Nothing heralds the arrival of spring more than the first stringer of trout, and Evergreen State anglers have the opportunity to fish for them in virtually every county in the state and in settings ranging from desert potholes to suburban ponds, and from sprawling reservoirs to rain-forest creeks. They take them within a short cast of the rollerbladers and sunbathers at Seattle's Green Lake. They take ice-out trout from mile-high lakes in the Olympic and Cascade and Selkirk mountains. They even catch them from saltwater beaches. And while most rivers and beaver ponds don't open until June, rivers like the Yakima and Kettle and Pend Oreille are open year 'round, and the spring sun kicks the insect hatches on these river into high gear.

Hatchery fish account for the bulk of the trout caught each spring. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife releases in excess of 2 million "catchable" trout, along with nearly 20 million fry and about 40,000 chunky triploid trout in a typical year. Most hatchery production is dedicated to rainbows, but the state also grows both West Slope and coastal cutthroat, which are released primarily in the eastern third of the state and in Cascade Mountain lakes. The WDFW releases brown trout in southwest Washington lakes and eastern Washington streams and ponds. It also plants Eastern brook trout and golden trout in a few areas.

Although hatchery fish account for most of the harvest, many of the largest trout in Washington are wild fish. And while you might assume that the largest trout come from remote, untrammeled, hard-to-reach regions, you may have a better chance of connecting with a wrist-wrenching brute close to home. Three years ago, Washington's largest, most highly developed and abused body of water, Lake Washington, gave up a 14-pound cutthroat -- the state's biggest coastal cutthroat in more than 40 years. Even better, Lake Washington routinely turns out cutthroats and rainbows exceeding 4 pounds.

PUGET SOUND TROUT
Outside of Lake Washington, perhaps the best news for Puget Sound trout anglers is that the Cedar River, which opened to angling in 2004 after a nine-year hiatus to protect wild juvenile steelhead, will be open in the summer of 2006. Cedar River rainbows grew fat and sassy during the closure, and anglers took many fish in excess of 4 pounds. The 21 miles of water between the Landsburg Road Bridge and the mouth on Lake Washington will open on June 1 and run through August, under catch-and-release, selective-gear rules.

Until the river opener, most Puget Sound anglers will focus on trout lakes and hatchery rainbows. The best bets east of Lake Washington include Langlois Lake near Carnation, which receives about 40,000 catchable rainbows, Rattlesnake Lake (11,000), along with Lake Margaret near Duvall, and Pine Lake near Issaquah. Anglers in the southeastern suburbs target Kent's Meridian Lake, which usually gets about 14,000 rainbows, Morton Lake near Auburn and the Renton area's Lake Desire. Snohomish County's Silver, Goodwin, Ki and Roesiger each receive around 15,000 trout; and Skagit County's McMurray Lake absorbs around 16,000 fish before the opener.

To the north, Whatcom County's Padden Lake receives around 16,000 plants. As always, North Sound flyfishers will be drawn to Fidalgo Island's Pass Lake for its fly-only regulations and potential for large fish, while all types of anglers have a shot at large carry-over trout on Cranberry Lake, just a short distance on the other side of the Deception Pass Bridge from Pass Lake.

There are fewer trout lakes south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, but plenty of hatchery rainbows are released in south Puget Sound. Sprawling over more than 1,000 acres, Pierce County's American Lake receives a lot of plants and is open year 'round. Thurston County's Ohop, Pattison and Silver are also productive early lakes. On the Kitsap County side of Puget Sound, the Bremerton area's Wildcat Lake and Panther, Kitsap and Island lakes put out a lot of trout.