Northwest Fishing Reports

Hi! I've posted little here but glean a lot of info and appreciate the courtesy on this site.

I haven't had a vacation in many years and am looking for a place to go.

I like to get to the east side of the mountains just to get out of the rat race and because of the beautiful geography.

I'd like to find somewhere off the beaten path. A remote cabin would be great but a boon dock camp would also be considered.
Though it should be pretty isolated, it should not be so far off the beaten path that I can't get to help if something happens, due to some health problems I have.
I should also be able to take my dog,(aussie), and let her be able to run and explore.
Should be near decent fishing and if more than one lake or stream are reasonably close that would be great.
I'll be taking my canoe and prefer smaller lakes.

Been considering some place in the seep lakes but thats only because I know where they are and have explored them a little but not in a long time.

I also like Concunully but the town and resort are not as quiet as I'd like to find. If there's a quiet place not too far from there, that would be good, too.
I've never been to the Palouse and only a couple of times up in the northeast but I'm sure there are some great places in either of those.

That's a pretty long list but I'm pretty sure a lot of you look for the same kinds of places.
If you don't want to tell the world about some place, I can assure you that I won't tell anyone about your spot if you do share via pm or email. I can trade some info on a high remote lake that has actual wild rainbows in it as trade.

Oh!...I'd probably be going somewhere between sept 8 to 17 for about a week. The weather is usually still good then and kids are in school so the family vacations are mostly over.


Any ideas will be much appreciated.

If you can travel as far as N.E. Washington, Marshall Lake is a good place. It is one of my "get away from it all" spots. There are other lakes in the area that are even more remote where you can to take your canoe also. Newport is just down the hill on the other side of the river. The resort is quiet, rustic and clean. Marshall is a great place to relax.

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/LakeInfo.aspx?id=388&t=1
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/WatchVideoHD.aspx?id=83

Since you are going the first part of Sept., the resort and lake will be quiet because the kids will be back in school and most of the people up there at that time will be retired.

If you are looking for someplace closer from home, Wannacut Lake is a good spot. I stayed at the resort in my trailer several years back and really enjoyed it. They have camping, cabins and a nice little store.

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/FeaturedLake.aspx?id=369
http://www.washingtonlakes.com/LakeInfo.aspx?id=369&t=1

I have really really been out of the loop for forever but Chopaka used to be beautiful 20 years ago(LOL I said forver). If it is what it was, it is quite off the beaten path with a long dirt road but beautiful and secluded. Might be a bit far away though if some kind of emergency cropped up.
That time of year would be nice with a canoe I would think. You would want to get confirmation from more updated sources before planning that one if it interested you. It is up more north central Washington, flyfishing only I think. Had really nice rainbows back then.
Had a blast sipping the Macallan while trolling leeches at night and then fishing dries at the far end of lake during daytime hatches.

Thank you both! Marshall looks interesting and maybe Wannacut.

Chopaka is very interesting but I've never had the opportunity to learn fly fishing.

A better place to camp for free is a small lake just over the Idaho boarder and only few miles from Marshall lake, called Freeman lake. It is smaller then Marshall and Freeman is more of a Bass and spiney ray lake. It also has Tiger Muskies and Pike in it in small numbers. It is planted with Rainbows as well. Since they are so close you could do both lakes.
The campground is primitive with no hookups or drinking water, but as far as I know it still has an outhouse. Haven't been up to it in a few years. The West and North ends of the lake are good Bass fishing as well as some of the south end. If you are there on a week day or on a weekend that is not one of the prime camping weekend you will be most likely the only person there.

Here is a look at the lake and campground area;

http://maps.google.com/?ll=48.223186,-1 ... 8&t=h&z=17

As you can see there are no houses on the Lake and only a couple you can see from the lake. It is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains making it a very pretty spot to camp and fish. The bass fishing can be quite good on the west and north end of the lake along with some of the south end. I've gotten L.M. bass up to 5 lb. from this lake. With a fly rod you can get any number of bass, trout ,crappie, and sunfish on a dry fly in the eveing. Here are the best spots to fish for bass. You can get a one day license in Newport for about 12 bucks.



Here is turn by turn directions on how to get there from Newport Wa.

http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Newpo ... s&t=h&z=13

Thank you, Fishnfoot
That looks like a nice little lake. I like the lakes wiith multiple species but I don't really want to pay for out of state licensing.

Realize that you don't have to buy a whole "New" fishing license for that short trip to Idaho. http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/fish/
You can buy a temporary day permit for a select amount of days. Usually it is one day, or up to 3 days. If fishing is only part of your vacation...then buy a 3 day permit, and fish on certain days. Still a reduced cost from the total license. Also, the Idaho license is cheaper than ours. If I was going on a week long vac. I would just put out the $25.00 or so, and get a license.

The Quadfather wrote:Realize that you don't have to buy a whole "New" fishing license for that short trip to Idaho. http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/fish/
You can buy a temporary day permit for a select amount of days. Usually it is one day, or up to 3 days. If fishing is only part of your vacation...then buy a 3 day permit, and fish on certain days. Still a reduced cost from the total license. Also, the Idaho license is cheaper than ours. If I was going on a week long vac. I would just put out the $25.00 or so, and get a license.

Idaho is not cheaper I get an out of state License in Washington for just a little more ($50) then my Idaho resident license costs me. ($36) An out of state Idaho is $100 for a year. So you guys in Wash. have it pretty good.
As far as the one day fishing permit it is $12.75 for the first day and $6 per day after that. So if you camped at Freeman for free it would save you money, as Marshall lake has no free camping that I know of. Last I heard about $26 per nite at the Marshall lake resort, which is the only campground I believe. You could still fish both lakes as the are only a few miles apart.

Wish I had seen this one earlier in the year, but I'm a new member since October(?).
For some serious isolation on the Eastside, my wife and I take the long trip to the Bonaparte Lakes area, out of Tonasket. Mid-summer this year had about 20 campers at Bonaparte and about that many at Lost, but Beaver had noone and Beth had one camper. This was midweek so I can't vouch for weekends. I recommend the campground at Beth. It's more cared for than Beaver and you have ramps to access both lakes from the campground. The lakes are small but the fish bite, I don't think they see a lot of action.
We also like to hit Black Pine out of Twisp. Once again, this is midweek, the weekend gets a little crowded with day use. Finicky fish in this lake, but any day on the water teasing fish is a good one for me.

Crow Butte on the Columbia River is a good place. It's not really isolated, but has camping facilities for your motor home or travel trailer or more rustic for your tent. However, it still has the amenities of showers and bath house, boat docks/launch, marina, good fishing, swimming areas, reasonable prices. It's about 30 miles from anywhere. There are some other parks east of the Tri-Cities that are pretty remote: Enddust park for one.

Palmer Lake- bout 30-40 min North of Concunully, and no town. Sits below Chopaka, with fishing year round. Not limited to fly fishing either. Off the beaten path, but within 15-20min of Oroville if something were to happen to your health. Plenty of places to let the dog explore.

Smaller lakes nearby: Spectacle, WhiteStone, Wannacut, Blue- and also the smaller lakes on the dirt road to Concunully from Loomis: Conners, Forde, Blue (different than the Blue by Wannacut), and Fish.

Wow...didn't expect to still be getting responses to this but since my plans fell through last year, I now have more options to investicage for this year.
Thanx all!

Palmer Lake is off the path, but large and very busy with Canadians headed south (full campgrounds) and Kokanee fishermen. Remember Eastern Washington remote is NOT pet friendly. Coyotes and snakes. We attempted to camp Black Pine but full of drunks. I would suggest prowling Lake Roosevelt along the many campgrounds that dot the shore line both Federal and tribal. Again tons of snakes in the remote areas but camp grounds are safer. Have Fun!