I am going to attend the 8th Annual Ice Fishing Festival in Molson, which is near Oroville, Washington this year. If you want to do some pre-fishing to get an edge on the derby aspect of the event, I learned some things about the fishing on Molson and Sidley lakes.

Molson is a rainbow lake and there is about 12 inches of ice that you'll need to drill through, so sharpen your ice auger before you go. There was some serious work done on the aerator on the lake, to keep the trout happy, and you'll find the best numbers of fish near where this is placed. The same is true at Sidley Lake, which is shallower. The aerator is working on Sidley this year and the Lahontan cutthroat that inhabit the lake are also attracted to the more oxygen enriched water near the pump.

While the best approach to catch the rainbow on Molson Lake is to fish a variety of bait on jigs, anglers may want to use jigging sponsor other lures that trigger strikes for the cutthroat. The Ice Fishing Festival will take place on Saturday, February 18th, and you can learn more about it by logging onto FishingMagician.com and clicking on the banner on my Home Page.