Northwest Fishing Reports

Whats your favorites in thurtson and lewis countys? And at a fair price. I spend half my summers camping in capitol forest

Taidnampum Park; Riffe Lake

Here is a link: http://www.mytpu.org/tacomapower/parks- ... m-park.htm

Alder Lake Campsites. Another is Mineral Lake Campgrounds.

Here's my take and comments:

1. Taidnampum Park, Riffe Lake, Nice park, clean restrooms, with flowers in them, a litle more expensive than the state parks, has a fishing bridge and the fishing usually is great.

2. Millersylvania State Park, Deep Lake, rather dusty at the camp sites, limited areas to fish off the dock or bank, if you are bank fishing.

3. Rainbow Falls State Park, Chehalis River, one of our favorites, good for catch and release. People are swimming in the river usually, makes it hard to fish.

4. Ike Kineswa State Park, Mayfield Lake, Nice park, didn't catch any fish in Mayfield Lake, but close to other fishing areas to explore: Riffe Lake and Swafford Pond.

I grew up in Lewis County, so I never really camped at a campsite. WE'd drive out and have "camping" parties on some of the logging roads out there for the weekend, and I usually spent my time in the backwoods which was mostly free. But now you have to get permits and stuff. I like Ike Kineswa personally, it's great swimming in the summer, especially if that old rope swing is still there at the cliff. There's always mount rainier, and the glacier peak wilderness up there that have awesome trout in 'em. We'd spend the weekend out at Blue Creek a lot, and that can be real fun too. We had family reunions at Millersivania, fishing used to be really fun for bass and blue gill and the trout were pink in the meat, but having a boat, even an inflatable one, is nice. They used to have a swimming dock that held fish like crazy, but I don't know if they replaced it or left it out. There are trails and fun stuff for girls and other folks at deep lake and if they get real board they can drive to Oly to shop, which happened a lot. Also, not technically Lewis or Thurston, but worth the drive is Lake Cushman, my all time favorite lake to visit. Camping there at the park was fun and you can drive up to the staircase which is even more fun and hike around there.

I split my time between Taidnapam and Leonard “Bud” Allen Park/Cowlitz Falls Campground depending on availability. Cowlitz Falls is a real sleeper. It's a county park and doesn't take on-line reservations (reservations must be done in person or through the mail), so you can usually find a site at the last minute. The camp ground is ten minutes away from Lake Scanewa (great for trout) and 20 minutes from the Taidnapam launch ramp. The Cowlitz runs along the southern edge of the campground and there's a launch ramp and dock. Great facilities and run by nice people. They have both hook-up and nonhook-up sites.

Riverbend campground in nisqually is amazing... Secluded (& large) sites right on the river if you don't mind tent camping, and very fairly priced considering it is a private and gated campground! I take my family as often as I can dig up excuses to go! Fishing is great there as well, nothing better than rolling out of your tent and stumbling a few feet to the river bank ;)

fishtremble wrote:Here's my take and comments:

1. Taidnampum Park, Riffe Lake, Nice park, clean restrooms, with flowers in them, a litle more expensive than the state parks, has a fishing bridge and the fishing usually is great.

2. Millersylvania State Park, Deep Lake, rather dusty at the camp sites, limited areas to fish off the dock or bank, if you are bank fishing.

3. Rainbow Falls State Park, Chehalis River, one of our favorites, good for catch and release. People are swimming in the river usually, makes it hard to fish.

4. Ike Kineswa State Park, Mayfield Lake, Nice park, didn't catch any fish in Mayfield Lake, but close to other fishing areas to explore: Riffe Lake and Swafford Pond.

Its funny you should mention Rainbow Falls, I was going to Portland last weekend, saw the sign, and wondered what it was like there.....Never have gone camping in that area, now maybe I will! It reminded me to Google Earth it!