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My sometimes fishing buddy Chris and I ventured to Omak Lake to see how the fishing is. I was told two years ago when I went Memorial Day weekend to Omak Lake and found the fish swimming the shoreline that this was the tail end of the spring fishing, so I have wanted to go earlier to see how it is in the “prime”. As the open boat launch is too primitive for my car our plan was to fish the shoreline at Beer Can Beach area. We first fished Friday the 5th and found it very windy in the morning. I wore rain gear to help break the wind and found it to doable. When I fished Omak the first time two years ago I found that a green short haired Woolly bugger under a strike indicator was the ticket to catch the big fish. I landed a 7 LB fish the first trip. Since it was windy the plan was to use spinners. Spinners proved to be effective as we caught 7 fish in a few hours ranging from 16” to 22”. Chris used a wedding ring set up with a fly at the hook end, he caught the larger fish. That night we fished a few hours with fly’s, spinners and spoons. We caught 13 fish, again the smallest being 16” and the largest around 24”. The next night we fished several hours and caught 17 fish. I caught 12 of them on a Dardevle Spinnie spoon in Crackle frog. The fish would not leave that frog lure alone. We both missed many hook ups. Most of the larger fish had spawning colors while the smaller with a few exceptions were a brilliant green on top with spotted silver on the sides.

The Quadfather

4/10/2013 3:36:00 PM

Very nice report and pics. When you say you fished at night, do you mean a little after dusk, or straight up late night time? The photo looks pretty dark. Such a great lake Omak is. Since last years fire was so bad... how was the roads in there, and the shoreline. Access was OK, I guess?

downriggeral

4/10/2013 4:59:00 PM

Those fish sure are pretty in Omak lake. Thanks for the report and pics. Is there no boat launch available for the non-tribal fisherman?

MotoBoat

4/10/2013 10:58:00 PM

The coloring of that fish is spectacular! Encounter snow, anywhere near the lake?

strider43

4/11/2013 7:41:00 AM

Quadfather: We fished until dusk, no nighttime fishing allowed, which is too bad as that is when the wind really died down. The picture looks darker than it was. The road in is fine, we could see lots of burnt brush on the east side of the road in from Omak. There was burnt brush probably 5 miles from the lake and on the hillside going down to the lake at Beer Can Beach.The access has not changed at Beer Can, we did not go over to the cove to the east as it is closed, don't know what kind of damage may have occurred there.
downriggeral: There are two boat launch's that I am aware of, one at Beer Can beach where I fished. The launch there requires a 4X4 as the lake level has receded way below the concrete boat ramp and to launch you have to drive in the sand. The other Launch is at the next bay over to the east which is closed intil June 1. That boat launch is great, two ramps all in great condition with floats. There are several campsites there as well. The is another beach called Baines beach which has access to non tribal members but Im not sure how to get there, I believe it is on the west side of lake.
Motoboat: Saturday night it snowed at the higher elevations, we could see it in the foothills but no snow at the lake level in the town of Omak.

damguy

4/12/2013 7:08:00 AM

Great report strider43! I have driven by Omak Lake....what roads do you take to get to the boat ramps and beaches you mention...I would like to give Omak a try. Maybe I'll see ya there. Thanks

strider43

4/12/2013 9:18:00 AM

damguy:if you take hi way 155 out of Omak heading east just outside of town on the right will be Columbia River Road. Follow this about 7 miles and and you will come to the lake, there is a left turn indicated with a road intersection sign which takes you down to Beer Can beach where the primitive boat launch is.
a little further up hi way 155 on the right is North End Omak Lake road, this will take you down to the cove with the good boat launch. This launch open June 1st

mwdehaan

4/13/2013 12:54:00 AM

Thanks for the report. In case people were curious this was copied from the 2013-2014 regulations:
?
Special Restriction
: March 1 to May 31st
?
Catch and release only
?
The north embayment is closed to non-
member boating and fishing.
?
All islands are closed to non-member
access.

I believe Beer Can Beach is slang for most locals here, I believe on paper it's Nichol's Beach. The Mission Bay is the one you're referring to on the north end. Someone can probably correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe Baine's Beach is on the south of the lake if you take Katar Road right off Columbia River Road. I believe it's about a mile drive down on a dirt road. I see lots of people unloading pontoon boats and float tubes there but haven't tried it yet, definitely want to some day and probably will this next year.

dmausa

6/3/2013 8:41:00 PM

what kind of lures are you using? how are they tied on for trolling. I am use to trolling with blades and night crawlers.

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