Current fishing oppurtunities?

[Parasite]

What's happening fishing wise right now? New to the PNW and have not been out since May back in Michigan for brown trout and need to get my fix. Not sure where to go, or what to do. I'm open to pretty much anything. I would have liked to gone out for steelhead, but not I have not gotten much help in that regards.

[Skyvalhunter]

Roosevelt

[Ridgeratt]

This was in Sportsmans in Spokane yesterday

[WSU]

Pm sent

[Parasite]

Perch sounds fun. Tournament not so much. That other thread on burbot sounds interesting. Been meaning to check that species off the list.

What's at Roosevelt? Total newb here.

[Stein]

Tons of information out there.

https://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/washington/213/

[Ridgeratt]

There are a ton of lakes with perch around omak.

Curlew is a good lake right now. Roosevelt if the impoundment above Grand Coulee Dam. Holds Good trout, Kokanee, Wally's, Sturgeon, Ellpout's, Bass & Northern pike.

I might have missed some. 

The water above Chief Joesph dam is Rufus Woods.

[Dhoey07]

Are you based out of Olympia?

[Curly]

Closer to home, you could give Offut Lake, or Lake St Clair a try for rainbow trout. They are both not far from Olympia.  Or there is Black lake too. (I think Offut and St Clair are better than Black, but I could be wrong)

Then up in Lakewood,  American Lk is probably worth a try for kokanee.

[JimmyHoffa]

Surf perch and steelhead are around.  Still a few hatchery steelies, but turning into more of a wild fish show now.  Dec and Jan  didn't seem to have a whole lot of good flow days, but now the rain is spaced out and getting a little colder, it might be more fishable.

[Switchback]

People look down on 'trash fish', but man, if you go to any pier you can catch dogfish sharks, and also some pile perch. The dogfish sharks are a blast on light tackle. They can taste good if you batter and fry them. People think dogfish are stupid because they frequently catch them while trying to catch salmon. But really they're just upset because they can't catch salmon  . Dogfish are tons of fun if you just want to catch fish. I'd rather catch dogfish than trout, honestly. Pile perch aren't bad either, but they're a thin fish and don't have too much meat. You can also fish for squid off the piers, although we are getting toward the end of the season down here.
Should you have a boat (in south Puget Sound it's calm, so even a 10' boat will work most days), you can catch unlimited dogfish and the little sanddabs, which are essentially a tiny flounder. Not that hard to catch 50 or more fish in a day, if you're not picky about the fish you're catching.

If you head to the coast, surf perch are a blast. Would recommend waders and a life jacket for them. And March 9 is the opener for rockfish and (I think) lingcod on the coast, you can fish the jetties for them.

[2MANY]

Pretty good advice except for the part about eating them.

[duckmen1]

Anybody currently fishing whitefish in western Washington rivers? Just a thought for a fish that doesn't get much publicity.

[Brushcrawler]

Check the regs if you go - there is a bag limit on dogfish and sand dabs.

[Switchback]

Check the regs if you go - there is a bag limit on dogfish and sand dabs.

Yeah, I should have worded my post better – by 'unlimited' dogfish and sanddabs I meant they are very plentiful and easy to catch, not that you can bring home as many as you want! I wouldn't recommend keeping a limit of dogfish anyway, maybe bring one home to try if you want. If you bleed them and gut them right away, they are decent in like a fish and chips format. But lots of people don't like them, and the meat doesn't store too well. Sanddabs are very tasty when fried up, there's just not a lot of meat on them.

Also, if you're fishing in saltwater in the sound/strait, you're required to use barbless hooks. You can either buy barbless hooks, or pinch/file the barb off (just make sure it's completely off).