I live in Port Angeles but am a a displaced ice fisherman. I had to drop my daughter off in Ellensberg after her winter break from CWU, friday the 27th, and since I was already on the other side of the mountains, I decided to try my luck at ice fishing. I thank CCTMark for his report on Dec 21 for convincing me to go. He reported good ice and catch at Lind coulee just east of Potholes.

I stayed at MarDon resort, so was really close to the fishing action. I got there friday afternoon and headed out about 2 pm to recon the area. I haven't icefished for 15 years so I needed to slip at least once onto my butt and bonk my head to remind me about the rules of hardwater fishing. the guys I saw friday afternoon had several walleye and perch and even a catfish on the ice. I knew i had come to the right place.

Saturday, after not setting my alarm on my phone properly and locking my keys in my car (thanks by the way to Dan Vosser also staying at Mardon for helping me get back in my car), I arrived about 9 am. Quite a few people on the ice and some nice fish already on the ice (some walleye, perch and even a nice burbot).

I finally got set up and caught a few smaller perch on waxworms and small jigs. later I got close to the group with the burbot and they were using fairy large jigs like swedish pimples with a perch eye on the hook. I only had one pimple (in my tackle box) but had a lot of big silver kastmasters that ended up working fairly well. I also tried a no. 8 Len Thompson five of Diamonds (canadian lure) that caught several, including my first Walleye in washington. There was open water on the main lake, but a solid 8 inches in lind coulee as long as you went far enough east. I took home 14 perch,( most of them 8 to 10 inches) and 3, 15 to 16 inch walleye.

All in all I had a great time, thanks to Washingtonlakes.com. I wouldn't have gone without the info I got from CCTMark. incidentally some of the guys I spoke to on the ice said Moses lake was also fishing well

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