Northwest Fishing Reports

Has anyone ever fished at Five Mile Lake. I hear you can catch Crappie.

Ive fished there for years its not a bad little lake if you can get out on the water. From shore its not the best. Yes there are crappie

They also plant Five Mile with trout. Shore access is minimal.

i have fished off that dock manys times. i like the lakes in that area alot. my buddy caught a nice bass around 3 or so pounds. theres also alot of really good bluegill in there!! here is a pic of a nice crappie i cught there this last summer. hit in early this spring it should be a hot from shore. i always use small jigs casted and reeled in slow or under a bobber. i caught this one jigging in the corner of the dock near the bottom.

Nice crappie tnj8222. I have wasted a lot of time at five mile lol. For some reason I cant get enough of the lake though. We have probally fished the lake 6 - 10 times and got skunked almost everytime. We caught a few trout 1 time and a few bluegill and a crappie another time. But I have never boat fished the lake. I have heard there is a lot of nice crappie and bass and the lake has a lot of good cover too. The water is VERY stained. You can tell by tnjs crappie that it is a lot darker in color. Even the stocker trout are a lot darker then other trout.

yeah its a tea stained color. thats the kind of water i shine in. most fish i catch are either at the surface or at the bottom.

I would say thats simply a male Crappie caught during the spawn. Water Clarity doesnt matter. If it did the one in Cassidy would be as black as tar.

it wasnt caught during spawning time. but all of the fish in that lake are extremly dark year round.

So they all look like that?

Crappies from clear waters tend to have more prominent markings than fish from dark,murky waters. The darker colorations are produced by hormones and are lost soon after spawning occurs.
Studies have shown some spawning activities may begin in the south
as early as mid Febuary, and in the north as late as mid-July.
As the water warms to the mid 50's the males move into shallow water
and scout for nesting sites, at this time males will assume their
darker spawning colors. SOURCE: Crappie Wisdom (handbook of strategies)
Author: Al linder and others....
At many of the crappie lakes here in Spokane I've cought many dark male
crappies usally from June to July and their egg bearing female counterparts at
the same time. After the spawn, even in dark or stained water all the crappies
appear to be the same color. There are lakes I've fished where the crappies
colors are more vibrant, but after the spawn they all appear to be the same.

just to be cler with everybody this crappie was caught in mid summer. the bluegill in this lake are black like this as well.

I use to fish bass ponds on a private hunting club
in California, they had bluegill in there and
they were very dark all summer long. Courious as to
what might cause that. From a earlier report about
fish flesh, orange,pink, and white I found out it was caused
by what the fish were feeding on.

i used to fish 5 mile a lot a few years back from the dock and usually did pretty well with trout and perch. haven't seen a crappie personally but there's a lot of water i haven't gotten too

All the fish are very very dark in that lake All the time.

Kenster wrote:All the fish are very very dark in that lake All the time.

yup thats what i said. for some reason people dont believe me but the perch crappie bluegill bass and trout are always dark there year round.

i caught this fish today, mid summer and its dark as can be.

I wonder if the crimson color plays the role here. Just my theory but I can't back that up.
Anyone not familiar with Fivemile Lake,it has a rust like color,...maybe iron but I don't know

yeah im pretty sure its because of the color of the water.

Does anyone know why the color of the water is this way?
Hope its not sewage runoff:-$

Its been over 25 Years the last time I was there, I think that lake has a real high iron content.