Northwest Fishing Reports

My son and I will be staying at Banks Lake for a few days walleye and bass fishing, and I was thinking about taking a break and giving Evergreen Reservoir a try for some tigers. I fished for them for years in Mayfield but my son has always been left at home (big boys' trip). My guess is it's about an hour or so away from Banks but is it worth the time?

If you were going to Banks from Seattle via I-90 you would drive right past Evergreen Lake, but assuming you're taking the North Cascades Highway or Highway 2 across Stevens Pass, you can go to Curlew Lake for about the same amount of time and gas. Between the two, Curlew is a larger lake with more and bigger muskies.

By the way, if you want to catch a ton of eating-size smallmouth bass at Banks, order some Bomber Flat A crankbaits in Apple Crawdad from Lurenet.com. They absolutely kill that lure.

Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to pass on Curlew, it's about another 2.5 hrs past Banks (per Mapquest) and I don't think my 10 year old will be too excited about additional road trip time. We'll be coming from Bellingham. Maybe we'll just hang out at Banks and try our hand at walleye fishing. Thanks again.

tmusky1,
I've fished Evergreen 3 times for muskies. Caught 2 there. Tell the truth, I like the lake. It's got some big walleyes also. Largemouth and smallies, nice crappies and decent perch to boot. I launch on the SW end. Use your eyes when in doubt. The middle of the lake is fine for running but if you cut across the lake from the launch, go slowly because of shallow rocky areas. Lots of weeds also and good fishing. Cast both sides of the boat when drifting across these weedy/rocky areas. I like black spinnerbaits/bucktail but try anything. If the weeds aren't up to high yet, try a shallow raider of jake and rip it. You and your son will like it there. I had a follow a couple years ago. Told my partner "here he comes". I went into the 8 and when the fish turned it was a walleye about 35-36". WOW. She just spun around and disapeared. My heart is still beating.
Good luck if ya go and make sure you post the results.
PS There's a small rock island across fromt the launch with deep water around it, fish it.

Do muskies jump? On memoiral weekned we were fishing evergreen and something huge jumped. I didnt see it but my partner did. I told him it must have been a carp and he said no way it was something he had never seen before. Being as hes seen every fish in evergreen except a muskie he said it must have been a tiger. Was he mistaken?

It could have been a musky hitting something high in the water column or on the surface.

I see muskies rising on Silver Lake all of the time. As a matter of fact i saw perhaps the weirdest thing I have ever witnessed a fish do this morning. As we were trolling across a rocky point, I pointed out what appeared to be a beaver swimming out in the lake to my friend. As we approached it, it made a turn towards us. As it swam by us, about 10 feet from the boat, be both realized it was in fact a muskie, maybe 30-32 inches, swimming along with its head out of the water! its dorsal fin was also visible. you could see its eyes and mouth clearly above the surface. we turned around and motored towards it to get a better look, and as we got close it ducked under the water and with a splash from its tail fin it was gone. All told it must have swam about 100 yards like that. I have no idea what in God's name it was doing, but it made for a great fish story!

Hey Guy's,

Sounds like the Muskies are becoming more active.
Yes, Muskies will jump at food sources on the surface such as rats, baby ducks, frogs, and top water baits that splash. It is really a thrill to hook a Muskie on a top-water bait. Most of the time you can cast these baits right up to the shoreline, or weed-bed, and if the fish is active you'll get some action. I've had my best luck with this technique right at dusk. It's a blast when you hook-up with one:)

My son and I finally ended up going to Evergreen, we saw 3 muskies. One of which grabbed my Rapala Husky Jerk but I didn't get a good enough hookset to seal the deal. None of the muskies had any size to them though, I doubt any of them were 36" and they were all pretty skinny. I guess I'm used to seeing the big freaks in Mayfield. The lake is pretty bassy lookin' and seems like it would be fun to fish when it isn't so damned hot. It was in the high 90's when we were there. As far as topwater action for muskies, I've heard people say tigers don't hit topwater, but I've found out otherwise. It actually scares the bejeezus out of you because it closely resembles a crocodile popping up and grabbing a gazelle or zebra in those nature shows.