Gentlemen, here's a friendly reminder, just 2 more weeks til the March 1st opener on Amber and Coffeepot Lakes in eastern WA. These restrictive reg lakes are phenomenal trout fisheries and yield some of the largest trout you'll see from scabland lakes. Both give up lots of fish in the 16-20" range and Amber sees an occasional triploid at or pushing 24". Amber also has cutts that can exceed 16". If fly fishing, leave your 3 or 4-weight at home unless you plan on playing them to death.....these fish are the strongest and most acrobatic in eastern WA. Coffeepot's are downright ornery, and Amber's try hard to reach that level of madness! Land them as quick as possible and release them quicker, both the fish and other anglers will appreciate it. Last year I caught dozens of fish that had 4, 5 and 6 hook marks in their mouth, yet they kept coming! C-ya there and good luck.

I'm drooling at the prospect. Nice head's up. :-)

ice may make the fishing hard.

Naw, it's melting fast. Last year, at the opener, Amber was still half-covered and that remaining bit was gone by 7 or 8 March. It made the fishing easy.....the fish were concentrated in the open water! C-ya'll there!

We are now down to only four days and it dawned on me that I failed to mention North Silver. It is also a selective regs fishery that opens on 1 March. While not as productive as Amber and Coffeepot in recent years, it was restocked last spring with 2500 rainbows. I caught several of these at that time ranging 12-13". Somebody, WDFW I presume, installed a couple aerators that hopefully allowed the fish, or at least some of them, to survive last summer. In 2002 and 2003 this lake had some LARGE fish but supposedly they died off in the summers of 2004 and 2005 (the deepest water I found was only 10 feet). Anyways, the access area through the gate is still iced in and half the lake is covered, but the water right off the road is open if you are one of those hard-core float tube guys! BRRRRRRRRRR!!!