Rock Lake continues to offer up large steelhead

Spokane anglers Jun (above) and Chet (right) pull matching rainbow trout from Rock Lake near the boat ramp last week. The steelhead were biting earlier in the day.

Gazette Staff

Rock Lake, at more than 2,000 acres, is the largest natural lake in eastern Washington. Although the fishery has limited public access for launching watercraft and for shore fishing and a reputation for its windy and often dangerous boating conditions, it has an abundant and healthy fish population, with anglers enjoying the fish variety and, possibly more importantly, the fish size. Rock Lake is known for its large rainbow trout and even larger browns, thanks to an ecology that can more than adequately support the substantial yearly rainbow and frequent brown trout plants by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

During the second half of June 2015, Rock Lake received what is considered a one-time boon. Due to a lawsuit that kept hatcheries from releasing their young steelhead into western Washington rivers, more than 250,000 of these six-inch fish instead were released by WDFW into Rock Lake.

One local angler said that shore and water birds were the first to benefit from the steelhead plant, but early reports on the 2016 season indicated those left were abundant and had reached sizes of 12 inches by January. These steelhead were an easy catch, and their addition to the already thriving fishery set up Rock Lake for possibly its biggest fishing season on record in 2016.

However, there were some drawbacks to the bounty.

“They were so easy to catch, we saw a lot of waste,” said long-time Rock Lake fisherman Joe Mach of Spokane. “People were throwing back smaller fish even though they were injured.”

And although WDFW had due confidence in the ability of the lake to handle the steelhead, it did have an affect on other aspects of the fishing tenor of the lake in the 2016 season.

“Last year (2016) it was hard to catch the large browns,” said another prolific, yet anonymous, local angler. “I think they were too full on the steelhead to be hungry.”

Although not near the match of the 2016 season, 2017 is still offering up the benefits of the steelhead plant, and fishing in general remains strong with plenty of rainbows, browns, bass, bluegill and crappie to be caught.

Joe and his two fishing companions Mike and Jun have known each other for nearly two decades and have been fishing Rock Lake for about that long. By early afternoon last Thursday, on a windy day of their week-long fishing trip at the lake, they were nearing their limit on steelhead for the day, each of the fish around 16 inches, caught from the shore next to the boat launch. Jun and Mike caught two nice-sized rainbows, while Spokane fisherman Chet Dixson snagged another, all within about 30 minutes after lunch at the same spot.

“The steelhead are thriving,” said Mike. “And they fight like crazy.”

The trio, protectively rather than modestly, suggested not to play up their success along the shore, and were amiably adamant that their secret-recipe bait remain secret.

For now, the steelhead plant is most likely a one-time occurrence, but that does not stop anglers from hoping.

“Yeah, it would be great if they'd put some more in here,” said Jun with agreement from his companions.

Whether fishing from shore or watercraft, Rock Lake does not disappoint, although anglers agree for the biggest steelhead that remain, with some reports of fish sizes at 22 inches this season, you have to get out to the deeper areas of the lake.