Nice job! Now that the "closer" lakes are all closing for the season I need a year round go-to fishing hole and was thinking that Roosevelt would do the trick. Where exactly is Sterling Point? Did we go there last time we met at Roosevelt? Is that by the mouth of another river west of Seven bays?

Nice report hewes!

Great report. Long line without Downriggers this time? Sound like a good time regardless of the weather.

Correct mtngrizz, no downriggers this time although I left them on the boat just in case. They will be off the boat before the weekend. Full canvas and heat make any time fishing a good time regardless of weather. :-)

Aaron - Sterling Point is downstream of Lincoln, it's the next 90° left turn. There is a campground and a dock on the point. We didn't go there last time we met up, we were up at the San Poil. West of Seven Bays is the confluence of the Spokane Arm with Lake Roosevelt also where Two River's casino and marina are. We might be heading back up on Saturday, just depends on how the week goes.

Way to go Phil ! My partner and I fished the Snake today and got skunked, should of gone to Rosie. Thanks for the report.

Charlie H

I too have had great luck on the Lenny Special; love that fly! I also fish it at 2-2.5 mph. I'm having a full top put on my old Starcraft as we speak. Guess I'm getting soft in my old age but it's sure great to be warm while catching nice fish in the winter!
Those are very nice bows you caught today. Did you launch at Lincoln?

Some of the nicest rainbows come out of Roosevelt!

Yeah, ditto on all the previous comments! Nice lookin' trout, & thanks for the photos & report . Looks like I'll be shoppin for some Lenny Specials!

downriggeral: I always launch at Seven Bays. Soft? The heck with that, being cold, wet, and miserable doesn't make me soft, it makes me smart. :-)

Hey Charlie, yep, maybe you should have gone to Rosie instead, then again, you might have nailed 'em on the Snake too. Never know til you pack up for the day.

pugduke & Red Beard - I agree, can't think of any better tasting fish than those from Roosevelt. Well, maybe Rufus Woods, not better, but certainly equal. I grilled the fillets off that big fish last night on cedar planks, seasoned the fillets with salt, pepper, some lemon herb spice mix, enough thinly sliced lemons to cover the length of the fillet - YUMMY! I figured if it works good for salmon it was worth a try for trout. I'll post some pics in the forum later.

Hewes, awesome day on the water. It still grabs my attention, to read the drop back used on this lake. Or is it a reservoir?

How deep of water do you troll in, or do you use the sonar to find fish? I'm trying to learn Roosevelt for Walleye and trout, and you seem like you know them so well. It's a big lake with a lot of water and so much area for fish. How do you go about locating them? Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm going Saturday to try your tips and see what I can do. Thank you for the great reports.

Motoboat - Roosevelt is a huge reservoir, all the water behind Grand Coulee Dam. I know I've explained the "drop back" (as you put it) before, but you have to understand how the trout react to the boat. As the boat moves over them, they move to the sides, away from presentations close to the boat. The "drop back" gets the gear far enough behind the boat so when the trout move back to where they were, your presentation is in the target zone. Steven - I repeated the info about drop back because it's part of an answer to your question about locating fish. I did NOT mark a single fish on my sonar the day of this outing. Why? The trout are probably within 15' of the surface. Now, think about your sonar, it's an inverted cone, the closer to the surface, the smaller diameter the cone is. How large is the diameter of your sonar cone at 10'? 15'? 20'? I don't know what the diameter of my sonar cone is at those depths, but I know it is small, very small, and the only way it will "see" a fish that close to the surface is if it is directly under the transducer AT THAT INSTANT. Side scan sonar would be awesome, and would eliminate the problem with traditional sonar in "seeing" fish. Unfortunately, they are expensive! Instead, I use my sonar to track bottom contour only. I rely on what I know works, not images on my sonar. I don't locate fish with electronics, I locate them by fishing areas I have found over the years that hold fish. If we don't hook up at a spot that has produced in the past, we move to another that has. It's that simple. Follow my gear selections as reported, pay close attention to speed over the water (not from a FF paddle wheel), and you'll be successful too. We're planning to go tomorrow, so if you happen to be at Seven Bays around 7:45 - 8am, you might have an opportunity to talk with me. If not, look for our boat on the water, pull up and introduce yourself. :-)

Thank you, sir!! We will be at sterling point tomorrow. Three guys, black and tab starweld.

We'll be in a 20' Hewescraft ProV with white vinyl on the sides. Will just be me and my wife since our son is staying over tonight so his dog and ours can play. We'll be in the same area as well. ;-)

Hewes, can you elaborate on boat speed. Specifically the difference between over the water, and a paddle wheel type speed indicator? At 2 or 3mph how different can the speed actually be?

I saw you today! Lol. We had a great day. Used your tips and limited out. It was a great day in the water thanks to you,sir!

Steven - Looked for you but didn't see you. Saw someone else with a similar boat, and had a nice chat with them at the launch on the way out. Happy to hear you had a good day, we did too. We spent the morning downstream of Sterling Point, then headed to Split Rock about 11:30. New report going in this morning. MotoBoat - I'll PM you with the speed info, short answer is yes, there IS a big difference in speed, and seeing is believing. I use a Luhr Speed trolling speed indicator and my GPS for setting trolling speed, not my FF which is not accurate (and almost all others for that matter) at the speeds I troll at.

I put in a long winded report this morning. Thanks to you the day was great. Wasn't that you and your son in the white hewescraft boat going back and forth just downstream at sterling point early in the day? I think all three of us waved and the two on the hewes waved back. On guy was washing the boat with a yellow rag for w while while the other drove. If it wasn't you, next time I will yell hello. We were trolling opposite directions from the hewes and trying not to get too close due to all of the long lines. We only got close once I think and then the hewes went upstream I think.

Wasn't us Steve, although my wife and I were downstream of Sterling Point about a half mile with gear in the water at 8:10. Whoever you saw and waved to were just being friendly. :-) I noticed several Hewescraft boats yesterday, and at least 2 others similar to ours, one of which was working the shoreline across from Sterling Point. Glad to hear you had a good day. Now to go read your report!