March 2025 Fishing Reports
The nice flows and good steelhead conditions in all the waterways continue to play out. And the weather is moving toward more spring-like with a couple of warm days forecast for the mid-week period and then a slight cool down for the end of the week. The cool down should only put temps in the 40’s F so we’ll take that! Chance of precipitation around Thu. So far the most recent previous precipitation is maintaining trib flows with nice color to the water. Any more significant rain could raise flows higher with dirtier water color.
By steelhead standards, the action has been good with some fresh fish encountered like in the Oak. The other area's smaller waterways are seeing steelhead too, and those fish can be a little more spread out thanks to those longer watercourses. And like at Sandy, there’s always the good chance for brown trout – both silverfish or holdovers moving down through the system. Flows in the Oak are slightly high and slightly stained with about 2 ft of visibility. Flows consist of a good head of turbine water. There is no longer ice cover on Lake Alice and water temps are on the rise below the dam.
Anglers should find fish in the pools or at the dam and also staged around or on gravel spots. Dead drifting eggs, beads, jigs, and egg flies should all still work. Now with temps on the rise a little more swing to the drift can be a good thing and swung flies and lure presentations can be effective. Other area smaller waterways east and west of the Oak have med flows and slightly stained water color. Fishing pressure looks moderate at best with only a few cars at each typical access spot.
The open Lake near shore conditions are looking pretty good too with likewise warming Lake water temps. Most major shore and pier ice has gone away and what's left continues to erode. Light and variable or south/southwest winds that usually accompany warming trends make for hospitable Lake conditions. Always use caution though and pay good attention to marine forecasts. Charter anglers are shaking down now and gearing up for the season and will be out there sooner than later. Civilians and trailerable small boat trollers are already out having success for primarily brown trout.
The springtime trolling spreads don’t have to be complicated and a lot of the time flat lining stick baits will yield a good number of strikes. Be aware that boat launches in most cases are still unimproved without launch docks installed. On the heels of last years record setting catch rates in the open Lake everyone is looking forward to another good year on the big water!
More up and down weather as we try to make the break toward spring. After a couple of days of mild and warm temps for this beginning part of the week, the forecast is for a cool down mid-week and then warming again after that. Chance of some precipitation too, but so far that does not look all that significant.
Existing run-off and upstream supplies look enough to keep trib flows up. After a slow fall through the past weekend, it looks like trib flows are back on a slow rise thanks to the current warming temps and run-off. Flows in the Oak are slightly high, somewhere between 1 – 2 ft of stained visibility. Turbine flows look maxed or close to max and there is the chance that overflow levels could come up a little bit again. So overall look for flows to stay up with stained watercolor.
Anglers are into some steelhead action and fresh fish are being hooked up like in the picture below. Drifting isn’t easy thanks to the heavy flows but if you can get a big or bright or odiferous presentation down and slow there is a good chance a fresh steelhead will find it. Guys at the dam have been hooking up with some consistency. Water temp is still in the low 30’s F with ice cover on Lake Alice so its not likely a lot of fish are acting gravelly. This week and ahead warm-up will probably change those conditions.
In other area smaller tribs are holding on to high-ish and stained flows. And what was a slow fall has once again turned into a slow rise. All the trib channels are open though and free of major ice. Rising flows can still loosen and send plenty of existing piled-up bank ice downstream. Without any major downstream ice jams, I’d look for a little more consistent fish movement in those smaller waterways – especially as the water temps climb quicker than say the Oak.
Small crafts like tin boaters, car toppers, kayaks, and foot soldier casters can all start looking toward the near shore big Lake waters too as wind and waves allow. There’s been brown trout action already for some eager trollers – just be aware there’s lots of shore and pier and some of that trib bank ice coming out and moving around out there. Boat ramps remain unimproved for launch docks at this time.
Well, we are now on the flipside of the past weekend's flash freeze. Thanks to that cold weather, all the waterways went back on the drop and cleared before they had opened up completely from icing conditions.
In the smaller tribs some upstream fast water spots may be open for hard-working anglers, but there is still a fair amount of ice and jams and less than ideal conditions.
Flows in the Oak likewise came down from higher flows and for now are about medium with about 2 + feet of stained visibility. On the Oak all the waterway below the dam is open and there should be good drifting opportunities. As anglers have hit the Oak just recently after the last spate of water, they have hooked up on some fresh steelhead like in the picture below. Some legit big fish are reported too.
Fresh steelhead are not particularly choosey and floats/jigs, egg pattern flies and egg sacks have all produced. These flows especially going forward on warming trends with the potential for more water should only encourage more fresh fish migrations.
The forecast ahead for this mid-week period is 2 – 3 days of melting temps and the chance for soaking rains and/or thunderstorms. There’s plenty more snowpack to melt for the area. So the melt-off coupled with the likelihood of 0.50 – 0.75+ inches of precipitation will likely mean a blowout of all the waterways sooner than later. This could be the event we are looking for to blow out most of the ice and open up all the tribs.
Use caution ahead and be aware of ice jams and ice moving downstream and overflow levels on the rise on the Oak. Hydro managers at the Waterport dam can decide to make water level adjustments at any time leading to higher flows in the turbine channel.
