Northwest Fishing Reports

Guess with all the rivers closing we will have to chase planters in the local lakes.

More than 125,000 trout destined for
area lakes, autumn anglers’ tables


OLYMPIA – With some 125,000 trout scheduled for stocking in western Washington lakes, area anglers should have an excellent chance at phenomenal fishing this fall and through the holiday season.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will stock 44 western Washington lakes with catchable-size trout this fall.

“Fishing at lakes throughout the region should be great over the next few months,” said Larry Phillips, WDFW’s inland fish program manager. “Most of the trout are 11 to 13 inches long, with a few larger ones in the mix,” he said.

Some of the lakes recently stocked include Grandy in Skagit County, Beaver in King County, Campbell in Skagit County, Gibbs, Leland and Teal in Jefferson County, and Isabella, Island, Lost, Spenser and Nahwatzel lakes in Mason County. Additional stocking efforts will take place in western Washington through October and November.

A list of lakes to be stocked, and the department's recently updated stocking plan are available for viewing at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/fall-into-fishing/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

The fall fish plants are in response to anglers’ requests to increase fall and winter trout fishing opportunities in western Washington, said Phillips.

That effort also includes stocking lakes in southwest Washington for the Nov. 27 Black Friday opener, which offers anglers the opportunity to skip the shopping malls, get outside and enjoy fishing on the day after Thanksgiving.

For up-to-date stocking information this fall, anglers should follow the department on Twitter or Facebook, accessible from http://wdfw.wa.gov" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, or see the department's weekly catchable trout stocking report at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/plants/weekly/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Anglers must have a current Washington freshwater fishing license valid through March 31, 2016, to participate.

Dave M wrote:Guess with all the rivers closing we will have to chase planters in the local lakes.

really, Gissberg ponds are the only Snohomish county lakes getting stocked....

my favorite part is, "which offers anglers the opportunity to skip the shopping malls, get outside and enjoy fishing on the day after Thanksgiving. " haha couldn't have picked better lake to get away from all that black Friday traffic.

drysuperfly52 wrote:really, Gissberg ponds are the only Snohomish county lakes getting stocked....

my favorite part is, "which offers anglers the opportunity to skip the shopping malls, get outside and enjoy fishing on the day after Thanksgiving. " haha couldn't have picked better lake to get away from all that black Friday traffic.

Tye as well in Monroe.

Lots less lakes and fewer numbers than last year. Wonder if the summer heat killed off a lot.

Last year they got sued and had a surplus of steelhead smolts

riverhunter wrote:Last year they got sued and had a surplus of steelhead smolts

And they planted 13,00 of them in the Rattle Snake Lake where there is barely enough food for the fish in the lake. 2 mo after the stocking, the fish were dying all over the place. Big Black eye for WDFW!!!!

To be completely honest with you those fish were destined to die either way after the department got sued. They had to do something with them so they let anglers have a go at them at local lakes that don't have outlet streams.

riverhunter wrote:To be completely honest with you those fish were destined to die either way after the department got sued. They had to do something with them so they let anglers have a go at them at local lakes that don't have outlet streams.

Being destined to die is no excuse for what they did. Both times they've done this it turned out very badly. When I asked about it at the OCT 6th meeting, WDFW reps were extremely embarrassed about what happened. They just dumped them and didn't look back. They were quite shocked to hear that most of the fish died of starvation.

What they did was put the better part of 13,000 fish to death by starvation, fish that could have completed their life cycles or been put on the table at a homeless shelter or sold to the highest bidder, so many humane solutions. An unfortunate bit of collateral damage is they also caused the death by starvation of a lot of the Rattle Snake Lake residents.

Death by starvation is an unbelievably cruel way to get rid of any creatures, regardless of what they were reared for. They could have chosen a lot of better ways for the fish to go. If their goal was to have "Sportsmen" catch them, they should have put them in a lake that could have sustained them until they were caught.

After 2 weeks in the lake no one wanted to keep any of the fish. They were all 12-14 inches long and about as thick and deep as a school child's ruler.

This is still a huge black eye WDFW, who ever thought this was a good idea should be set on a fast for about a week to see how it feels.

I keep looking at the link for the Stocking results/plan and the latest one in there is always June something.
Nothing about fall plants.
They never update it.

Not to mention, Bodofish, changing the Rattlesnake regs from selective gear rules. Hard enough keeping it that way without changing it short term to catch all those fish. Now anglers that don't keep track of regs will continue to fish it illegally after it is back to a selective regs lake.

Mike Carey wrote:Not to mention, Bodofish, changing the Rattlesnake regs from selective gear rules. Hard enough keeping it that way without changing it short term to catch all those fish. Now anglers that don't keep track of regs will continue to fish it illegally after it is back to a selective regs lake.

It's a favorite lake to fish with the fly. When you see PB floating all over it, just makes you cringe.

I can agree that they could have put them elsewhere besides rattlesnake giving that it was selective gear already but they ran out of options quick. They put 80,000 of them in green lake. Worst choice of lake in my opinion but remember they couldn't put them in lakes with outlet streams, the fish would have found a way out to the salt which is what they were getting sued for. They want only native strain steelhead meaning all steelhead would be off limits since native fish are protected as they should be but that leaves anglers without hatchery fish to take home. If we want to be mad at anyone we should be mad at the activist for trying to get rid of our puget sound steelhead fishery. I would have preferred to catch those fish a few pounds heavier with the runs and stamina the ocean provides those fish.

riverhunter wrote:I can agree that they could have put them elsewhere besides rattlesnake giving that it was selective gear already but they ran out of options quick. They put 80,000 of them in green lake. Worst choice of lake in my opinion but remember they couldn't put them in lakes with outlet streams, the fish would have found a way out to the salt which is what they were getting sued for. They want only native strain steelhead meaning all steelhead would be off limits since native fish are protected as they should be but that leaves anglers without hatchery fish to take home. If we want to be mad at anyone we should be mad at the activist for trying to get rid of our puget sound steelhead fishery. I would have preferred to catch those fish a few pounds heavier with the runs and stamina the ocean provides those fish.

As afar as I'm concerned, the former director and the WFC should all be in jail for fraud. $10 millions worth of State money.

What was worse for rattlesnake was planting several thousand more in the spring. From what I hear about how dry the lake is now, it probably wouldnt have mattered, sounds like it is just a puddle now.