Sun Lakes Area Report 3.30.17
One of my customers sent me a report from his recent trip to the Sun Lakes Area. He was able to get some fishing in on a couple of the open waters down there. Plus, it answers the question about if Dry Falls lake would be ice free for the April 1st opener. Also, it looks like Lake Lenore is starting to fish well now that the ice is gone.
Here is Ryan's report:
Since I’m still waiting for many of the local lakes to thaw out after a long winter, I decided to take a short trip last week out to the Sun Lakes area between Ephrata and Banks Lake. This is a beautiful part of the state with many fishing opportunities and fascinating geological landscapes.
My first stop was the Dry Falls Visitor Center near Coulee City, where I got a clear view of not only the ancient geology of Dry Falls, but also of the lake at the bottom. Dry Falls Lake is a popular trout fishery that opens April 1. There was still a single large patch of ice on the lake, but there’s already plenty of water open, and I would expect it to be in fishable shape by the opener.
In the middle of the day, I stopped at Rocky Ford Creek to check things out. There were plenty of anglers there, as to be expected. Some were having more success than others. One fisherman seemed to be getting into a few fish on a green scud. No surprise there. Leeches are often effective at Rocky Ford, and fish can be found rising to dries throughout the day as well. These fish are wary and the water is smooth, so bring some light tippet.
By late afternoon, I headed back up the coulee and stopped at Lake Lenore with a buddy of mine. Once the sun got off the water, we both started getting into some Lahontan Cutthroats at the north end of the lake. We didn’t need to run our flies very deep. In fact, we even saw some fish feeding near the surface. The water was a bit murky, and we discovered that olive wooly buggers were clearly preferred over the other small streamers and buggers we tried. If you visit Lake Lenore in the next month or two, be sure to stop by the fenced off inlet stream near the north end of the lake to watch the cutthroats come up to spawn.
Ryan
Looks like there is open water to be fished in the Sun lakes area.
Need to stock up on flies before you go? Check out our fly selection here