Fish Reports

Very little change, with some streams down a bit and others up a bit. Most streams are well below the median for this time of year. Expect springtime snow, ice and muddy driving conditions into many of these streams. As of March 18, Steptoe Creek was flowing at 2 cfs.

Night crawlers and PowerBait below a bobber or off the bottom with a small weight will work to bring trout in. Chartreuse, marabou jigs work great for crappie. So too will crappie jigs in white and pink or red color combinations. No reports of bass being caught. A few scattered showers and snow are expected over the next week. Visit the National Weather Service website

Daytime temperatures are in the 50s. The water is open and trout fishing is good. Night crawlers fished off the bottom or below a bobber will catch trout. Only a few anglers have been seen on the water. The area is looking at snow and rain intermittently this week.

Shore anglers are catching rainbow trout following recent fish plants. Spinners with flashes of gold, blue or red colorations work well along the river. Other productive baits include night crawlers and PowerBait. For striped bass try swimbaits, crankbaits and live bait. Black bass should be in pre-spawn mode and active near Laughlin Lagoon and other backwater areas.

With water temperatures warming, smallmouth bass are moving up toward their spawning beds. Jigs, craws and plastics fished on dropshots will often fool the fish. So too will spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and crankbaits fished near the nest. This also is a good time to keep an eye out for double-digit stripers coming out of Willow Beach. Plugs designed to imitate stocked rainbow trout are a good

With daytime temperatures reaching toward the 80-degree mark, you can rest assured that seasonal trout plants are nearing an end. Look for stocked rainbows in the shadows and moving toward deep water where temperatures are coolest. The ponds at Veteran’s Memorial and Floyd Lamb parks are the most recently stocked waters. As the waters warm, expect less activity from the trout and more from catfish

As we push into mid-March, early mornings and late afternoons will generally be the most productive times for stripers. Anglers find success with anchovies and golden shiners throughout the Boulder Basin and into the Overton Arm. Jerkbaits and crankbaits in shad patterns will also bring success. Black bass moving into pre-spawn activity can be fooled with finesse baits.

The Rosachi section has started to pick up a bit with the warmer weather, I’d say still not red-hot but the anglers I’ve spoken to have been getting into some good fish, even some that have been well over 20” lately! Sounds like Pat’s rubberleg, poxyback stones, golden and brown stones, San Juan worms, and various small nymph and midge patterns have all been doing

It definitely feels like spring is in the air this week with some beautiful sunny days and good fishing using dry flies. As the weather continues to get nicer and days longer, we encourage you to explore some of the various waters throughout the area as both the fishing conditions and the weather align for some potentially epic days on the water. The drainages for