While the "put and take" lakes in the Quincy area provided anglers with good fishing on the March 1st opener and the first weekend, the quality lakes didn't do the same. According to Chad Jackson, Department of Fish and Wildlife in Ephrata, few anglers tried the lakes and those that did found poor fishing.

When they did their normal creel check at Lenore from 8 till 10 a.m. they didn't find a single angler. Only four anglers made the hike into Dusty, and only one of them reported catching a fair number of fish. They did find about 20 anglers at Lenice but only saw one fish caught and heard about just a few others.

The primary reason for both the poor turnout and fishing was the wind. It was blowing from the opening day on March 1st through the weekend at a sustained 15 miles per hour and often reached 20 miles per hour or more. There were one-foot whitecaps on these small lakes, and that discouraged anglers from even trying.

There are plenty of fish available in these quality lakes, and when the wind settles down anglers should expect good fishing, particularly at Dusty Lake and Lake Lenice.