Northwest Fishing Reports

This is my friend Mike with a 48 inch, 28 lb. fish caught and released in August 2006. Yours looks very similar in size. Below that is Mike's 31.15 lb. fish caught in September 2005 and released after being weighed on the hatchery's scale. Yours isn't that big. I doubt your fish broke 30 lbs., but i...

I guess I should post a correction. I get bigger as I get older, too. That's a problem.

A Seattle Times guest editorial last week urged the Legislature to stop underfunding WDFW. The writers pointed out that WDFW faces a $15 million a year funding gap while sales taxes on "purchases to enjoy fish and wildlife" annually return $120 million more to state coffers than legislators invest i...

It's about a 5 hour drive each way for me, counting a gas stop in Woodland, and I have to fight through Seattle-Tacoma traffic to get there. This time, I left home on a Thursday afternoon and it took me 3 hours just to make the 77 miles from my home in Shoreline to Olympia. Fortunately, I have a pla...

Yeah, but they get bigger as they get older, whereas I just get older.

I just spent 9 days at Merwin and didn't catch a damned thing except for a 37-incher. A 42-incher got away. After years of doing this, I've come to realize there are three decisive factors in catching muskies at Merwin: (1) Time of year, (2) weather, and (3) hooksets. This is the right time of year,...

Sign posted at Speelyai boat launch:

"Found: Tiger Muskie Fly Case. Describe. Call Bill Foss 360-231-4351"

The sign went up the day after the tournament and was still there when I left Sunday.

In our system, the military is subordinate to civilian authority, and generals serve at the commander-in-chief's pleasure. A general who disobeys or ignores his civilian superiors may find himself out of work. Who was right about the policy disputes is beside the point; historians and partisans can ...

It's always a good idea to check with your superiors when formulating big plans. General MacArthur comes to mind.

WDFW Director Jim Unsworth resigned on Jan. 24, 2018, and the state Fish & Wildlife Commission has begun searching for a new agency head. Unsworth was director for 3 years. He championed simplified fishing rules and a more user-friendly website. According to a Seattle Times story published on Jan. 2...

A brief report: My friend Mike and I fished Monday-Friday. Through Thursday, the weather was like July, clear and in the 80s, and there was quite a bit of boat traffic. Fishing was slow (but not fishless), with one 30-incher boated, and a couple of nice fish hooked and lost, and we watched another a...

I'm planning to fish Merwin this coming week. My first time chasing muskies this year. I made a couple of earlier trips to Banks Lake for smallies this season. September traditionally has been the best month for catching Merwin's tiger muskies, and there are fewer crowds, so it's my preferred time o...

WDFW has decided to end its Inland Fisheries Policy Advisory Group (IFPAG), which consisted of about 15 individuals appointed by the Director to provide mid-level fisheries managers with citizen input on freshwater recreational fisheries, which covers both trout and warmwater species like bass, wall...

My personal experience has been that Washington tiger muskies prefer smaller lures (6" - 8"). The all-hair Musky Buster bucktail (7", 1.6 oz.), which is sold by Thorne Bros., has been my go-to bucktail for years. This bait has a heavy Colorado blade, so it runs deeper than other bucktails. Its size ...

Next Friday may be the last meeting of WDFW's Inland Fisheries Policy Advisory Group (IFPAG), as the department apparently has decided to replace its standing advisory groups with temporary, issue-specific, ad hoc advisory groups. WDFW staff are expressing interest in maintaining open lines of commu...

The stockers are yearlings about 12 to 14 inches long, weighing less than a pound. They're hatchery-raised on baby rainbow trout, but once planted in the lakes, their diet will be primarily squawfish and suckers (Curlew appears to be the only lake where they eat significant numbers of trout, and eve...

This is the information I received from Bruce at WDFW:

Curlew - 250
Evergreen – 300
Mayfield – 1,125
Merwin – 2,045
Newman – 600
Silver 250
Tapps – 600

Note that Tapps is being stocked again.

I don't know if NP can reproduce in Lake Washington, or whether this fish is an isolated illegal plant. Those are questions for WDFW. One idiot planting one fish won't do a significant amount of damage (how much can one fish eat? not enough to eat out a 20-mile-long lake), but a propagating and expa...

See Seattle Times article. http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/nort ... /#comments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

See Seattle Times article. http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/nort ... /#comments" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;