Northwest Fishing Reports

Any body fish this lake, Deer lake on Whidbey Island?
I plan on fishing it soon, and was wondering if the water is
clear, or stained?

Ive fished deer lake a few times. A few meaning like 2. Its a very nice lake and I have always done well there. My best fishing buddy Sam Kafelafish (thats who ive gone with) fishes there all the time and he loves it. To answer your question the water is clear. I'm sure when he gets back from his trip at whidbey for the weekend he will answer to your topic and have a lot more to say than i will. I think he might have even fished at deer but im not sure...

I fish it every so often (couple times a month) and always do well....It's a pretty clear lake, and it will kick out some decent fish every once in a while...If you know the spots...

Jimmy Jimsoks wrote: To answer your question the water is clear. ...

Well I went fishing there today. That water is not clear. You can see down maybe
5 feet. Its what they call stained water. Clear water, is water you can see down 10 feet
or more. Anyways, for anyone considering going there, tons of small fish, I had my limit
100 yards from the boat launch. I couldnt even get out more than 40 feet of line before
catching a fish. So I stoped putting bait on my wedding ring and caught another 20 plus.
Guy at the boat launch caught 3 just while I was putting my boat in. THE BAD NEWS IS
95% OF THE FISH HAD GROWTHS ON THEM, AND THIS WILL ONLY GET WORSE AS THE
SUMMER HEATS UP. I plan on going back in the fall, when the fish are bigger and the growths
fall off. This is pretty early in the year, for those fish to have so many growths, they are going
to be scary looking in a month. Fish ranged 10" - 13". Dont forget the $20.00 round trip ferry fee
I got charge normal rate one way, and extra long the other way. If your boat sticks out of
your truck, for a total of 20' there is a extra $ 4.00 charge. Only one nice lady today

fishinwithg

Why are you so worried about clear water or stained water????

It was clear two weekends ago, maybe not recently

I slayed the trout in a different lake with 3 feet vis over the weekend...

The reason why I ask about the water color is, I always tie new flys, and make new wedding
ring combonations, before every fishing trip. The color of the water makes a big difference
on: type and color of fly, and type and color of beads and blade I use. I keep a log with all
this info, and make changes each trip, some work, some dont. But if you know some thing
works, you can always change it a little, to preform in different conditions, and a couple times
a year, I strike gold on some thing new. Plus its my hobby, making new fishing set ups. I have
at least 50 wedding ring set ups in my tackle bag now, and there all different, but I only use
those if the new ones I tied, dont work. Then I have my proven set ups to go to.

fishinwithg

Hey Gery im sorry to have misinformed you, but every time i have gone it has been clear.

If you have 50 setups then I think you are bound to have ONE that works for the water color....Serioulsy....

I don't think it really matters about the perfect colors or types of flies or bead colors or blades as much as you think it does for stocker rainbow trout....They take just about anything...

By the way id take a couple red F4 flatfish over 50 setups of wedding rings any day for trout.

I would consider the water in Deer Lake stained. The water is not clear by any means.

When do you fish it Easy Limits???

It's usually always clear....

Jimmy Jimsoks wrote:By the way id take a couple red F4 flatfish over 50 setups of wedding rings any day for trout.

You can buy flatfish every where. Cant buy what I make anywhere.
Plus they catch the big ones to.

fishinwithg

Ahahahahaha! Any lure can catch a big trout Gery. As long as the trout is either hungry or pissed off its gonna take anything that gets in its way. Sam and I have caught loads of trout 20+ inches at our favorite lakes using flatfish. In fact thats what we primarily use. I didn't say the flatfish would catch more or larger trout, I just said that in my personal opinion i prefer flatfish to wedding rings even if they were custom made like yours are. You are entitled to your own opinion. You can use whatever u want. I dont care that you like wedding rings so much, but 50 assortments seems pretty crazy to me. Is that the only lure you fish for trout with then? Could you post a picture of one or a couple of your setups just so i can take a look at them? I'd just like to see some examples of what you have been raving about in this topic.

Sam Kafelafish wrote:When do you fish it Easy Limits???

It's usually always clear....

In the spring.

Hmm....IMO it's not stained...Go out from the boat launch and you can see the rocks and stuff easily in 10 feet of water....

Not as clear as say an alpine lake or Lake Washington, but clear IMO nonetheless....

Oh and you can't buy flatfish everywhere...I don't see them at my grocery store o or McDonalds...

Ok, enough with the sarcasm, but actually guys do paint their own flatfish and hotshots....

And it's pretty commonly agreed that a plug will take bigger fish then spinners....Trout, bass, and other fish as well....

I guess everyone will have their own definition of clear.

Deer Lake is clear. It is not muddy or silty, but certainly not alpine lake clear. I live two miles from this lake and it is my go to fishing hole. When the wind picks up (which is all the time on whidbey) and cloudy the lake will....wait for it.....appear to not be clear!! But the water is fine, good visibility with a pair of polarized sunglasses on. The biggest factor for any whidbey lake is the wind, and second the cloud cover/temp when it comes to fishing. Some days a lake will be awesome, the next so windy it is difficult to fish. If you go up to any of the lilypads, or docks you can almost always see the bottom....
for trout I just throw some nice silver/shad color spinner baits with a medium retrieve. You will limit out easy this time of year.
I suggest fishing Goss lake with flys if you are into trout...the trout can't stay in the water there and they clobber flies. It is just a few miles up the road from Deer Lake.
Watch out for the boat launch...typically a bunch of people park there beater cars right in front of it, and throw their line right off the ramp, then give you dirty looks when you try to launch your boat from the "Boat Launch."

now tell me where the Bass are....

Clam Man

I think Goss might have bass? Deer does too don't they?

There are Bass on South Whidbey, but it is more of a trout fishery.


Clam Man