Southwest Washington tent camping with trout fishing?

[bt]

Hello!

New to the forum. New to the area (Vancouver, WA). Grew up fly fishing rivers in Montana. Want to take the wife and kids camping and do some fishing out here. Not ready to invest in or learn about salmon fishing, and not ready to take my 10 year old steelhead fishing. Any suggestions that meet the following criteria?

1: within 3 hours drive of Vancouver
2: not crowded and full of RVs. Prefer tent only sites.
3: if lake fishing, prefer a non-motorized situation
4: primitive campsite preferred (helps avoid crowds)
5: I know Mosquitos can be BRUTAL in these small forest and alpine lakes in June...tips on that dynamic? My kids are young enough that a swarm of skeeters can quickly result in their attitudes to the point I want to start using the kids for bait!

My initial searches suggested Goose Lake in Skamankia County. Anyone with experience there?

Thanks!

[The Quadfather]

bump


(In the PM I sent you, I was going to mention Goose lake, but forgot to) I have no personal experience there, but what I read sounded decent. It would be nice if somebody here could dial you into a really decent combination of tent camping/kids on spinning gear fishing/ and some decent fly fishing,, all in one swoop.

It's a challenge to find easy kid fishing waters, that also are serene enough to get your fly fishing groove on.

[bt]

Thanks for your lengthy and informative PM! I'll check all that out. Lots of research to do (and new gear to buy!).

[NorseNW]

If the Quadfather didn't mention it - Merrill Lake near Cougar Washington is really nice. Tent camping, non motorized, fly fish only lake. I've never killed them up (well you can't anyway) but I'm a terrible fly fisherman. I always enjoy our day trips up there. Never stayed the night.

Further up from Cougar you could check out Swift Reservoir. They have a campground. For more adventurous stuff you can head up the head waters of Swift Reservoir. Above the bridge is catch and release only. You need to search out a campsite off the forest service road but should'nt be too hard.

Just my little bit of input. Enjoy get your line wet in new waters!

[bt]

Thanks! Catch and release is all I am used to (and what I prefer anyway!). Will see what I can learn about three areas you mentioned. If it's quiet and not crowded, I'm a happy guy.