Northwest Fishing Reports

Well as the title says im goin to be headed to rufus woods for my first time with a group of buddies, we have a boat and we have downriggers. I read lots of reports and on the forum from the search feature about trolling spinners are you guys just weighting these or using downrigger? I also read of people using those pellet flies too. i normally fish using my ul 6'6 with 4lbs line either trolling kastmasters or weighted wedding rings, i also have a few spinners I sometimes swap out for. from what I was told they wanna head to the net pens but we will probably tryin out a few different methods since we will be up there for 5 days. Anways any advice/tips is greatly appreacaited. Oh yeah anyone know where I can find info on needing the tribal licsence to fish from shore? I read on one post where someone said you didnt need to get one anymore but never found a link to the wdfw part of the site

Hey Aintskunked,
You can use downriggers but it's a lot of work when you can catch just as many fish with out them. I would recommend since you have a boat that you cast to the shore using lures, jigs, spinners and flies or troll at 1 to 1.5 mph close to the shore pulling the above listed items a long way behind you. The water at RW is gin clear and you’ll have troll your presentations like 100 yards behind your boat to get consistent hook ups. Just about anything you present the fish will attract bites. If you use bait or scent of any kind your catch limit is two Trout regardless of your catch & release practices. The best way to fish RW is with no bait or scent using artificial lures, spinners, jigs & flies on single barbless hooks. That way you can catch & release all day long unless the fish are injured in any way. (DOUBLE CHECK THE REGS) Since you asked about the Trout Pellet Fly I will let you know that you can purchase them from me. Just send an email to me at: darrendirks@msn.com and I'll get back to you with a photo, recipe and purchase info. Be sure to take lots of pictures and post your reports here on WL.com
Good Luck!!!

Big D wrote:Hey Aintskunked,
You can use downriggers but it's a lot of work when you can catch just as many fish with out them. I would recommend since you have a boat that you cast to the shore using lures, jigs, spinners and flies or troll at 1 to 1.5 mph close to the shore pulling the above listed items a long way behind you. The water at RW is gin clear and you’ll have troll your presentations like 100 yards behind your boat to get consistent hook ups. Just about anything you present the fish will attract bites. If you use bait or scent of any kind your catch limit is two Trout regardless of your catch & release practices. The best way to fish RW is with no bait or scent using artificial lures, spinners, jigs & flies on single barbless hooks. That way you can catch & release all day long unless the fish are injured in any way. (DOUBLE CHECK THE REGS) Since you asked about the Trout Pellet Fly I will let you know that you can purchase them from me. Just send an email to me at: darrendirks@msn.com and I'll get back to you with a photo, recipe and purchase info. Be sure to take lots of pictures and post your reports here on WL.com
Good Luck!!!

Spot-on Darren!

Roll your dice, big fish come from worms........ gotta keep the first two.

As the water warms, and I don't know how warm it is now, the fish either go deeper or upstream. The net pens are upstream, so keep that in mind. If the water at the lower line, near the boat barrier or can line, is 60 degrees or lower, then I suggest that you can catch fish anywhere with anything at RW, just keep changing out.

I like the cliffs about 15 miles above the dam, on the South side, trolling a J-11 Rapala, but only because it keeps a lot of the smaller fish off. Still, no bait, no scent, and you can fish all day and catch and release.

I could go on all day, and the past advice you have been given is so good it is hard to improve on it, but all I can say is that you should be flexible. Don't leave the Downriggers at home, they could be useful near the dam. Don't start with the downriggers, they could just take up a lot of time you don't need to spend.

A side note: On most lakes, if you catch 5 fish over 2 pounds, you might consider this a 4 or a 5 out of 5 day. At Rufus, the regulars consider that a 2/5. If you are not hooking up at least two to three fish per hour, change locations or methods - there are that many fish in Rufus, and fish of such great size, so take advantage of it.

IF YOUR OFF THE ANCHOR PRESSING BAIT AND BEEF:-$ :chef:

PUT (2 SILVER HORDE SCENT BAGS):-# RIGHT OFF
THE BOTTOM AND LET THEM SOAK 20 MINUTES OR SO BEFORE YOU STRETCH SOME MEAT!!!

FIND A SLOPING DEEPER SLOT CAST INTO THE FLOWS AND LET THE BAIT SIT IN THE TAIL OUTS AFTER COVERING THE ZONE

COMBO PLATES:-$ STICK A TROUT POWER NUGGET:-$ UP THE HOOK SHANK:-$ AND CRAWLER OFF THE HOOK:-$ /REMEMBER 2 FISH RULES APPLY DOING THIS AND LETS SEE SOME 10-15LB FISH!!!!:cheers: :chef:


FISH ON!!!!

RUFFY PRESS ME WOODS!!!:thumright =d>

thanks all for the helpful advice we will prob be trolling lures most of the day, guy im goin with loves weddings rings so those will prob be used the majority of the time but I have a small assortment of spinners too that I may break out. Anyone have any info though on needing the tribal pass to fish off the bank? We do ahv ea few youngins goin with us and thye love to bank fish so that is one major concern for us. Agian thanks all for your advice and I will post a report and pics when we get back

No tribal license needed anymore. You can fish from either side of the river if you have a tribal permit OR a washington state license. Have fun
HH

Hey Mister SWEEDE, with the new regs on Rufus-paint-me-Woods, would the following statement ((PUT 2 SILVER HORDE SCENT BAGS) RIGHT OFF THE BOTTOM AND LET THEM SOAK 20 MINUTES OR SO BEFORE YOU STRETCH SOME MEAT!!!)), be considered Chumming.. Just a thought.
Keep em coming Sweede.

A -1 NO:-$ Contained scent:-$ and show me scent is a done deal at call me Ruffy Woods Bags away!!! and no more guppies Roids!!!:bounce: :chef:

Scent and chumming 100 times differnt game:-$ look at all the strip bars:-# of shame!!!:-& LOL LMAO!!!

Fishing Regs for Rufus Woods

• License Requirement - In waters of Rufus Woods Lake or within the Colville Tribal Designated Fishing Areas, either a tribal permit or state license shall be acceptable. A state license is still required when fishing
from the Douglas County shoreline.
• Kokanee - are now included as part of daily (2) TROUT limit.
• All Species - Chumming is not permitted
Effective Date: May 1, 2009 until further notice.
Species affected: All species.
Location: Rufus Woods Lake (Douglas/Okanogan County)
Reason for action: Standardize regulations on boundary waters (Lake Rufus Woods) for cooperative enforcement per agreement with the Colville Tribe.
IMPORTANT ANGLER NOTES: When fishing with bait or scent, all TROUT are counted as part of the daily limit, whether kept or released. (See statewide rules for TROUT, Page 31 of pamphlet). Anglers are encouraged to use artificial lures or flies with single barbless hooks if intending to release fish and to release uninjured fish only. Fish hooked in the gills or tongue will generally die after release.
The aforementioned “Colville Tribal Designated Colville Areas" will be determined in the near future. Please call the WDFW Region 2 office for updates, (509) 754-4624.
Information contacts: Bob Jateff, District 6 Fish Biologist, (509) 997-0316, Jeff Korth, Region 2 Fish Program Manager, (509) 754-4624.

:viking: Sweede Wrote: "Scent and chumming 100 times differnt game look at all the strip bars of shame!!! LOL LMAO!!!":viking:

Hey Sweede, Thanks for Your Clarification. So we're not Chumming, We're JUST "using Scent" to help catch the fish. I never got into the chumming anyway.

Thanks BigD for the regulations Insert.
You Guys stay well, a nd safe.

I like it Tight and Clean myself:-# = Buffer Louie unless your pressing sharks then chumming is the game:-$

So when did the regs change on Rufus and how did the State get Collville to agree to a common license? They are losing out on a huge chunk of money in license fees. Darn, I wish I had known about this I would have fished the Collville side a few weeks ago when I was there.

Fishing Regs for Rufus Woods

• License Requirement - In waters of Rufus Woods Lake or within the Colville Tribal Designated Fishing Areas, either a tribal permit or state license shall be acceptable. A state license is still required when fishing
from the Douglas County shoreline.
• Kokanee - are now included as part of daily (2) TROUT limit.
• All Species - Chumming is not permitted
Effective Date: May 1, 2009 until further notice.Species affected: All species.
Location: Rufus Woods Lake (Douglas/Okanogan County)
Reason for action: Standardize regulations on boundary waters (Lake Rufus Woods) for cooperative enforcement per agreement with the Colville Tribe.
IMPORTANT ANGLER NOTES: When fishing with bait or scent, all TROUT are counted as part of the daily limit, whether kept or released. (See statewide rules for TROUT, Page 31 of pamphlet). Anglers are encouraged to use artificial lures or flies with single barbless hooks if intending to release fish and to release uninjured fish only. Fish hooked in the gills or tongue will generally die after release.
The aforementioned “Colville Tribal Designated Colville Areas" will be determined in the near future. Please call the WDFW Region 2 office for updates, (509) 754-4624.
Information contacts: Bob Jateff, District 6 Fish Biologist, (509) 997-0316, Jeff Korth, Region 2 Fish Program Manager, (509) 754-4624.

It was a joint agreement between the State and the Tribe. You may even see both enforcement officers (State/Tribal) in the same vessel patrolling the water. Who would have thought 5-10 years ago! My hat is off to them and hope it continues to be a joint effort.

My dad and I caught some very nice tripoids in the 6lb range. If you put in at Brewster and run about half way up to the pins you will see a inlet off to your right with what looks like a old house or barn collapsed on the bank. We anchored in about 18 feet of water and threw power bait into the shallow water towards the bank using a sinker with about 18in of leader so the bait floats just above the weeds, kick back and drink a soda it may take awhile but they will show up. The biggest we caught was just below the first pens and I was throwing a Blue Fox towards the bank as we drifted down and slammed a 8lb triploid. What we discovered is they hit almost everything but we had our most luck in the morning and evening. Good luck

mav186 wrote:It was a joint agreement between the State and the Tribe. You may even see both enforcement officers (State/Tribal) in the same vessel patrolling the water. Who would have thought 5-10 years ago! My hat is off to them and hope it continues to be a joint effort.

I'm not so sure I would call it a joint agreement. More like the State bought a minor amount of enforcement help and the Tribe gets the money from the tickets and O yeah..... It cost us 4.5 million I can't remember if it is anually or one time.

The fishery seemed to be working just fine, if you wanted to fish from the shore you needed a tribal permit if not a WA fishing license was fine. So once again our State brokers another great deal. For 4.5 million (A year??) Wa license holders can fish from the bank on the Colville Res. and the Tribe gets to call the shots for the fishery. Now that's what I call a deal!!!!! Nothing like paying another indian tribe to pork us some more. I don't know about you guy's but I can think of at least a few more places where WDFG could have spent that 4.5 and actually got something for the money.

I think in fact Ruffy call me Woods is producing far less of the 10 to 25lbers:-$ :chef: in recent year and more of the guppies per angler then years of past????

Bodofish wrote:

mav186 wrote:It was a joint agreement between the State and the Tribe. You may even see both enforcement officers (State/Tribal) in the same vessel patrolling the water. Who would have thought 5-10 years ago! My hat is off to them and hope it continues to be a joint effort.

I'm not so sure I would call it a joint agreement. More like the State bought a minor amount of enforcement help and the Tribe gets the money from the tickets and O yeah..... It cost us 4.5 million I can't remember if it is anually or one time.

The fishery seemed to be working just fine, if you wanted to fish from the shore you needed a tribal permit if not a WA fishing license was fine. So once again our State brokers another great deal. For 4.5 million (A year??) Wa license holders can fish from the bank on the Colville Res. and the Tribe gets to call the shots for the fishery. Now that's what I call a deal!!!!! Nothing like paying another indian tribe to pork us some more. I don't know about you guy's but I can think of at least a few more places where WDFG could have spent that 4.5 and actually got something for the money.

The devil's in the details...thanks for the additional info Bodo...