There are lots of trout lakes open to fishing in the Columbia Basin, but there will still be lots of anglers headed up to Lake Roosevelt to do their fishing. There are still limits of big rainbow being bagged regularly here.

They don't have to run far from the Spring Canyon launch, just east of the town of Coulee Dam, to find the fish. Rainbow run from 12 to 20 inches, and there are some nice kokanee mixed in the catches, too.

Some anglers will make a two-day trip to the area, fishing at Roosevelt one day and at Rufus Woods Reservoir, for triploid rainbow the next.

While LakeRoosevelt has been very consistent this winter and spring for rainbow and kokanee, Rufus Woods can be hot one day and cold the next. Big trout can also be caught at Banks Lake. Anglers fishing at the very top end, where the canal enters the lake, or at the very bottom end are catch trout to over 20 inches.

A popular place to cast for rainbow from the shore at the bottom of Banks is from the jetty near the entrance to the Coulee City Marina. Fishing for perch in the Marina is about to heat up, too. When the water warms up a bit perch will be thick and the fishing fast and furious.