Warmwater Anglers in SW Washington

[Stacie Kelsey]

Hello Anglers!!!

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is a BIG supporter of warmwater fisheries. In my Region, which oversees Clark, Cowlitz, Klickitat, Lewis, and Skamania counties we provide opportunities for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, a wide variety of panfish including excellent crappie and bluegill fisheries, channel catfish and tiger musky fishing.

I have a great network of many anglers but want to expand that network and offer up the opportunity for you to comment on your favorite fisheries in our five counties.

What is your favorite spot? How has it changed over the years? What could be better? What fish would you like to see? And anything else that comes to mind.

For instance, we know that there are issues with the bass fishery in Silver Lake in Cowlitz county and we are working very hard toward some projects to determine what we can do to bring that back.

You can leave your thoughts here, PM me, contact me at stacie.kelsey@dfw.wa.gov or phone me at 360-601-1168.

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Happy Fishing!

[mizm05]

Did someone say channel cats? I was just wondering the other day if Washington has any decent size catfish. I've only seen bullheads so far (which are delicious as well).

Where would one go to bank fish for channel cats?

[eat-sleep-fish]

I have never tried it but have friends that have fished around Lyons Ferry on the Snake river. Done very well on chunks of crappie, nightcrawlers, and storebought catfish baits. One buddy said he had a 50 fish day, largest being around 12lbs. While targeting steelhead below Little Goose dam, we caught them on wiggle warts doused with shrimp oil.

[Amx]

Swaford Pond is supposed to be good.

[Amx]

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[YellowBear]

Stacie here is a thought.
Why not take some of those huge Bass out of Mineral lake and put them in Silver?

[mizm05]

http://washingtonlakes.com/forum/viewto ... 54#p188554

Thanks Tom. Looks like Gissburg Ponds might be a closer drive for me. I might have to go hunt some channel cats here someday. Catfish is my favorite fish meat. Soak it in a brine solution overnight, bread it and fry it...better than fried chicken poppers!

[Stacie Kelsey]

We have channel cats in Swofford Pond (Lewis County); Kress Lake (Cowlitz County) that we stock fairly regularly. We have natural reproducing channel catfish in Vancouver Lake (Clark County).

Regarding moving the bass to Silver Lake, until we get the issues fixed in the lake with lack of vegetation and poor water quality moving bass into the lake would not be successful long term. We will be doing some studies next year on the crappie and bass to see what the populations are at and their health. We will also begin the removal phase of the remainder of the grass carp. At that point, we hope to be able to work with DOE on reintroduction of native vegetation and then we can focus on putting some bass back in the lake.

[Amx]

Maybe get some sort of permission for certain Bass anglers to get a permit to catch and transport some of the bass to other lakes. Sawyer could use as many Largemouth as people can put in it. It has mostly Smallmouth, but it used to be a great Largemouth lake. The water quality isn't as good as it used to be, but it can handle many more Largies.

[Stacie Kelsey]

That would have to come from the bio that oversees Lake Sawyer. We have to be careful about where fish are transported because of disease issues. Our Pathologist would have to agree that the fish could be moved out of that watershed.

It's definitely something to consider!

[Amx]

Understood on the disease thing. That's one very important thing why transporting live fish is illegal. Maybe it can be looked into some time soon before they kill off Mineral lake. Then it could be staged kinda like a tourny. Get a dozen or so boats on the lake, allow 5 fish per livewell per boat, then transport the fish to a couple/few previously chosen lakes. Should also have at least one WDFW agent per boat while transporting the fish to their new homes, to make sure the fish make it, document any deaths in transport, stuff like that.

[Stacie Kelsey]

Oh I have no plans on rehabbing Mineral. We couldn't get that passed even if I tried. Rehabs are not very popular on the west side of the state no matter what their importance is.

So the bass are likely there to stay unless we tried to do some sort of transfer. Thing is, the bucket brigade would follow quickly and restock, so it may not even be worth transferring. But I'm a 'nothing is off the table' sort of person so all things will be considered!!

[BassDood]

I'd like to know what happened to Duck Lk in Ocean Shores. Used to be excellent bass fishing, but after the weed kill...it went to hell. Any info? Thanks

[bass kickin redneck]

How about introducing some spotted bass in one of those lakes

[Stacie Kelsey]

Personally I think once you get to a point where too much vegetation is removed from a lake, then portions of the fisheries like bass can suffer. That is what happened in Silver Lake. Over the past couple of decades we've been able to refine the stocking ration of carp to make sure we don't have a repeat of what happened there.

I'm not sure about Duck Lake since that is outside of my area but I will look into it!

I have had requests for spotted bass in the bass, but to be honest, I do not have much information/experience with them. I will mark that down on my list of things to look into.

Thank you for all the great suggestions and ideas!

[bass kickin redneck]

Thanks hopefully one day well have them

[Stacie Kelsey]

They seem to be pretty popular considering the number of requests I get!

[BassDood]

Channel cats in more places would be cool I think...tho I don't know how that affects the other fish populations in a given body of water. Would be nice to be able to target them without having to drive 2+ hours

[Brianh]

Stacey,
Is there going to be a reduction in the cost of tournament permits in the near future? I know this is a sore spot with quite a few of the bass clubs.
Thanks,
Brian

[Stacie Kelsey]

I will see what I can find out.