Grays Harbor County's Aberdeen Lake is stocked with 9,000 catchable rainbows and 125 triploids in April and May. Sylvia Lake, which is located within Sylvia Lake State Park, gets approximately 5,000 rainbows, as well as brood stock and triploids.

LOWER COLUMBIA
Southwest Washington is where the coastal cutthroat was first described scientifically, but most of the trout fishing here is directed at rainbow and brown trout in lakes.

The Vancouver area's Klineline Pond is stocked with more than 30,000 rainbows, as well as jumbo trout and triploids. Lacamas Lake gets 12,000 brown trout and 16,000 rainbows, in addition to brown and rainbow fry. Between December and June, Battle Ground Lake receives a whopping 29,000 hatchery rainbows.

Cowlitz County's popular Horse-shoe and Kress lakes are heavily planted with adult rainbow and brown trout and triploids. Longview's Sacajawea Lake, located in a city park, is very popular with kids and families. It receives around 12,000 brown trout and 14,000 rainbows.

Mineral Lake, Lewis County's still-water gem, is one of the most heavily planted lakes in western Washington. It receives thousands of adult brown, cutthroats and rainbows, along with more than 70,000 rainbow fry and 700 triploids.

The trout turn on later at Mayfield Reservoir, which gets around 55,000 rainbows between April and June.

COLUMBIA BASIN
For decades, the March 1st trout opener in Grant County's lakes attracted anglers from all around the state. That's because the lakes here turn on earlier than in other regions and produce excellent trout growth.

In recent years, however, the WDFW has delayed opening day until April 1 in many of the popular Seep Lakes, the network of small lakes downstream of Potholes Reservoir. The agency has argued that the lakes actually yield more fish after they warm up a bit. But massive Potholes Reservoir, the Lenice Lake Chain, Lake Lenore, and a handful of Seep Lakes still provide March fishing for anglers who simply must have a taste of pink trout filets.

Created when O'Sullivan Dam was build across Crab Creek, 22,000-acre Potholes Reservoir puts out everything from largemouth bass to walleye to perch. But during the early season, it's primarily a trout-fishing destination. Rainbows are the quarry here, and around 150,000 of them are released from net-pen operations on the lake. Most of the action is centered around the dam and Medicare Beach, on the lake's eastern shore.

With more than four dozen lakes to choose from, the Seep Lakes provide anglers with a wide range of opportunities. The state stocks rainbow trout fry in most of the lakes, where they wax fat on the insects and invertebrate life in the Columbia Basin's nutrient-rich waters.

The large lakes closest to roads -- Soda, Upper and Lower Goose, as well as Blythe, Corral and Windmill -- attract the most attention and receive the heaviest stocking.

However, anglers more interested in solitude usually must hike only a half-mile or so to find water they can fish all by themselves.

The Widgeon-Pillar Chain of Lakes, located on the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, are especially popular with flyfishers.

Blue and Park lakes at Sun Lakes State Park are popular destinations after the traditional late-April opener.