Northwest Fishing Reports

Okay, maybe I'm becoming a junk fish junkie. I know that my first memories fishing were for sucker fish in the South Umpqua river in SW Oregon. I don't remember how they tasted, but I do remember catching them with my dad and one of his friends.

Anyway, has anyone recently catch some whitefish in the Columbia Basin area? I hear Moses Lake is supposed to have a fairly good population of sizable whitefish. We caught quite a few in a lake up north 3 years ago (and they are delicious...very nice meat...in spite of being considered "junk fish"). But, since we don't get up there very often, I was wondering if other folks have encountered this species in the Moses Lake area, or anywhere else in Washington state for that matter.

Zog
Columbia River Archery

Potholes Res. holds a good population. most rivers have them also.

Moses doesnt hold very many whitefish. There is a population that migrates thru but about 5 or 6 years ago there was a summer kill of whitefish. They were all over the surface dead and very large ones at that. I asked the Bio about it and he said that Moses doesnt have deep enough holes for them to survive the warm summer temps with good oxygen levels. Potholes Res. has a great whitefish pop. if you can find them. I caught several of them out from the mouth of Crab Creek (had the state record back in 01 but didnt realize you cant freeze them weighed in at 7.10lbs on certified scale! Bummer!!!). Soda Lake has quite a few also. We used to ice fish for them years ago. Hope this helps.

Things may have changed since I last fished there (maybe a dozen years or so ago), but the Potholes Canal just below the dam was good for lake whitefish that would move up it in the fall. The canal was good all the way to where it dumped into Soda. Banks has (or had) masses of lake whitefish, and there were some in Rufus and Roosevelt, but I never saw concentrations of them.

The Columbia below Priest Rapids used to have a good winter whitefish fishery as well, Most rivers have some whitefish in them, but the numbers really depend upon the system and the time of the year.

I dont know who call whitefish "junk fish" except maybe uneducated fisherman. Smoked they are excellent and they fight good and there are lots of them. I recently saw a white fish that someone and killed and left to rot on the cowlitz that would have pushed 20"

crankbait42 wrote:I dont know who call whitefish "junk fish" except maybe uneducated fisherman. Smoked they are excellent and they fight good and there are lots of them. I recently saw a white fish that someone and killed and left to rot on the cowlitz that would have pushed 20"

Yep, excellent table fare.

When I was young, maybe 12 or 13, my grandpa and I fished for them on Lake Roosevelt near the mouth of Willmont (sp) Creek. We caught fish until our arms tired out and they were all big, between 2-5 pounds. Excellent table fare, although I remember them as being kind of bony. We fried them up in beer batter just like Walleye, they were damn good.