Northwest Fishing Reports

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any places to fish around the Pullman area, going to be going back up to college next month and might try some fishing for the first month before all the college work starts to kick in.

Not a lot to choose from in Whitman County. But, if you go north a ways there is a ton of good lakes in Spokane County. Williams, Chapman, Amber and Badger all come to mind. Scroll down on the main page here and click on the county of your choice. Good Luck!

Rock Lake would be your closest lake.

I know it's not a lake, but the Snake river has an amazing smallmouth fishery. Not to mention chromers too.

South Eastern Washington is pretty barren for lake fishing. As stated above the Snake and the Palouse river are your best bets. Oh and Go Cougs!

Thanks guys, Rock Lake looks like a good fishery, do you know if there's a good fishing spot from the bank or is it more of a boat fishery because I'm not going to have a boat up there at college. Also do you guys know any good spots to fish from the bank on the Snake or Palouse? Thanks

jbball50 wrote:Thanks guys, Rock Lake looks like a good fishery, do you know if there's a good fishing spot from the bank or is it more of a boat fishery because I'm not going to have a boat up there at college. Also do you guys know any good spots to fish from the bank on the Snake or Palouse? Thanks

Rock lake is not real bank fisherman friendly to be honest. The Snake has a lot of access from the road side in Washington, including several of the parks.

Consider the Grande Rounde river. During the summer the Small Mouth Bass are very good, especially in the lower (snake infested) section near county bridge. In the winter (study first, fish on breaks only) the Steelhead can be great fun at times.

Good gosh is the lower Gronde Ronde, snake infrested. My parents grew up in that area (Anatone). As a child my mom came home to a rattlesnake curled up on her bed. Beautiful country though.

Sorry to hear you are going to school there
Go to a real school and fish urban lakes like Union and Washington or the Puget Sound.

I kid, I kid.

The palouse river is kind a muddy and not that big but it has a good smallmouth population and lots of shore access...

I would just grab a spinning rod/reel combo, use about 4# test line, tie on a little rapala (one of the shallow running 3" originals)
and go looking for one of the many places to park near the river and just wade up and down the runs fishing upstream as I waded.....

to be honest, I've never actually done this.... when I was going to WSU I spent pretty much all my time chasing women....


by the time I realized what a frivolous and unrewarding activity this really was my Cougar days were over and I was fishing in a very much different geographical locale...

Haha yeah I've done enough partying and drinking for the past 4-5 years. It's junior year this year and im doing engineering so yeah I have to concentrate on more important things. I think I might have to try these rivers though for the smallmouth. I think I remember reading an article in a magazine last year that said the Snake starts heating up alot around August too on the Snake for catfish around something ferry,forgot what it's called, not sure how far away it is either. Well see though, thanks.

And booo at bpm2000 if youre talking about going to uw for a real school. It's too close to home and I don't think I'd like living in Seattle.

That's Central Ferry... sort of south of Dayton in the Little Goose pool....


Snake is good. Lots of smallmouth and lots of catfish... there is some limited shoreline access there (i.e. a state park at Central Ferry) but to really access the water and tap the potential of this great fishery you'll need a boat..... and one with some horsepower so you have options in regard to where you are able to go.

If I was shorebound and determined to fish the snake I would head for the tailraces of the dams (Lower Granite, Little Goose, and Lower Monumental)... I used to always fish this water in a boat but as I recall there is some good shore access just downstream of each of these dams...... and if you are fishing in the fall there will be steelhead and salmon moving up through the locks though, to be perfectly honest, I've always done better with these species by trolling plugs and stuff in the pools right behind the dams there's no reason why a well placed spin/glow fished from shore in the tailrace wouldn't get some attention.

ohhh BPM2000 and JBBall, I put a side the Husky/Cougar debate and looked for a college that would provided me with the best hunting and fishing. Besides that I needed a school that would take a crappy student and still give me a peice of paper when the party was over.

My beloved EWU in Cheney gave me Amber, Williams, Badger, Chapman, Silver, the Medicals, Fishtrap, Clear lakes to fish. The BLM land at Fishtrap and Ensure Ranch to shoot ducks and upland birds, and the non defunct Cheney gun club to shoot trap during the dead winter. Between how ez the beer flows in Cheney and the amount of fish and game in the area Eastern is handsdown the best undisocvered redneck school this side of the Rockies

lol im just playin guys - totally agree about getting far away from home when going to school!

I graduated in 2005, also in engineering, and after I got the partying out of my system I started hitting the snake from wawaiwai park up river to clarkston from the bank, some days I caught a lot of little bass some days not so much. There is a grip of smallies in that reservoir though, I have even seen pictures of big ones but I never found them. If you are into bowfishing the carp are more than plentiful. I personally did not have much luck fishing below lower goose dam but I would think that the big catfish would be swarming the still waters above and below the dam at night, there are also some colossal crawdads in that river if you are into that sort of thing. Although the lake selection is slim in that neck of the woods that river should provide enough entertainment for several years. Keep us posted on how you do.