead.

That's what I figured. It had to be a Lake Roosevelt hatchery Rainbow.

Nice bow. Being your first time there, I think what you encountered was just good old Rufus Woods wind. You'll notice a flow when they open the dam, but it's current not white caps. Also that usually will trigger a good bite. I believe that end of the lake is loaded with huge hatchery and native rainbows (and Cutts). I've had some jump 4' out of the water. Always on hardware with single siwash. Seems like a way higher ratio on those fish than Trips. Always a good time at that lake. Oh ya, it's Seatons Grove