Northwest Fishing Reports

Probably dreaming but I sure would like to see some kind of map of each county showing the locations of the lakes highlited. I've lived and fished in Pierce and Thurston counties for over 30 years and only recognize or know the locations of about half the lakes listed.

When I first moved to Washington I bought a book called Washington Fishing by Terry Rudnick. It list by region every lake in the state, including the ones on private lands, and it gives exact directions to each lake. It tells you all about each Lake and what facilities are near by and how far the nearest bait/tackle shop is. Tells you somewhat where to fish and what species are in the lake. One of the best investments I ever made. You can find it in Barnes & Noble and just about any other major book store in Washington. I bought mine from Amazon.com.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Get yourself a good Gazetteer Atlas (sp?) or some USGS maps for the areas you're interested in.

I guarantee you'll find lakes you didn't even know about (and haven't heard mentioned yet on this forum). The best part? It's a map--so directions are a given!

Also, check websites such as the WDFW, US Forest Service, DNR, county/city parks, WA State Parks, etc....lakes found on those properties will typically be listed online along with short descriptions and good directions.

I've even used Google Earth to get directions to certain lakes/areas in the past.
They don't list the names of many roads, but you can get the layout figured out and make a list of turns and estimated distances--works well before you head out to bushwack into a "deep woods" fishing hole.

Coming up in the next site upgrade:cheers:

Second to the last post on this page:

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/forum/ya ... escom.aspx

Marc Martyn wrote:Coming up in the next site upgrade:cheers:

Second to the last post on this page:

http://www.washingtonlakes.com/forum/ya ... escom.aspx

Looks good!

Those are all great ideas and I do and have done all of them. My point was not to have to do all that. I thought that since on the site there was a list of lakes in each county, it would be nice to have right there alongside the list a map of the county showing the locations so a guy wouldn't have to search for each individual lake he didn't recognize.

I used Google Earth myself, you can usually get directions to a landmark or you can use the placemarks too. I know this isnt "exactly" what you were looking for.....and sometimes Google Earth will show a road that looks good when its nothing short of 4x4 territory...it also wont tell you which lakes have access, which are public and which are private, etc.....but its good to get the general idea of.

maybe a different option would be to have small Google Map images showing the location in the description area.

Right now the closest we haveis the state map wich has each county hyperlink to a database of all thelakes in that county we have reports on. But, it doesn't have a county map showing where each lake is located (although each lake is now linked into google so you can pull up the driving map and even enter your address and get directions).

I can't really promise that type of map, but your request is noted and Aaron can take a look at it.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I recommend using Google maps. I placemarked all the lakes myself, and then I can also jot down notes about the launch, directions, and when/where I caught fish. I created my own custom maps for each county (at least Snoho, King, and Skagit) using this. Plus, you can switch over to satellite view, and really see where the growth is on the lake, and where docks reside.

Wow! I'm impressed. Thanks everybody for the suggestions.

hey, our hot spots!

I do alot of off roading using switchback logging roads and jeep trails.I use a De Lorme map.They have one for each state.In it is a world of info.It lists all parks ,ramps,launches,bathrooms,emenities of all state and city parks.Its about 25.00 bucks and I use mine almost every weekend.Well worth the money put in to it.It shows swamps,ponds,lakes,creeks, you name it.

Metsker Maps are also great for finding places. If you learn to look for the range and township markers it pinpoints where you are.They are those 3-4 ft white posts you see when driving backroads. they are used to mark the corners of a grid 1 mile by 1 mile( the squares you see on a map) T-tonwnship R-range.Back in the days before GPS & satellite imagery,I could find my way around all sorts of maze like roads.

Snoho, how do you set up google maps thing?